|
Castle Keep (1969) 6.2
During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his isolated castle hoping they will defend it against the advancing Germans. Director:Sydney Pollack |
| 0Share... |
User Lists
Related lists from IMDb users
Related Items
Search for "Castle Keep" on Amazon.com
Share this Rating
Title: Castle Keep (1969)
Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.
Learn more
People who liked this also liked...
The Scalphunters
(1968)
Comedy
|
Western
Director:
Sydney Pollack
Stars:
Burt Lancaster,
Shelley Winters,
Telly Savalas
The Slender Thread
(1965)
Drama
Director:
Sydney Pollack
Stars:
Sidney Poitier,
Anne Bancroft,
Telly Savalas
The Yakuza
(1974)
Action
|
Crime
|
Drama
Director:
Sydney Pollack
Stars:
Robert Mitchum,
Ken Takakura,
Brian Keith
Satan Never Sleeps
(1962)
Drama
|
History
|
War
Directors:
Leo McCarey,
David W. Orton
Stars:
William Holden,
Clifton Webb,
France Nuyen
Scorpio
(1973)
Action
|
Drama
|
Thriller
Director:
Michael Winner
Stars:
Burt Lancaster,
Alain Delon,
Paul Scofield
Absence of Malice
(1981)
Drama
|
Romance
|
Thriller
Director:
Sydney Pollack
Stars:
Paul Newman,
Sally Field,
Bob Balaban
The Hallelujah Trail
(1965)
Comedy
|
Western
Director:
John Sturges
Stars:
Burt Lancaster,
Lee Remick,
Jim Hutton
Strategic Air Command
(1955)
Action
|
Drama
|
War
Director:
Anthony Mann
Stars:
James Stewart,
June Allyson,
Frank Lovejoy
Seven Days in May
(1964)
Drama
|
Romance
|
Thriller
Director:
John Frankenheimer
Stars:
Burt Lancaster,
Kirk Douglas,
Fredric March
Ulzana's Raid
(1972)
Adventure
|
Western
Director:
Robert Aldrich
Stars:
Burt Lancaster,
Bruce Davison,
Jorge Luke
The Train
(1964)
Thriller
|
War
|
Action
Directors:
John Frankenheimer,
Arthur Penn
Stars:
Burt Lancaster,
Paul Scofield,
Jeanne Moreau
Dark of the Sun
(1968)
War
|
Adventure
|
Drama
Director:
Jack Cardiff
Stars:
Rod Taylor,
Yvette Mimieux,
Peter Carsten
Edit
Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Burt Lancaster | ... |
Maj. Abraham Falconer
|
|
| Patrick O'Neal | ... |
Capt. Lionel Beckman
|
|
| Jean-Pierre Aumont | ... |
The Count of Maldorais
|
|
| Peter Falk | ... |
Sgt. Rossi
|
|
 |
Astrid Heeren | ... |
Therese
|
| Scott Wilson | ... |
Cpl. Clearboy
|
|
| Tony Bill | ... |
Lt. Amberjack
|
|
| Al Freeman Jr. | ... |
Pvt. Allistair Piersall Benjamin
|
|
|
|
James Patterson | ... |
Elk
|
| Bruce Dern | ... |
Lt. Billy Byron Bix
|
|
| Michael Conrad | ... |
Sgt. DeVaca
|
|
|
|
Caterina Boratto | ... |
Red Queen
|
|
|
Elizabeth Teissier | ... |
Red Queen Girl
|
|
|
Anne Marie Moskovenko | ... |
Red Queen Girl
|
|
|
Merja Alanen | ... |
Red Queen Girl
|
Edit
Plot Summary
|
Add Synopsis
Storyline
Toward the end of World War II, a small company of American GI's occupy an ancient castle. Their commander has an affair with the countess in resident. One guy falls in love with a Volkswagon. A baker among them moves in with another baker's wife. A group of shell shocked holy rollers wander the bombed out streets. A GI art historian tries vainly to protect the castle and its masterpieces. Written by Jim Sadur <jsadur@keyflux.com>
Taglines:
A 10th-Century castle...a 20th-Century war...and the outspoken novel come to life on the screen! See more »Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents »
Edit
See full technical specs »
Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
October 1969 (Austria) See more »Also Known As:
Das Schloß in den Ardennen See more »Filming Locations:
YugoslaviaCompany Credits
Show detailed
company contact information
on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1
Edit
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
Ronald "Butcher" DeFeo Jr. claimed he was watching this movie before he shot his parents and four younger siblings to death in Amityville, NY in 1974. See more »Goofs
When the soldiers push the VW into the moat, the passenger side window is open. The car sinks and then pops to the surface and floats (air tight and they really do float) ... but when it surfaces, the passenger window is up. Of course, the car would have stayed on the bottom, had the window been open. See more »Quotes
Sfc. Rossie Baker: [enterting brothel with loaves] Everybody should eat more bread. Feeds the heart. And remember, the heart's the second-most important organ in the human body.See more »
A cult film that Columbia Pictures has done the devil to bury, keeps resurfacing because of it's exceptional poetry, invention, and flawless execution - on the part of director, editor, and camera crew, but also thanks to some of the most powerful acting on film, especially from Lancaster and Falk.
The writers and the director have striven hard to push the boundaries of cinematic story telling, and to do so without looking 'low budget', as many other more intellectually advanced films of the period did.
In the last analysis, calling this film 'anti-war' is as inappropriate as saying that of Sam Fuller's "Big Red One". Like Fuller's film, this is simply war as it was fought - garnished, for dramatic (and comic) effect, with more than a touch of the undeniably surreal. But as Fuller made plain in his wholly realistic film, war creates just the sort of environment where the surreal happens.
BTW, what made this a cult film in the first place is not any 'anti-war' message (the message is actually more 'anti-European' if you follow the dialog closely), but rather its remarkable comedic sense of the absurd, made most famous by the affair with the Volkswagen, but actually more impressive with Falk's baker (who moves in with the Belgian town's baker's wife, because, well, that's what bakers do, they live with baker's wives).
All this adds up to a stunning, even shocking film, that is still highly entertaining. I suspect those that find it confusing haven't lived much life yet, or don't want to. This film is not dated in the least; it will survive all the CGI crap that Hollywood vomits up, as long as there are people who want to think and to feel while watching a film.