Only palatable for true Charlton Heston fans; his attempts at conducting the orchestra are painful to watch. Leslie Nielson is in his serious actor mode, being not so much wooden as cardboard. Maximillian Schell could have phoned in his performance, as it appears he sometimes did.
A quaint story concerning this movie states that neither Heston nor Schell was particularly concerned with the project and the choice of final roles; rumor has it that the final decision was made by the toss of a coin as to which would be the conductor and which would be the Nazi. Viewing these performances one can see traits of both in each character.
Spoiler Alert! A very picky error concerning the final scenes: the orchestra is heard playing Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Brahms' First Symphony throughout the movie and before they escape the castle. As they are running out of the shelter of a trench during a bombing raid and into their bus, you can clearly see a tuba player dropping his instrument as he escapes; neither the Schubert nor Brahms pieces are scored for tuba.
A quaint story concerning this movie states that neither Heston nor Schell was particularly concerned with the project and the choice of final roles; rumor has it that the final decision was made by the toss of a coin as to which would be the conductor and which would be the Nazi. Viewing these performances one can see traits of both in each character.
Spoiler Alert! A very picky error concerning the final scenes: the orchestra is heard playing Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Brahms' First Symphony throughout the movie and before they escape the castle. As they are running out of the shelter of a trench during a bombing raid and into their bus, you can clearly see a tuba player dropping his instrument as he escapes; neither the Schubert nor Brahms pieces are scored for tuba.