Operation Daybreak

Operation Daybreak
Directed by	Lewis Gilbert
Screenplay by	Ronald Harwood
Based on	Seven Men at Daybreak by Alan Burgess
Produced by	Carter DeHaven
Starring	Timothy Bottoms Martin Shaw Joss Ackland Nicola Pagett Anthony Andrews
Cinematography	Henri Decaë
Edited by	Thelma Connell
Music by	David Hentschel
Production companies	Howard R. Schuster, Inc. American Allied Studios Barrandov Studios
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (US) Columbia-Warner Distributors (UK)
Release dates	November 1975 (1975-11) (US (limited)) 29 February 1976 (1976-02-29) (UK)
Running time	118 minutes
Countries	Czechoslovakia United States Yugoslavia
Languages	English German

Operation Daybreak (also known as The Price of Freedom in the U.S.^[1] and Seven Men at Daybreak during production) is a 1975 war film based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of SS general Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. Starring Anthony Andrews, Timothy Bottoms and Martin Shaw, the film was directed by Lewis Gilbert and shot mostly on location in Prague. It is adapted from the book Seven Men at Daybreak by Alan Burgess.^[2]

Cast[]

Production[]

Development[]

The screen rights to the novel Seven Men at Daybreak by Alan Burgess were acquired by Warner Bros in mid-1973.^[3] Filming on the wartime-action movie based on the book, itself based on a factual story, was announced to be starting in November 1974 with screenplay by Ronald Harwood,^[4] and based on the factual events of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.^[5] The film was produced by Carter Dehaven and directed by Lewis Gilbert.^[6]

Casting[]

In November 1974, Timothy Bottoms signed to star in the film.^[7] To prepare for the role of Kubiš, leader of the group and eventual hero who does the killing, Bottoms spent three months on location in Czechoslovakia.^[8]

The castings of Anthony Andrews, Martin Shaw and Nicola Pagett were announced in December 1974, who all had acting experience from London's West End theatre.^[9]

In January 1975, Gilbert announced that the actor chosen to play Adolf Hitler had to be replaced, as the original actor turned out to be too small for the role. Calls were made to Gunnar Möller and George Sewell,^[10] the latter of who went on to play Heinz Panwitz.

The size of the cast was around 3,000 which also included actors of German, French, Finnish and Czech origin.^[11]

Filming[]

The film was an entirely American produced and financed film^[9] and was shot on location in Prague, Czechoslovakia, using various places that were part of the real assassination. Scenes outside of Prague were filmed in the town of Karlovy Vary.^[11] During filming, cast and crew were accommodated in Prague's Alcron Hotel, formerly used as the wartime Gestapo headquarters, with little opportunity to explore the city.^[12]

The Swastika flag was hung around Prague and in particular at Prague railway station. Younger extras on set, who had no experience of the war, showed little emotion. In one instance, an elderly woman arriving from the countryside needed reassurance from railway station workers that the German invaders had not returned, while another Czech woman was observed to glance disapprovingly at an actor wearing a full Nazi SS uniform.^[13]

For the razing of Lidice, the movie deployed convincing replica Tiger tanks, built on the T-34 chassis.^[14]

Music[]

The credits show that the music was played on an ARP synthesizer by David Hentschel.^[14]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

Colin Bennett of Australia's The Age newspaper felt that while the latter part of the film was "very moving", this only made up for the "quiet drabness" that was shown before. He did believe that the film felt authentic and felt the acting was mostly understated, suggesting that British actors Andrews and Shaw eclipsed Bottoms, who was promoted as the star of the show.^[15] Film critic Tony Sloman described the film as a "grimly exciting war drama", describing Andrews as "excellent" in his role as a fellow Czech patriot.^[16]

As of November 2021, the film's IMDB user-submitted ratings, from 52 reviews, was averaging 7/10.^[17]

Historical inaccuracies[]

While the film portrays the British Special Operations Executive as being responsible for the operation, in reality they had little involvement, as it was primarily the Czechoslovak government-in-exile that organised the operation.^[18]

The film does not show that aunt Marie Moravcová commits suicide in the toilet after consuming a capsule of cyanide. Similarly, Ata was not interrogated in the flat as the film suggests, but was arrested along with his father. After his mother's suicide, he was shown her severed head and warned his father would be killed if he did not reveal information. This is not shown in the film.

In the film, Sergeant Karel Čurda betrayal made him appear as a "treacherous weakling", though in reality his confession came after an order by Hitler for the execution of 30,000 political Czech prisoners of war.^[18]

See also[]

• Dramatic portrayals of Reinhard Heydrich

References[]

Citations

Sources

External links[]

• Operation Daybreak at IMDb
• Operation Daybreak at the TCM Movie Database
• Operation Daybreak at AllMovie
• Operation Daybreak at the British Film Institute
• Operation Daybreak at the British Board of Film Classification

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