WWII Marathon #3: Operation Crossbow (1965)

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Mounted like a James Bond film, this British spy thriller loosely about the real-life "Operation Crossbow", in which British intelligence attempted to sabotage the Nazi's long-range weapons operations, is only half of a good thing.
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Part alluring wartime espionage, part stodgy history lesson, Operation Crossbow would be better served as the former, given the dull machinations of the opening forty-five minutes, which switch back-and-forth between German and British operations (the former testing the weapons, the latter trying to find them) before the film gains any sort of traction. 
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To combat the Nazi threat, the British send three soldiers to pose as Dutch, German speaking engineers who will go undercover into the heart of the long-weapons facility in an attempt to bring it down. 
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It's here where Operation Crossbow really stretches its legs, its middle-section is fun, sexy, tense, it even has an extended cameo with Sophia Loren as a native who discovers that her husband, now dead, is being interpreted by a British agent, played by George Peppard. 
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Like classic Bond, the film concludes in a hollowed-out underground facility with bad guys going splat and an ambitious weapons plan mangled, only this time, the British class and pride is overwhelming. [B-]