The Heroes of Telemark

The Battle for Heavy Water.

The Heroes of Telemark is directed by Anthony Mann and written by Ben Barzman and Ivan Moffat. It stars Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Redgrave and David Weston. Music is by Malcolm Arnold and cinematography by Robert Krasker.

1942, Nazi occupied Norway, and the Germans are making great strides with their plans for atomic weaponry. Its down to a band of resistance fighters and a scientist to blow up the German heavy water factory located up in the Telemark mountains.

Perhaps its stating the obvious considering Mann and Krasker's reputations as quality visualists, but The Heroes of Telemark is a splendid looking war movie. Its solidly performed by the cast, the story, which is bas...

The more realistic precursor to Where Eagles Dare

During WW2, a resistant fighter in German-occupied Norway (Richard Harris) and an Oslo physics professor (Kirk Douglas) team-up to stop the Nazi operation of creating & transporting heavy water in order to produce the first atomic bomb and thus win the war.

The Heroes of Telemark (1965) debuted three years before Where Eagles Dare and is based on the true story of Norwegian heavy water sabotage. Its more mundane and believable, but lacks the great score and all-around pizazz of that more well-know WW 2 film. The wintery Norwegian locations are certainly a highlight (listed below).

This was director Anthony Manns second to last movie. He would die a year and five months after i...

It doesn't matter at what time of year I watch this wartime thriller, it always makes me reach for a jumper! The Nazis are working on a top secret project in a Norwegian hydro-electric plant. When the plans are smuggled out into the hands of the resistance - via Richard Harris and lothario physics professor Kirk Douglas, the allies realise that they are well on the way to developing a nuclear bomb and must be stopped at all costs. The icy environment adds much to the sense of peril evoked as these brave "Ling" have to thwart the export of the "heavy water" from the plant back to Germany. Harris ("Knut") and Douglas ("Rolf") aren't the most natural together, and when Ulla Jacobsson arrives on the scene, the pace of this otherwise quite decen...