New flick twist

Low-key Caine gives 'Play Dirty' a boost

By Emerson Batdorff

"Play Dirty"

Action picture of medium density with calm playing by Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport and quite a few others giving it what little interest it has.

A man can only hope that they are paying Michael Caine enough. It is his ability to bring a certain sense of low-key plausibility to an

essentially implausible situation that makes "Play Dirty" most of the enjoyment it affords.

Without him it would be just another far-flung war movie. With him it is nearly worthwhile. It is an action thriller that shows up the way war brutalizes men. But nonetheless it relies on heroic deeds for its interest.

CAINE PLAYS a British officer in North Africa in World War II who is on loan to the government from the British Petroleum Co. His mission is to administer details about the Army's gasoline and oil. .

As such he is rated as a specialist and when a specialist in gasoline is needed, he is tapped. The mission: Blow up a German gas and oil dump miles behind the German lines, across the wind whipped desert..

His associates on the patrol are all irregulars who have been sprung from various jails where they were serving time for crimes of violence on the ground that it would be much better to have them harassing the Germans than their fellow citizens. There are a pair of homosexual Arabs, one non-homosexual Arab, and some low-grade Europeans.

The real leader of this cutthroat crew is played with many a sneer by Nigel Davenport. He got this job after being sprung from prison where he was serving time while trying to collect some insurance on a ship that he captained. One of the seamen unfortunately survived. A rascally bunch, and their example brutalizes Caine.

Anyhow, across the desert they go, sand blowing in their teeth Caine, as is to be expected, proving himself pretty smart in a backward sort of way, and Davenport proving to be fairly worthless.

THERE IS A LOT of violence; a lot of blood, one attempted rape that ends in one of the picture's few laughs, which is an odd way for an attempted rape to end.

The picture winds up with every principal gone except for the headquarters types who plotted their demise back in the peace of a nice cool building. That is a new switch, the movie in which everyone fights until no one is left.

Directed by Andre de Toth, screenplay by Lotte Colin and Melvin Bragg, based on an original story by George Marton. Produced by Harry Saltzman. United Artists.

The cast includes Michael Caine, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Green, Horry Andrews, Aly Ben Ayed, Vivian Rickles.