Castle Keep

Columbia/Filmways. Director Sydney Pollack; Producer Martin Ransohoff, John Calley; Screenplay Daniel Taradash, David Rayfiel; Camera Henri Decae; Editor Malcolm Cooke; Music Michael Legrand;; Art Director Rino Mondellini

Burt Lancaster
Patrick O'Neal
Jean-Pierre Aumont
Peter Falk
Scott Wilson
Astrid Heeren

Film carries fast and savage action once the actual battle sequences are reached, but it's strictly a conversational war in footage leading up to these moments. Apparent efforts to insert a fresh side of war by concentrating on some of its grim humor act more as a deterrent than a booster to interest. Screenplay is based on William Eastlake's novel Castle Keep.

Burt Lancaster is a realistic, one-eyed major who leads a group of eight war-weary infantrymen come to occupy a Belgian castle in 1944 in the Ardennes Forest, which becomes a haven away from war for the men, who get up to all manner of frolics.

Lancaster enacts one of his fast-talking roles with a glib, almost tongue-in-cheek approach, and gets good mileage out of it. Patrick O'Neal as an art-loving captain out to save the treasures of the castle does a good job, as do Jean-Pierre Aumont and Peter Falk.

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1969. Running time: 106 MIN.

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