the year of release and the international cast and production and all misguide me when i sit to watch the night of the general and at night and on a french tv channel ( and it be a french dub copy ) . i be vaguely wait for a tedious pudding and full of villain and with some redeeming hero and in a run of the mill denunciation of nazi craziness and 25 year later . mislead . the pace and the cinematography and the plot and their intertwining and some sort of and er and modesty in the way to tell the story and all almost perfectly work . i would not discuss some minor slip on the historical background . i could let me follow the character and especially the minor one ( inspecteur morand and fraulein seydlitz ) and i finally agree with otoole performance ( more homme au masque de cire than ever ) and enjoy some great line ( some reminiscent of monsieur verdoux ) and i find the romance between hartmann or courtenay and syedlitz daughter tense and subtly tell and play . i think the length of the movie be perfectly fit while the last thirty minute and in modern germany and be very necessary and cynical in the right way . apart from the musical score ( much too heavy and useless in the varsovian part ) and the very end conventional and contradictory with what we be suppose to understand of morand quest and the whole thing be a very good surprise . do not neglect this film . it worth 145 minute of your life .