Un posto all'inferno

WOW!! Now here is a real gem in the rough: A low budget Italian war film from 1969 that has a fantastic script, excellent performances, genuine character development, emotional involvement & payoffs, and a profound sense of the artifice of film that is so convincing that it can even withstand contemporary scrutiny without the usual aplogies associated with cult Euro genre films. This is not just a good movie about war that has the potential to please even the dreaded war movie buff sect who never take this stuff seriously, but a great film, period.

Others have summed up the plot details succinctly already -- misplaced misfit Yankee GI's stumble around Japanese controlled Filipino island after the fall of Manilla, wage guerrilla warfare when they can, and die when they must. This film is a standout in the 1967 - 1971 Euro War cycle, an offshoot of the Italian Spaghetti Western industry cashing in on THE DIRTY DOZEN, GUNS OF NAVARONE, THE GREAT ESCAPE, etc, using pretty much the same performers & crew personnel but with tanks & machine guns rather than horses & six shooters. This one was directed by Giuseppe Vari, who's only other work I have seen is the Spaghetti SHOOT THE LIVING AND PRAY FOR THE DEAD and his proto-Peplum REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS. My memory of both films is spotty but they were not this well done. Like Bitto Albertini, Umberto Lenzi, Enzo Castellari, Giorgio Ferroni, Tonino Ricci, Alfonso Brescia, Gianfranco Parolini and Leon Klimovsky, here is a director who managed to use the Euro War craze to their advantage, getting a contract to make a film that they then injected with their own particular vision. Some of them work (DESERT COMMANDOS, BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN) and some are more like twisted, violent cartoons (FIVE FOR HELL, BATTLE OF THE LAST PANZER) but here is one that actually resonates on a personal level that goes beyond what was required of by the genre. I am astonished at how good of a movie it is.

What sets this one apart is not only actual use of the possibilities of film as a medium for expression using some wonderful camera work that is a cut above the usual documentary style used by the Euro War directors, but a Pacific War setting, specifically the Phillipines just after the Japanese invaded Manilla. Since the Euro War films of the classic 1967 - 1971 period were so low budget in nature, most of their directors relied upon European settings out of simple logistical need. As such, one of the most intriguing aspects of A PLACE IN HELL is just where it's location work was done. Most likely in the Philipines itself, where a number of Italian/Filipino productions were made around the same time (1968/1969).

The film has a wonderful, rugged, rough look to it, with adventurously kinetic camera work by Stelvio Massi, sparodic and brutal combat sequences that will please those who love action, and maybe even more importantly another great leading role for Euro War regular Guy Madison, who must have made a dozen of these things inside of a year or two: I'd like to see Brad Pitt keep that kind of a pace. This is easily Madison's finest performance in the genre, and on the subject of acting this film has some of the best aside from SALT IN THE WOUND and DESERT COMMANDOS, appears to have been dubbed by the actual principal leads, and the script actually gives them things to say that are pretty remarkable. Add that to a great musical score by Roberto Pregadio and we are talking about yet another minor cult genre masterpiece waiting to be re-discovered. Here is a Euro War film that even war movie buffs could probably take seriously since it treats the subject a sort of quiet nihilism that borders on sombre at times, but is never boring because it is about the people playing out the drama. Movies should always be about people and maybe that's what sets this one apart from all the others, which usually amount to movies about how cool tanks are, how rotten the Nazis were, and how great Klaus Kinski looks in a uniform. This one goes a bit further examining the people who were involved, and deserves to be seen again for having bothered to amount to more than the sum of it's parts. I'd rank it right up there with "Eagles Over London", SALT IN THE WOUND and DESERT COMMANDOS as the best examples of a much-maligned & misunderstood genre.

9/10; The musical score deserves a CD release, and this film deserves to be restored.

A Place in Hell is another in the cycle of films often categorised as Macaroni Combat. These Italian films are sort of war-action alternatives to the spaghetti westerns. But there is a reason that these movies aren't remembered by anyone outside of Euro-cult enthusiasts and that is that by-in-large they are pretty unremarkable and, unlike the spaghettis, they don't have nearly as many factors that make them stand out as a genre of their own. This one, like 36 Hours of Hell from the same year, is set in the Pacific, on-location in the Philippines to be more precise. This does make it a little more distinctive from most in the genre which were set in Europe or North Africa. Set during World War II, its story focuses on survivors of the Japanese attack on Manila, including a journalist, a hooker and an Italian soldier. They end up on a Pacific island overrun by the Japanese and are soon joined by a band of Allied soldiers who are in the process of trying to recapture a radar base from the enemy.

Despite the setting, I found this one to be a little too slow moving for my liking. It wasn't especially thrilling or particularly interesting either. I found 36 Hours of Hell to be a better example of this kind of thing to be honest. I expect it will still be of interest to Euro-war film fans though.

I can see that most of the other reviewers here really like this movie, but I can't really understand why, because this movie is extremely slow-moving and full of clichés all the way through, and has a really unlikeable leading man, who just wants to drink and smoke all the time, and likes to "take charge" of his men, and doesn't even flinch when his men (or women) get killed because of him dragging them out into the field.

Quite a lot of the scenes in this movie consists of people walking a lot. The final scene has a VERY lengthy sequence where a woman walks around an abandoned campsite for what seems like 10 minutes!! All she does is just walk around and look, run a bit, and stroll back and forth.. imagine that for at least 5 minutes near the climax of any movie! This movie is a total time-waster.

Only good thing about this movie are the following: My VHS-tape is surprisingly in widescreen, which was a big plus.

The two women (Esperanto and Betsy) are hot.

Fabio Testi is in this movie, and he kicks ass as usual.

Well, that's about it. This movie is so full of clichés, truly a horrible piece of war-glorifying trash - but without blood and gore, so you could actually see this with kids too, except that they'd probably be too bored to bother finish watching it.

4/10 - one star for Testi, two for each of the women, and one for the widescreen format (and the fast-forward button on my remote).

A PLACE IN HELL is a fun-but-forgotten Italian WW2 flick set in the Pacific theatre for a change (most of these films seem to be desert-set productions in my experience). It's business as usual for the scriptwriter, who concocts a storyline about a group of soldiers who have to undertake a deadly mission to blow up a Japanese base on one of the Pacific islands before escaping to the docks to make their getaway.

The film is surprisingly well made for its budget and genre, with atmospheric jungle locations and some top action to recommend it. The cast is merely average, with dependable leading man of Italian action cinema Guy Madison leading the way, but Giuseppe Vari's direction is better than average.

There's an excellent set-piece at the climax involving a deserted beach and village which is the perfect exercise in setting up tension before letting loose with a rousing climax. There are some thoughtful reflections on the nature of warfare here, which you aren't expecting in the dubbed English dialogue, along with location photography in the Philippines which adds to the authenticity.

A decent pacific war action film. The story is familiar, a small random group of survivors from a Japanese attack have to undertake an "impossible" mission. Much is saved by crisp characters and rugged acting, though masterpiece this one is not.

An unusual feature for a film of this kind is the camerawork. Not only does the camera move a lot, already lifting this film above some of its peers, there are also a couple of visually ambitious sequences.

Released on video in Finland in the early eighties.