Why not Anthropoid

One of the more daring operations in World War II was the plan to kill Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi Reichsprotektor of the Czech lands. It was known enough to be the subject of two movies at the height of World War II, Hangmen Also Die and Hitler's Madman (airing today at 12:30 PM on TCM, hence scheduling this post today), as well as the much more recent Anthropoid. In between came a co-production between the west and Communist Czechoslovakia, Operation Daybreak.

One thing I didn't realize about Operation Anthropoid is that the Free Czech paratroopers who parachuted into the country from Britain in fact did so in December 1941, quite a few months before the actual assassination on May 27, 1942. The movie opens with three of the paratroopers: Kubiš (Timothy Bottoms), Gabčík (Anthony Andrews), and Čurda (Martin Shaw) being brought in to see a Czech General in exile who is telling them about the plan since Heydrich (Anton Diffring) is considered a second-in-command to Hitler who could take over the Nazi leadership were Hitler to die and is thought of as more intelligent than Hitler. The men all accept the assignment, and parachute in to ares near Prague, landing in the snow (which is what prompted me to look up more of the details of the operation).

Eventually, the paratroopers meet up in Prague with members of the Czech resistance, personified as members of General Moravec's extended family. The first plan is to shoot at Heydrich while his train is leaving the station in Prague, with Kubiš shooting from a control room at the station, but another train passes by just at the exact wrong moment, thwarting the plan. Of course, if you've seen any of the other movies, you'll know that Heydrick was really killed as a result of his car being attacked. This time is was Gabčík's job to shoot Heydrich, but when his gun jams, Kubiš throws a grenade into the car.

The Nazis are, understandably, pissed about one of their higher-ups being so brazenly assassinated. They also have that repuation of being brutal, so it's natural that their reprisal is going to be nasty. They destroy the village of Lidice, and set up a manhunt for the people involved in the plot to kill Heydrich. They're more than willing to commit torture and further reprisals, but Čurda eventually cracks and reveals details about who was in the group and where they were being kept. By this time, the rest of the members of the assassination plot had holed up in a church, but it was already too late. The Nazis were able to surround the church, and all of the plotters were killed (or killed themselves) in the church.

I found it interesting that Operation Daybreak was an international co-production, meaning that they were able to film on location in Prague. This gives the movie an air of authenticity. However, I also couldn't help but think about the fact that in real life, the Free Czechs who had been based in London were decidedly not considered heroes by the Communists who ran the country after 1948. There's little if anything in the way of Communist politics in the way of the movie, which is competent if a bit straightforward in its storytelling. The plotters don't get the time to be complex characters, for example.

Worse, though, is the print that TCM ran. It's only in 4:3, when the original aspect ratio was 1.85:1. Worse is that it had some sort of motion problem, as though there were visual frames missing but there's nothing wrong with the soundtrack. This gives large portions of the print a sort of jerky motion that for me was disconcerting to watch.