The Heroes of Telemark

**_The more realistic precursor to Where Eagles Dare_** During WW2, a resistant fighter in German-occupied Norway (Richard Harris) and an Oslo physics professor (Kirk Douglas) team-up to stop the Nazi operation of creating & transporting heavy water in order to produce the first atomic bomb and thus win the war. “The Heroes of Telemark” (1965) debuted three years before “Where Eagles Dare” and is based on the true story of Norwegian heavy water sabotage. It’s more mundane and believable, but lacks the great score and all-around pizazz of that more well-know WW 2 film. The wintery Norwegian locations are certainly a highlight (listed below). This was director Anthony Mann’s second to last movie. He would die a year and five months after its release from a heart attack in Berlin at the age of 60. The film runs 2 hours, 10 minutes, and was shot in Norway (Telemark, Oslo & Tinnsjø) and England (Pinewood Studios, Winchfield station & Poole Harbour). GRADE: B

It doesn't matter at what time of year I watch this wartime thriller, it always makes me reach for a jumper! The Nazis are working on a top secret project in a Norwegian hydro-electric plant. When the plans are smuggled out into the hands of the resistance - via Richard Harris and lothario physics professor Kirk Douglas, the allies realise that they are well on the way to developing a nuclear bomb and must be stopped at all costs. The icy environment adds much to the sense of peril evoked as these brave "Ling" have to thwart the export of the "heavy water" from the plant back to Germany. Harris ("Knut") and Douglas ("Rolf") aren't the most natural together, and when Ulla Jacobsson arrives on the scene, the pace of this otherwise quite decent adventure gets bogged down a bit (she is the ex-wife of "Rolf" and they have a tiresome sort of love/hate relationship). The story presents us with an authentic assessment of the risk faced by the peoples living in an occupied territory; and also of the determination of the ordinary Norwegians not to just give in - regardless of the frequently tragic consequences, but it's too long. The dialogue is quite tight and the suspense well executed, but it takes too long to get going and we could be doing without the romance to clutter up the narrative. It could have been grittier, but as it is, it passes a couple of hours well enough.