This was one of five compilation films based on the UFO TV series for the Italian market. All of them are dubbed into Italian but for anyone who's seen all the episodes that won't be an issue. It would though be rather bewildering for anyone who hasn't seen all of them - even for Italian viewers! This is because it is compiled from many episodes with no natural connections between them. It's obviously much better to watch the original full episodes but I feel it's useful to document this "film", particularly for non-Italian followers of UFO who may know little about its content.
It starts with the interview with real-life UFO expert Dr Frank Stranges seen in "The Dalotek Affair". This does at least set-up the issue of UFOs for the audience. It then moves into the opening credits sequence which is overlaid on scenes of the Moonbase trackers undressing and dressing as seen in "Identified". For the uninitiated this doesn't give much insight into how SHADO operates but I suppose it is eye-catching, particularly for many male viewers!
Thereafter matters become very complicated with an array of sections from various episodes - footage from "Destruction", "The Sound of Silence". "Ordeal", "Computer Affair" and - most extensively - "Reflections in the Water". However brief scenes or clips from other episodes intersperse these such as Straker and General Henderson arguing in "Conflict" and the dramatic opening scene of the attack on Peter Carlin, his sister and their friend from "Identified" which lies for no obvious reason between the longer parts from "Computer Affair" and "Reflections". There is a running theme to some degree of aliens or humans captured by aliens coming into SHADO's hands but even that is absent from some of the material. The intention seems to have been to focus very much on action rather than character or storyline. How this came across to viewers of the time isn't clear but maybe for many the attraction was seeing UFO on cinema screens in colour at a time when TV in Italy was still only in black-and-white.
To their credit the Italian compilers did resist the temptation to produce new titles or music as unfortunately blighted the ITC English-language compilation "film" "Invasion: UFO" (1980). This may have been as much a budgetary as an artistic decision but it does work much better.
Altogether this is a flawed but fascinating watch. It can certainly be an experience for an English-language viewer to see and hear one of their favourite shows dubbed into another language. It's also a striking insight into the history of the show and how it was viewed and marketed at the time. No-one will prefer this to the original episodes but it's still intriguing to see how the compilers made a film out of so many different elements. These films are flawed but they should not be forgotten.
