The Night of the Generals

It is a thriller occurring in World War II about a Nazi General who becomes a serial killer. When a Polish prostitute is brutally murdered in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, her killer is only identified as a German General. For years the crime remains unsolved until the killer strikes again, bringing this mesmerizing mystery to its unforgettable finish.

Long (148 minutes) military mystery set among the high command of Nazi Germany in occupied Poland and elsewhere in the Third Reich. A prostitute in wartime Warsaw has been brutally murdered and a German military investigator narrows his field of suspects to three German generals. But the war--and the sense of preening Prussian arrogance--interferes with his investigation, even as he begins to home in on the killer. Moodily sinister atmosphere and a strong cast (Peter O'Toole, Tom Courtenay, Omar Sharif, Christopher Plummer) can't overcome a plodding pace and a tendency to digress. --Marshall Fine