Spaghetti/War film about a misfit outfit led by Guy Madison who carry out a suicide mission behind enemy lines , in Omaha Beach . The movie is set during World War II in the days just prior to the D-Day invasion. A special parachute unit is sent to destroy a German flame thrower installation on Omaha Beach . A group of two-fisted soldiers formed by various experts are drafted to go on a near-suicide mission and attempt to destroy an installation from a Nazi fortress . ¨Hell in Normandy ¨ is an entertaining film with Guy Madison as a stiff officer along with Peter Lee Lawrence posing as a Nazi lieutenant . Guy Madison leading a group of motley and eclectic soldiers for a dangerous assault on a beach . In the hands of hardboiled director Alfonso Brescia , alias Al Bradley , and a tough-as-leather cast , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring wartime flick . Madison's mission is two-fold and in violent and cynical style : first turn his G.I.s into a valiant fighting unit being parachuted , then turn them loose on a French location in Normandy where they run into partisans (Erica Blanc) and there Lt. Strobel (Peter Lee Lawrence), a German spy, helps them penetrate a flamethrower installations which threatens the landings on Omaha Beach . 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 shaky relationship with their leader . The final part is all action , as the brave commando wreak havoc and then run for their lives . The dangerous mission includes a selected group formed by a motley and varied squadron played by usual of Italian B-series . This is a rugged WWII actioner concerning about an experienced officer , he's assigned by Military staff to train a group of valiant G.I.s who get a chance to redeem themselves and later on , they pull off a extremely risked assignment called ¨Operation Gambit¨ . At the end they must participate in the suicidal mission behind the enemy lines , to wipe the German group by means of a violent assault over a strongly protected position .
Guy Madison as Capt. Jack Murphy assumes the character of commando leader along with Peter Lee Lawrence as Lt. Strobel in this ordinary wartime movie regularly directed by Al Bradley . 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 on the beach fortress , including some spectacular shootouts , firing and bombing . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Madison into his varied group , the film is full of feats , shots and thrills though contains excessive dialog and a lot of night scenes . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Peter Lee Lawrence is good in his usual tough role , here playing the unshakable lieutenant Strobel . Blond German youth Peter Lee Lawrence, who made his uncredited debut in Sergio Leone "For A Few Dollars More" (1965), was the hero in many Spaghetti Westerns. His short cinematographic history can be enclosed in nine years of Italo-Spain co-productions such as "More Dollars for the MacGregors" , ¨Winchester justice¨,"Pistol for a Hundred Coffins", ¨The man who killed Billy the Kid¨ , ¨Fury of Johnny Kid¨ and several others . Rough Guy Madison is good as leader of the motley pack together thwart the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast with special mention to Philippe Hersent , Pierre Richard , John Bartha and Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia as Navy officer , all of them habitual secondary players in multiple Italian films and mostly playing brief interventions . Atmospheric and functional musical score and mediocre cinematography in Eastmancolor filmed by Fausto Rossi , being necessary an urgent remastering because the film copy is washed out . This is a wartime typical vehicle and into the ¨warlike commando genre¨ , in USA style which also belong the American classics as : ¨Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich) ¨ Where eagles dare(Brian G. Hutton) and Kelly's heroes(Hutton ), Tobruk (Arthur Hiller), Devil's Brigade (Andrew V McLagen) and many others .
The film is middling directed by Alfonso Brescia . He began directing muscle-men epics as "The Conqueror of Atlantis" ; ¨ The magnificent gladiator¨, ¨La Rivolta dei Pretoriani¨. After that , he continued with Spaghetti Western as ¨Winchester Bill¨ , ¨Ley Del Colt¨ , ¨I Giorni Della Violenza¨ , Adventure as ¨Zanna Bianca¨, ¨Amazons against Supermen¨ and warlike movie as ¨Objetivo Rommel¨ , ¨Misiones Ardientes¨ and this ¨Hell in Normandy¨. Rating : Average but entertaining .
