Rose rosse per il führer

I was not happy with this film. We have seen it all before: a very extensive and difficult operation carried through with enormous troubles and consequences and ultimately resulting in nothing but a petty anticlimax. James Daly tries to make the best of it, several stars accompany him on the wild crusade or Via Crucis, Nino Castelnuovo and Pier Angeli for two, Peter van Eyck having a hard time with the cruel barbarity of SS with a worried Canaris in the background, while the one detail lighting up this sordid show is a dyspeptic priest, who succeeds well enough in introducing some vitally needed comedy. Gino Peguri provides some interesting music mainly inspired by Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony. For the rest, it's all self-destructive war business at its worst with a long bankruptcy list of casualties and no other result than unsurmountable solidly well founded bitterness. Expect the worst, and you will get it.