Counterpoint 1967 download

A famous orchestra conductor is captured by the Germans in WW2, and is forced to perform at private concerts for the Nazi generals. Director Ralph Nelson. Top credits Director Ralph Nelson. See more at IMDbPro. Photos Top cast Edit. Maximilian Schell Gen. Schiller as Gen. Anton Diffring Col. Arndt as Col. Linden Chiles Lt. Long as Lt. Peter Masterson Sgt. Calloway as Sgt. Calloway as Pete Masterson. Curt Lowens Capt. Klingerman as Capt. Neva Patterson Dorothy as Dorothy.

Cyril Delevanti Tartzoff as Tartzoff. Gregory Morton Jordon as Jordon. Parley Baer Hook as Hook. Dan Frazer Chaminant as Chaminant. Ed Peck Prescott as Prescott. Paul Birch General as General uncredited.

Horst Ebersberg Lt. Heiser as Lt. Heiser uncredited. Ralph Nelson. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Initially, the Germans want to execute them, in accordance with orders received from Berlin. However, the orchestra leader, world-famous conductor Lionel Evans, persuades the Germans to spare their lives, arguing that his orchestra members are just civilian non combatants.

Enjoyable picture in which takes place an exciting battle of wits between two aces of interpretation : Charlton Heston and Maximilian Schell. Acting by two principal actors is first-range , both of whom are magnificent. Extraordinary Maximilian Schell , as usual , and acceptable acting by Charlton Heston as orchestra conductor though he must not change facial expression while conducting. Russell Metty cinematography in Techniscope is rousing and colorful. The feature obtained a limited success and had a moderated box-office , it is nowadays better valued.

The motion picture was well directed by Ralph Nelson. There were no half measures in this filmmaker. He would make sentimental movies or violent and gore films. In the 7os Nelson went on to making strong movies , however, his films themselves were doing less successful at the Box office , numerous of those being barely seen outside US.

Rating : Better than average , Charlton Heston fans will enjoy their idol. Theo Robertson 7 July Leslie Nielson in a straight role! The only real bad point is the subplot of a traitor at work within the orchestra , when their identity is revealed it feels very rushed and underdeveloped.

SimonJack 2 May Other reviews have discussed the plot and substance of "Counterpoint. Most movies contain at least some fiction, and many are built on fiction. Even the best researched and produced biographies can't be sure of the many details in a person's life.

Some film genres rely heavily on factual matter. Films made about the Titanic, the San Francisco earthquake, the Spanish Armada, and such have a lot of factual history about them. But the film makers can't even begin to know the specific conversations, movements and details of characters in their stories. So, they have to fill in the dialog and details to give films substance and life. The goal is — or should be -- to entertain audiences.

But, most film genres — from action and adventure, to wartime and westerns are based on the imaginations of movie makers. And some genres thrive on fiction — sci-fi, crime and mystery, action and adventure, Westerns.

This is not to decry criticism of movies. I appreciate people who point out how well a movie follows an original source — a book or Broadway play. And, I appreciate intelligent criticism of the plot, screenplay, and technical aspects of a production. Likewise for comments on the performances of the stars and rest of the cast.

That's where the IMDb reviews are most helpful to me, along with a viewer's impressions about the movie. Now, let's look at "Counterpoint. The time is mid-December in Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge is the sneak, massive German counter-attack that begins Dec. Since early fall, most Allied commands thought that the war would soon come to an end. Some even predicted that the troops would be home by Christmas.

A relaxed, confident attitude existed among the Allies. So, when the Germans launched their counter-offensive, the Allies were surprised. Hitler had ordered the assault as a last-ditch effort to cut the Allied front in two and to capture fuel and supplies to sustain the assault. The Germans had built up for the assault during the lull in fighting with the onset of winter. That accounts for the swift pull back of the Americans in the film during the concert performance. But what about a whole concert orchestra being near the front lines and captured?

Let's look at the history of the USO United Services Organization that put on thousands of shows for our troops during the war. The orchestra was putting on a camp show. These shows began in Normandy in July — just one month after D- Day.

By the fall, larger show troupes were staged at camps in Europe and the Pacific. At its high point in , USO camp shows were giving more than performances a day. In Europe, these were often close to the front lines. So, it isn't inconceivable that an orchestra would be in such a location. The group had time to retreat to safety. Enter one more anomaly and fact about the war then.

The Germans had assembled a unit of commandos who spoke fluent English. They wore American MP uniforms and infiltrated behind the American front lines. Other movies have good portrayals of this, including the capture or killing of these impostors. In "Counterpoint," the USO orchestra troupe would likely have made it to safety, but for a jeep of these MP impostors. The disguised Germans directed them away from the safe road and to a road on which they were sure to be captured.

So, the seemingly implausible events of this film not only become plausible, but they seem very real and likely. But, even had these historical details not been as they were, I think this film would still excel. The plot is not quite credible, although it is splendidly acted.

You actually can't fail to observe how Maximilan Schell enjoys his part, and Charlton Heston came into this film directly from the vaults in the Sistine Chapel as Michelangelo and makes almost the same hopelessly stubborn case of idiotic obstinacy here.

However, the weak point of the film is the colonel, Anton Diffring, who almost exclusively played wicked German Nazi officers. It's not plausible that any German officer would have treated musicians like that, coldly lining them up for execution with all their instruments with no respect or regard for music at all - this is extremely alien to German mentality.

Of course, it makes an ideally dramatic plot, and you follow it with interest, while also Kathryn Hayes fails to convince, both as lover and musician. Nevertheless, it's a very enjoyable film, especially for musicians, as it is the music that makes the film, with Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Wagner dominating and leading the show.

It's horribly exciting as well, and although, as I said, the plot is very far from convincing and not in the least realistic, you buy the end with delight. It might have happened that an American orchestra like this could have got caught behind the German lines in winter , but if such an incident occurred, they have made a mammoth out of it, and in reality the outcome would have been no more than just a harmless incident.

Here it is blown up with a lot of dead bodies, as the Germans in the 60s had to be made as wicked as possible. Adapted from the excellent novel 'The General' by Alan Silitto this is set in wartime but is concerned with war of the psychological sort, waged between the two massive egos of orchestral conductor Lionel Evans and Wehrmacht General Schiller.

Evans and his seventy piece orchestra are being held prisoner. Evans knows that if he bows to Schiller's demand that the orchestra play a concert for him their fate is sealed. Even as they rehearse a mass grave is being dug by the loathsome Colonel Arndt. I have no doubt that as soon as the critics learned that Heston was to play the part they started sharpening their knives.

He is actually excellent in the role. Off the podium he has the single-mindedness required of a man whose job it is to bend seventy professional musicians to his will. On the podium he looks every inch a maestro and courtesy of conducting coach Leo Damiani both his baton technique and hand gestures are immaculate.

What can say one of Maximilian Schell? There are some who would say that he could play this kind of role in his sleep but his splendid performance as Schiller is a joy to watch. Anton Diffring made a very good living by playing horrible Huns and here his Colonel Arndt is surely the most horrible.

There has to be a 'love interest' of course and this is supplied by Kathryn Hays as a cellist who once had an affair with the conductor, is now married to the orchestral leader and is fancied by the general! The use of the last movement of Brahms' fourth symphony is used effectively to accompany the escape sequence. Director Ralph Nelson keeps things ticking over very nicely and maintains a steady 'andante'. Russell Metty again contributes superb cinematography.

The film deals with 'opposing moralities' but not enough to send the audience to sleep. It opens and closes with the Fifth symphony of Beethoven, a man whose music represents a moral force that will endure whilst tyrannies and dictatorships rise and fall. This is another cliched war picture in which the Germans are all sadistic psychopaths and the Americans are all noble and brave.

If nothing else, this film proves that Charleton Heston Ben Hur with a baton was as rotten an actor in as he is now. The story is fanciful. The characters are about as deep as the phony snow they stumble around in.

Women were non existant in the symphony orchestras of the era yet the orchestra in this story has several. By the standards of it would rate a c-. Today it simply isn't a contender, even on the late show. Now maybe if they had used John Wayne rather than Heston This is perhaps not a great movie; but as many viewers have attested over the years, it is a very memorable attempt at entertainment. The context of this dramatic film is WWII. People do strange things in wartime, I suggest; but once one accepts the physical presence of a fine orchestra led by a pompous but talented man in harm's way, where he can be coveted, captured and coerced by a civilized Nazi officer and menaced by an SS type, everything else falls into place.

The other elements in the plot about an orchestra leader "not playing, for time" to save the lives of his orchestra's members and two US soldiers who have been caught in the same zone with no escape are these: a traitor in the orchestra; a relationship between the leader and a cellist; his relations with her husband, his concertmaster, the SS officer's desire to exterminate them, and the desire of the Nazi captor to have them play something just for him in the midst of wartime--these are unusual attributes for a 'war film, I assert.

Those who missed the main point of the film, that the ethics of emergencies are different than those of normative times, thus missed why the movie was made. There are examples, in history such as "Playing For Time": for instance, of musicians and Jewish ones and females being kept alive to play for Nazi officers; the clever part here is that writers James Lee and Joel Oliansky 'fictionalized' the idea by providing interesting additions to the basic situation, which are: the aforementioned affair, the danger that brings out the characters more strongly, the need NOT to play, and the additional element of a traitor in their midst, the two US types and the often-used but effective distinction between civilized Germans serving Hitler's Nazi war'machine' and SS types enjoying their unlimited power to do harm to anyone they single out during that war.

The change in the leader's character during the film is that he must remain true to himself and also prioritize what he does for the good of the group, no easy task.

And the music is wonderful, the atmosphere so good even naysayers have remarked on it. As to the acting, it is far better than the mumbling and often ludicrous submediocrity that has characterized Hollywood unprofessionalism since The film was directed by Ralph Nelson. Original music for the film was composed by Bronislau Kaper; cinematography was done by Russell Metty. Anyone who does not enjoy this film and believe in its essential logic is perhaps an opponent of realistic behavior, actions that consist of dealing with the unusual sometimes, and with something other than rock-and-roll level cardboard types characterized by what is wrong with them and not by anything higher.

Worth seeing more than once. One of the funniest "dramas" ever made -- in its own way. Heston's character jeopardises everybody's lives by leading a POW insurgence against a commandant who wants Heston's orchestra to perform a concert. One scene that should not be missed -- Heston's character tries to steal some Victor-Laszlo-esque magic to stir the consciences of his orchestra by belting out the star-spangled banner on a saxophone! Not quite La Marseillaise but just as "classic" in its own way.

You just can't make this stuff up. Anyway, young Leslie Nielsen is very cute in it. Customer Reviews. Contact Info. Privacy Policy. Send Feedback. Forgot Password? Sign Out. Email Subscriptions. Redeem Gift Certificate. To place an order or for customer service, call toll-free or outside the United States, call Spanish-speaking representatives available, Monday-Friday: 9am-5pm Eastern Time.

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