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Bitter Victory

Bitter Victory
Bitvicpos.jpg
Original US film poster
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Produced by Paul Graetz
Screenplay by René Hardy
Nicholas Ray
Gavin Lambert
Paul Gallico (additional dialogue)
Based on Amère victoire
by René Hardy
Starring Richard Burton
Curt Jürgens
Ruth Roman
Music by Maurice Leroux
Cinematography Michel Kelber
Edited by Léonide Azar
Production
company
Transcontinental Films S.A.
Robert Laffont Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • 29 August 1957 (1957-08-29) (Venice FF)
  • 20 November 1957 (1957-11-20) (France)
  • 25 January 1958 (1958-01-25) (UK)
  • 3 March 1958 (1958-03-03) (US)
Running time
101 minutes
Country France
United States
Language English

Bitter Victory (French title Amère victoire) is a 1957 black and white Franco-American international co-production film, shot in CinemaScope and directed by Nicholas Ray. Set in World War II, it stars Richard Burton and Curt Jürgens as two British Army officers sent out on a commando raid in North Africa. Ruth Roman plays the former lover of one and the wife of the other. It is based on the novel of the same name by René Hardy.

During the Western Desert Campaign of World War II, two Allied officers in Egypt are interviewed to lead a dangerous commando mission far behind enemy lines in Benghazi. Major David Brand, a South African, is a regular army officer but lacks experience of combat and of commanding men in the field. He does not speak Arabic and has only a limited knowledge of the area in Libya in which the patrol is to operate. Captain Jimmy Leith, a Welshman, is the opposite; an amateur volunteer with extensive knowledge of the area who knows a local guide and speaks fluent Arabic as well. It is decided that both officers will go, with Major Brand in command. The men see Brand as a disciplinarian - "the only thing he's slept with is the rule book".

Major Brand's wife Jane is a WRAF Flight Officer who enlisted to be near her husband. When Brand invites Leith to drinks with his wife, he picks up the fact that the two had previously had an affair before she married Brand. Leith had walked out on her without explanation.


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