The Night of the Generals

The Night of the Generals
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAnatole Litvak
Screenplay byJoseph Kessel
Paul Dehn
Gore Vidal[1] (uncredited)
Based onThe Night of the Generals
by Hans Hellmut Kirst and an incident written
by James Hadley Chase
Produced bySam Spiegel
Georges Lourau
Anatole Litvak
StarringPeter O'Toole
Omar Sharif
Tom Courtenay
Donald Pleasence
Joanna Pettet
Philippe Noiret
CinematographyHenri Decaë
Edited byAlan Osbiston
Music byMaurice Jarre
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
  • 29 January 1967 (1967-01-29) (London premiere)
  • 10 February 1967 (1967-02-10) (UK)
  • 24 February 1967 (1967-02-24) (US)
  • 1 April 1967 (1967-04-01) (France)
Running time
145 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
France
United States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2,400,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[2]

The Night of the Generals is a 1967 World War II mystery film directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Sam Spiegel. It stars Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasence, Joanna Pettet, and Philippe Noiret. The screenplay by Joseph Kessel and Paul Dehn was loosely based on the beginning of the 1962 novel of the same name by German author Hans Hellmut Kirst. The writing credits also state the film is "based on an incident written by James Hadley Chase", referring to a subplot from Chase's 1952 novel The Wary Transgressor.[3] Gore Vidal is said to have contributed to the screenplay, but was not credited onscreen.[1] The film's musical score was composed by Maurice Jarre.

  1. ^ a b CNC
  2. ^ "Big Rental Films of 1967", Variety, 3 January 1968 p 25. Please note these figures refer to rentals accruing to the distributors.
  3. ^ p.762 Gifford, Dennis The British Film Catalogue Routledge; 1st edition (April 1, 2016)