Counterpoint is an 1968 epic war film starring Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

, Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...

, and Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen

Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...

. It is based on the novel The General

The General

The General may refer to:Film and television:* The General , a Buster Keaton film* The General , a John Boorman drama about Dublin criminal Martin Cahill...

by Alan Sillitoe

Alan Sillitoe

Alan Sillitoe was an English writer and one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s.. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied.- Biography :...

.

Plot

Lionel Evans (Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

) is the director of a well-respected symphony orchestra touring European concert halls around 1944 in WW2. In the midst of one concert, the city where they are playing is attacked by German troops, and when Evans and his musicians try to escape, they are captured by Nazi soldiers led by Col. Arndt (Anton Diffring

Anton Diffring

Anton Diffring , born Alfred Pollack, was a German actor.-Biography:Diffring was born in Koblenz...

). Evans and the orchestra are taken to a castle where they are to bide their time before being executed; but it turns out that Arndt's superior, Gen. Schiller (Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...

), is a big classical music fan. Schiller commands Evans and his symphony to prepare a special concert for the Nazis, but Evans realizes that the moment the concert is over, he and his musicians will be killed.

Cast

• Charlton Heston
  Charlton Heston
  Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
  
   as Lionel Evans
• Maximilian Schell
  Maximilian Schell
  Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
  
   as Gen. Schiller
• Kathryn Hays
  Kathryn Hays
  Kathryn Hays is an American actress. She was born in Princeton, Illinois and grew up in Joliet, Illinois.In the 1966-1967 television season, Hays appeared as Elizabeth Reynolds Pride in the NBC western series The Road West, with co-stars Barry Sullivan, Andrew Prine, Kelly Corcoran, and Glenn...
  
   as Annabelle Rice
• Leslie Nielsen
  Leslie Nielsen
  Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...
  
   as Victor Rice
• Anton Diffring
  Anton Diffring
  Anton Diffring , born Alfred Pollack, was a German actor.-Biography:Diffring was born in Koblenz...
  
   as Col. Arndt
• Linden Chiles
  Linden Chiles
  Linden Chiles is an American character actor. His television roles include Steve Kirk on Convoy, Paul Hunter on James at 15 and Clyde Darrell on Perry Mason. He has also appeared in a guest starring role in numerous other TV series during the 1960s and 1970s including The Fugitive.-External links:...
  
   as Lt. Long
• Peter Masterson
  Peter Masterson
  Peter Masterson is an American actor, director, producer and writer.Masterson often worked with his cousin, writer Horton Foote. Acting from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s,including 1975's The Stepford Wives as Walter Eberhart, since then he has concentrated mostly on directing and producing...
  
   as Sgt. Calloway
• Curt Lowens
  Curt Lowens
  Curt Lowens is a German actor of the stage and films, and a survivor and resistant of the Holocaust.-Life and career:...
  
   as Capt. Klingermann
• Neva Patterson
  Neva Patterson
  Neva Louise Patterson was an American character actress.Born on a farm near Nevada in Story County in central Iowa, she and her parents moved to New York City in 1938. She made her Broadway debut in 1947's The Druid Circle. In 1952, she played "Helen Sherman" in The Seven Year Itch...
  
   as Dorothy
• Cyril Delevanti
  Cyril Delevanti
  Cyril Delevanti , sometimes credited as Syril Delevanti, was an English-born character actor with a long career in American films....
  
   as Tartzoff
• Gregory Morton as Jordon

Music

The orchestra's performances, which include works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, and Schubert, were performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

Translations

Also known as:

West Germany : Der Befehl

Sweden : I krigets järngrepp

Denmark : Krigens symfoni

Greece : Nyhtes kolaseos

Finland : Sankareitten sinfonia

Italy : Sinfonia di guerra

France : La Symphonie des héros

USA (working title) : The Battle Horns

USA (working title) : The General

Spain : Una Tumba al amanecer