Peter O'Toole stars as General Tanz, a crazed Nazi SS General bent on killing everything around him. His cold icy demeanor serves him well as he kills prostitutes on the side to pass the time when he is not butchering thousands on the battlefield, which is wherever he happens to be. Major Grau, played by Omar Sharif, is brilliant as the tracker of the 3 Generals who are suspects in the murder of a Warsaw prostitute and then, years later, of a Parisian prostitute, who is brutally mutilated in the same manner.
The Nazi Generals are all played by English actors in this film, but, oddly enough, it works. O'Toole is at his very best when he is seen to be going mad while viewing a self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh when the artist was in an insane asylum.
This movie has a good script, something you don't see much of nowadays. General Tanz's precision efficiency is displayed in the crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, a flamethrower spectacle which is visually stunning. Even more astonishing is the portrayal of the Nazi SS Reunion in Germany in 1965 marking the 25th anniversary of the formation of General Tanz's brigade to protect Hitler. This show of force and the powerful support these old cronies have in modern times is disturbing, to say the least.
There is even a subplot to assassinate Hitler by dissident Nazi Generals. This is woven into the story cleverly as Major Grau hounds his 3 favorite suspects. The lunacy of war on a grand scale, (since when is war not on a grand scale), is amply exposed in this one! A must see! Peter O'Toole is terrific as a crazed Nazi General who kills for the pleasure of getting away with it. Power has driven him mad. His abuse of it is telling in our modern age, issuing a warning to us all that the "would-be" dictator, who would trample on the rights and freedoms of individuals, is always in our midst and lurking about.
A film you will want to see and own in your film library!