I think I was perhaps a bit too harsh on this film the first time I commented on it and further appreciation for the form since then has warranted a re-evaluation. This is actually a pretty snappy little Italian made WW2 potboiler from the tail end of the 1967 - 1970 period when roughly 75 of these things were made in place of Spaghetti Westerns. The point was to cash-in on the phenomenal blockbuster success of THE DIRTY DOZEN, and for three years or so they were all the rage. Most of them are pretty anonymous, with the basic formula either taking the Desert Battle route (DESERT COMMANDOS, BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN) the French Villa Assault (FIVE FOR HELL, HELL COMMANDOS) or the Impregnable Fortress Impregnated (HELL IN NORMANDY, CHURCHILL'S LEOPARDS) story mode. The Euro War fad didn't last very long and didn't produce much that was really memorable, with the imported name-brand lead actors, director and composers of the musical scores being what usually differentiated one example from another.
This one actually has a bit more novelty than the most and it's charm was perhaps lost on me when I first encountered it, probably because it was one of the first of these things I'd ever seen. Now after having witnessed about fifty of them some of the elements stand out where other films blend together. Directed by Giallo horror favorite Roberto Montero (SO SWEET, SO DEAD) this one combines the French Villa Assault formula with a healthy dash of THE GREAT ESCAPE, and indeed much of the plot elements employed seem to have been the basis for the screenplay for 2002's abysmal HART'S WAR, which failed in my eyes because it tried to be something more than just another WW2 potboiler. This one keeps it's aspirations low enough to work in spite of it's budget.
The plot involves a special forces operative smuggled into a German POW camp with orders to blow up a nearby villa being used by the Nazis to house a secret weapons program: Standard stuff. What I missed the first time around were some of the excellent characterizations by the Italian supporting cast, who aren't "aping" THE GREAT ESCAPE's characters so much as using them as a departure point upon which to build a sense of familiarity with audiences. We already know the types and thus don't need a playbill to know who's who: The tough but devoted ranking officer, his unquestioning 2nd in command, the psycho, the Greek kid, the weatherbeaten veteran and the sketchy newcomer, who may or may not be a plant from the SS. Additional intrigue is added by having this commando mission which the hand picked team of misfits -- maneuvered into this particular Stalag just to pull this job off -- need to take place without the Germans guarding them finding out about it rather than your standard suicide mission, which leads to a predictable heartbreaker of a climax that HART'S WAR ripped off shamelessly.
The movie also benefits from an absolutely magnificent musical score by Elsio Mancuso, which for a change doesn't sound so much like a misplaced Spaghetti Western soundtrack so much as an appropriately martial & moody work composed specifically for a neato little war movie. You'll be whistling it before the thing is even over if you have an ear for Italian genre film music. There is also a first-rate cast of Italian supporting actors working with imported star-name lead (and fellow Syracusan) Dale Cummings -- Carlo Hinterman, Riccardo Salvino, and above all Luciano Catenacci are welcome, familiar faces that anyone familiar with Italian genre B cinema will recognize. But like HART'S WAR the show is totally stolen by Franco Ressel as the Kommandant, who's somewhat effete characteristics are a front for a soldier who has grown weary of the endless barbarity of war, and has developed a sense of humor to distance himself from it. The Nazi Kommandant role is always the standout in these Italian WW2 potboilers and one could easily see Klaus Kinski or Curt Jurgens sliming their way through it.
So here's to the wisdom of experience: The first time through I found this movie to be "boring", felt that "not much happened" and in the end concluded that it "sucks", all of which were the result of not being more familiar with the very specialized form of B grade Italian genre cinema loosely referred to as "Euro War." While HART'S WAR may have had an actual budget, A-list cast and a more profound script, I actually prefer this vision of the same story if only because like all of these Euro War films it reminds me of playing Army Guy out in the sand pit near the summer house on Watchik Lake during the summer with my brothers & cousins. There is a sense of juvenile make believe about these movies, which even manage to routinely write some sexy women into the plots for the dad's to ogle, though the audience in mind was without a doubt 12 year old kids who would then head to the sand pit afterwards to re-intact the battles.
The film is a triumph of form over substance, using the WW2 setting as a way to lend urgency to a plot that could easily have been adapted to be a Western or a pirate thriller or crime adventure. Purists may object to using war as a departure point for a juvenile minded fantasy adventure film, you don't learn anything and may not be impressed by the how the period was re-created, but unless you're really careful you just might find yourself enjoying it, and there is something to be said for that.
6/10: Worth seeking out!
