Die Leoparden kommen

I was fortunate to find the Simitar VHS edition of THE LIBERATORS. While the box cover states a running time of 85 minutes, it is indeed 77 minutes, as other reviewers have noted.

I do not remember seeing any credits throughout other than THE END; in that sense IMDb proved helpful in supplying the basics.

GEORGE HILTON is a good deal more animated than he is in many of his other films (westerns and giallo are the genre I associate him with most). In uniform and clean shaven he very much looks the part of a recent West Point graduate given his first command during the Italian campaign.

A twist of fate leads him into being responsible for the execution of two fellow American GIs; their lives were thus be intertwined - the young lieutenant will come of age, and the two battle hardened veterans will achieve a state of grace through acts of sacrifice (culminating after the deaths of those who have grown close to them).

KLAUS KINSKI is eminently watchable, and thankfully the director saw fit not to rely on dialogue, but let the camera dwell on his ravaged features. His final scene is memorable, and alone worth the price of the video.

The third piece in the puzzle is a black American actor that I have never seen before; seeing as so many black jazz and blues musicians found Europe a haven it is understandable that black actors too might have chosen Europe as a new home. I found it interesting that the film is half over before he says anything.

The actress credited as BETSY DELL looked very familiar, and so I suspect this is actually a pseudonym. Can anyone tell me who she is?

The locations were such that I felt I was seeing a side of Italy that was totally unfamiliar to me.

A note on the music: it added a lot to the film.

The flavour of the film caught the anti-establishment movement of the times, and would be a nice contrast to John Wayne's THE GREEN BERETS, made about the same time if I remember correctly.

War truly is hell.