Les chiens verts du désert

Italian director Umberto Lenzi, who went on to bring audiences across the globe epic schlock in "The Greatest Battle" and incredibly cheap thrills in "Bridge to Hell" begins his career in the war genre with a slam-bang suspense piece which proves to be, undoubtedly, one of the best war movies to come out of Italy in the 1960s.

The story is fresh and original, and presented with unique twists from beginning to end. Five German soldiers are parachuted into North Africa, and will trek to Casablanca to assassinate a conference of Churchill, Roosevelt and DeGaulle.

Lenzi's film is a true example of character-driven drama at its best. Ken Clark is Captain Schoeller, leader of the unit, and he's never less than totally convincing as a die-hard advocate of Hitler and Nazism. Horst Frank ("Thunder from the West") plays Lt. Wolf with gusto and conviction. Wolf's mother is American and his best friend is a Jew, so he and Schoeller don't see eye-to-eye. He and Schoeller clash over opposing ideals several times. Despite their dissension, both are dedicated soldiers who have a job to get done, and grudgingly work together to accomplish the mission. Lenzi never strays far from this central conflict of ideals, always keeping his message clearly in focus.

The supporting cast of familiar European actors is excellent all-around. Carlo Hintermann, Hardy Reychelt and Howard Ross round out the German team. Hintermann makes the most of his little role as a tough, dedicated German Sergeant, a career soldier who'll do what he's told when he's told, no questions asked. Jeanne Valerie and Fabienne Dali are two female characters, whose motives are never clearly defined until the film's third act – and that's when you realize whose side each is really on. Gianni Rizzo has a few brief scenes as a French informer, working with the Germans, and gets to do blast away at American soldiers with a machinegun in one of the film's nail-biting action scenes. Be sure to watch for Tom Felleghy ("The Greatest Battle"), John Stacy ("Battle of the Commandos"), and Franco Fantasia ("Adios, Sabata") in small, yet key roles as Allied officers.

Though the action-packed footage is scant, what's here is brilliantly edited and directed. The third act is tense and fast-paced, as the German "heroes" dodge bullets across rooftops and duck through alleyways as American MPs are in hot pursuit. The final infiltration of Churchill's banqueting hall is excellently set up, with frustratingly deliberate pacing, which will leave you on the edge of your seat. This climax ends abruptly with a great surprise, causing your jaw to drop as you wonder "What just happened…?" Two aspects of film-making that Lenzi and his crew seem to emphasize are the sets and landscapes. There is not one shot in this movie that looks out of place. When the German officers talk in headquarters, the interior looks like an office in a German headquarters. The film is set in the desert, and there are constant wide shots as actors speak and walk which reveal that these scenes were actually shot in the vast Egyptian sand dunes. The oasis of Kuffran looks especially bustling, and the essence of the atmosphere of Casablanca during wartime is superbly captured. During this time period, many directors fell back on shabby interiors and shot in outdoor locations which looked completely wrong. For example, "Commando Attack", also shot in 1967, was lensed in Spain and exteriors were passed off as "southern France", yet it's clearly visible the action was not occurring in the French countryside.

Finally, there are a number of other little details which contribute to this film's success: fine editing and camera-work give this movie a very professional look and feel; it always looks professional. Lenzi is just starting to develop his style, and his signature close-ups are used in moderation, but mean all the more when they are used. There are some great crane shots and wide shots used to establish the scope of the sets, most notably in the scenes set in Casablanca.

This is definitely a great film, with some strongly developed internal conflicts and fleshed-out characters. The quality of Lenzi's films would degenerate as the years passed, but "Desert Commando" is easily one of the best war films to come out of 1967, ranking right up there with "The Dirty Dozen".

7/10

Action-filled movie set in WWII , it follows the reckless adventures of a valiant platoon , some courageous Nazi soldiers during WWII in Morocco . German commandos dressed as British soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines in the Sahara Desert tasked with a risked assignment and must make their long way to Casablanca . Their objective : the assassination of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin at a meeting at Casablanca . Along the way, the five face not only possible discovery by the British and American troops, but they also take on the real possibility of being shot by German troops. Suffering several flops , explosion , attacks and deaths across the way burt the leader insists on attempting to complete the commandos' mission.

Ken Clark is the leader in this ordinary wartime movie about a commando getting to Casablanca in an assassination attempt on allied leaders being professionaly directed by Umberto Lenzi . Medium budget European war film that lost continuity with US cuts . This moving film packs frantic thrills , perilous adventures , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action and violence . The noisy action is uniformly well-made , especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes in which the motley group is really besieged , including some spectacular shootouts and bombing . The first half of the film allows the colorful cast of character actors to have their fun as they get their tails whipped into shape and develop a complex and tense relationship with their leader . The final part is all action , as the brave commando wreak havoc and then run for their lives . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Ken Clark into his misfit group , the film is full of feats , suspense , and thrills . Rough , muscular, well-built , hairy-chested American actor Ken Clark was born on June 4, 1927 in Neffs, Ohio, USA as Kenneth Donovan Clark and died on June 1, 2009 in Rome, at 82 . A former model, he appeared in 'tough' western roles under contract to 20th Century Fox and then had a solid run as the second lead of several low-budget, cult science-fiction films in the 1950's . He moved to Italy during the 60's to star in spaghetti westerns and sword and sandal epics. He was an actor, known for Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), FBI chiama Istanbul (1964) and Operation Lady Chaplin (1966). He starred several sword and sandals and adventures as Maciste nell'inferno di Gengis Khan, Jacob and Esau , Hercules invincible , Maciste contro i Mongoli, Re Manfredi , among others . Here Ken Clark is the two-fisted leader of the motley pack together thwart the enemy schemes , he gives a so-so acting while showing bizeps and muscles . Clark dominates this warfare adventure war with his strong performance as a merciless commando boss with only one purport : to execute at whatever cost the nail-biting as well as puzzling mission . Main cast is acceptable with B-actors ordinary , such as: Horst Frank , Jeanne Valérie, Howard Ross , John Stacy , Gianni Rizzo , Hintermann and Franco Fantasia .

This one belongs to a numerous group of Italian/Spanish WWII films , imitating American ones , usually directed by José Luis Merino , Leon Klimovsky , Umberto Lenzi , Bitto Albertini , Al Bradley and including tarnishing Hollywood stars , such as ¨The legion of no return¨ with Tab Hunter , ¨Hell's brigade¨ with Jack Palance , ¨Command attack¨ with Michael Rennie . All of them supported by local armies that lent tanks , weapons , soldiers and extras to make these films . This is a wartime typical vehicle and into the ¨warlike commando sub-genre¨ , in USA style which also belong the American classics as : ¨Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich)¨ ,¨ Where eagles dare (Brian G. Hutton)¨ , ¨Kelly's heroes (Hutton)¨, ¨Tobruk (Arthur Hiller)¨ , ¨Devil's Brigade (Andrew V McLagen)¨ and many others.

Atmospheric and functional musical score by prolific Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. Sunny cinematography in Eastmancolor filmed by Carlo Carlini , a perfect remastering is extremely necessary .This is a well conceived WWII with action filled , brief studio character , drama and exciting battles , being well directed by Umberto Lenzi .he often used the pseudonym Hank Milestone and Humphrey Logan . He's an expert on wartime genre such as he proved in ¨ Desert commandos¨ , ¨Battle of commandos¨, ¨From hell to victory¨, and ¨Bridge to hell¨.

I have to be honest and say that I don't generally have much interest in war films and thus my only reason for bothering with this film was due to the fact that it's directed by one of my favourite horror directors, the great Umberto Lenzi. Like most directors that made films in Italy during the sixties, seventies and eighties; Lenzi dipped his hand in many different genres and while he was always best at Polizi flicks and Giallo (in spite of being most famous for blood splattered cannibal and zombie films), Lenzi was clearly talented enough to make films outside of his 'comfort zone', and for a cheap World War 2 thriller; Desert Commandos is actually not too bad. The film takes place somewhere towards the end of World War 2 and focuses on a group of German commandos who parachute into the desert with a special mission. The group, dressed as British soldiers, must make their way to a secret meeting that is taking place between the allied 'Big three' - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin - and eliminate the powerful trio.

The plot is fairly preposterous and obviously a work of fiction. As mentioned, I'm not a fan of war films in general; so I haven't seen many so I don't have a lot to compare this film to. Umberto Lenzi was obviously not too concerned with reality, and I found it odd how the group of fascist, racist Nazi's easily found help from an Arab woman in the desert. The film is different to most western war films in that our 'heroes' are actually German and the British and American troops are the antagonists. The first two thirds of the film are fairly interesting but never truly fascinating as all we really have to go on is the interaction between the various members of the group and as you can probably imagine considering the type of film that this is; none of them are particularly interesting. Still, there's a fair few action scenes to keep the action ticking over. The film tries to become a bit deeper in the final third and while this doesn't really come off; the final scenes are better than what went before it. I wouldn't really recommend this film as I'm sure there are better war films out there; but on the other hand, I'm sure there's worse too.

Umberto Lenzi's DIRTY DOZEN-style WW2 movie DESERT COMMANDOS follows a squad of Nazi soldiers who are tasked with being dropped behind enemy lines and assassinating the three Allied leaders Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin who are due to meet in secret. That sounds pretty interesting, and makes this seem like a precursor to the Jack Higgins adaptation THE EAGLE HAS LANDED, but in reality DESERT COMMANDOS is nothing more than a bog standard desert-trotting B-movie with references to better films like ICE COLD IN ALEX. The cast is headed by the unremarkable Ken Clark, and the only one who makes a mark is Horst Frank as the most fleshed out of the group. The film moves along with a mix of genre elements, but none of the action is outstanding and the only suspense is generated at the admittedly exciting climax.

Sometimes tense Euro-war movie in a similar vein to "The Guns of Navarone" has brawny Ken Clark (familiar from the Peplum genre) leading four of the Nazi's finest into North Africa where they attempt an audacious plan to assassinate not one, but three Allied Forces leaders, namely Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt present in Casablanca for a summit. As it turns out, they'll have to settle for De Gaulle substituting for Stalin, nevertheless their epic hunt behind enemy lines is an expansive mission leading them to the brink, encountering cross and double cross around every corner.

Solid cast includes Horst Frank as an American-born Nazi commando, whose commitment to the Feuhrer wanes in the face of the desperate mission and 'immoral' sacrifices taken to improve its chance of success, future Italian leading man Howard Ross in a small role, and pleasantly, gender balance achieved with beauties Jeanne Valeri playing an Arab guide, and Fabienne Dali as a turncoat who may or may not be in cahoots with the Allies.

Italian horror master Umberto Lenzi is better known for his Cannibal capers, but demonstrates a universal talent in bringing together this B-Italian action film with moderate suspense, light humour and at least some semblance of depth in characterisations despite the clichés. Probably not for the average GI Joe, but if you're comfortable with Euro style then you should enjoy this mission to Morocco.