Le Commando des braves

During World War II a group of American soldiers carrying out a deadly mission behind German lines are captured. The German high command - Heinrich Himmler no less - decide to replace them with their own special forces men who adopt their identities, while using a Rommel lookalike to pretend he is the captured General, who will in turn assassinate General Eisenhower. Somehow.

You may have noticed that the plot synopsis above barely makes any sense. It is indeed a truly biscuit-taking bit of screen-writing. But in fairness to it, it does allow for a plot-line that is a bit different to what we usually get. This is a Euro war movie which is mainly of Spanish origin. Like many of its Italian brethren it shows the influence of the American hit The Dirty Dozen (1967), what with its motley crew of soldiers cobbled together to take on an impossibly dangerous mission in which you know most of them are going to die. This one I guess is a little unusual though in that it is the Germans who we are cheering on. It sort of starts out pretty well in all honesty but it does get a little bogged down in tedium once we enter its second half. It becomes a more undistinctive action movie and it does cop out a little at the end also. In the final analysis, there are some original elements to this one but it pans out as a pretty mediocre movie.