Non c'è tempo per morire

"Tank Force!" is an American paid for WWII programmer starring an aging Victor Mature and a supporting cast of of British stalwarts lead by Leo Genn the kind of English character actor who made many B movies that much more watchable.

The plot revolves around a prisoner of war camp in the Libyan desert populated by the usual stereotypes including the young, at the time, song and dance man, Anthony Newley. Five members of the camp belong to a tank battalion who at this juncture are obviously tankless,but being typical and jovial beyond reproach, break out and go wandering through the dunes looking for a safe place to crash. They find it in an old oasis hotel filled to overflowing with the usual churlish Nazi horde. And would you believe, an old girlfriend of Mr. Mature. She gives them food and water and is bumped off in a shorter order than it would have taken the kitchen to order up. Poor Luciana Paluzzo is kissed on the forehead, covered up with a blanket and left to find a job in a better flick than this one.

The five sand fleas wander off into the Libyan night pursued by Nazis and a nasty Arab chieftain. Everything deserty you can think of happens to them until they are caught. Old Vic endures the torture of a thousand knives until a nice German flings a map of dune country at them along with a loaded pistol.The kraut then turns and shoots himself undoubtedly disturbed by the insane torture perpetrated on Mr. Vic.

It all ends with a B movie finale as the proto Rat Patrol steals a German tank and kills everybody in sight.

A serviceable time waster, then, with opening and closing tank battles in 1958 widescreen and color. Hail Columbia! The movie company that is.

A meaner version of 'The Great Escape' set in North Africa rather than Europe, gathering together for the first time 'Thunderball's director, cameraman and femme fatale (while the supporting cast includes Robert Rietty, who dubbed Largo).

As a Warwick production it inevitably includes unfunny comedy relief from Anthony Newley, (along with Anne Aubrey in her film debut). Most of the Germans are played by Brits, although Bonar Colleano (shortly afterwards killed in a car crash) is ironically dubbed and sporting a bleached crewcut as a Pole.

Members of the eponymous tank force languishing in a North African POW camp in North Africa during WWII plan a daring escape. An ageing Victor Mature looks out of place surrounded by a host of British character actors in an otherwise solid little action picture filmed in Technicolor. Its routine plot is enlivened by strong action in the opening and closing scenes, a Polish character who switches repeatedly from good guy to bad, and an interesting German officer with a conscience.

I caught this on TV under the title TANK FORCE. It's a British WW2 movie made up to look like an American film with Victor Mature as the imported lead and to the film's credit it always convinces as a bigger budgeted production. While scenes of tank warfare are limited to moments at the beginning and end, for the most part this is a fitfully exciting desert adventure with some suspense and incident to see it through.

The film features a mature Mature and a very good Leo Genn as allies who are sent to an Italian prisoner of war camp in North Africa and who vow to escape. The supporting cast is populated by the familiar faces of Anthony Newley, Percy Herbert, George Coulouris, and many others. Once the plot gets going it trundles along quite nicely with the usual run of plot twists, betrayals, and sudden death, and there's even time for a scene of romance or two here and there. Genn in particular is very good as the Brit with the stiff upper lip and the exciting climax rounds things off quite nicely.

In this WW II adventure, five brave Allies endeavor to escape from an Italian POW camp in North Africa. They succeed, but their trials are not over as they must still cross the burning Libyan desert to get safely behind Allied lines. En route they are captured by a Nazi-loving sheik. The sheik takes considerable time to decide the fate of the escapees; in that time, the five manage to escape again. This time they kill their captors.

Though it stars the charismatic Victor Mature, the focus isn't just on him, the other cast members such as Leo Genn, Anthony Newley and Bonar Colleano -who steals the scene as a soldier gone kill mad - get screen time. It's a solid WWII POW escape film with a strong boys own adventure leanings - there's some tense moments and a ton of explosions courtesy of WWII real tanks that blow things up everywhere. Character development is curtailed due to the frantic and a sense of urgency of the escape and adventure where things happen. Superb desert scenery that is depicted as a harsh environment than in a dreamy and romantic adds some grit. Victor Mature is excellent as always, the scene where he holds a dead Luciana Paluzzi and covers her with a blanket is touchingly done.