The British High Command finds itself in the thick of a huge dilemma when it is realized that they have long been infiltrated by spies from a German intelligence group. This all happens during the preliminary stages of the Battle of Britain.
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Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Very best movie i ever watch
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
If you are looking for an accurate and gripping war film then this probably wont be the film for you.But if your looking for a drama filled,exiting film then this is the film for you. it is about a couple of undercover Germans who get to England from Dunkirk disguised as British solders.Their mission is to infiltrate and sabotage British radars which are detecting German aircraft and stopping them from attacking England. the German agents get found out and stopped by an English commander who befriended one of the German agents.The plot is not the reason why this film is so weird it is the combat and the way it is all displayed making it so bad. it begins with some British soldiers defending a position which is attacked by German tanks which are quite clearly not from world war 2 later on in the film there are dog fights between messerschmitt and spitfires (fighters) but the actual planes that are used were messerschmitts as spitfires and spitfires as messerschmitts making it very confusing and not very accurate. the fighting and the special effects are not that good either. i found this film very disappointing i am very fond of war films but i wont recommend this war film
Enzo Castellari strikes again with a distinctly sixties flavoured war film starring Luigi Pistilli, Francisco Rabal, and some guy named Van Johnston. You know what to expect from our Enzo, right? Loads of action, flashy camera-work, no boring parts, and everything is alright with the world. This time, instead of the Americans heading through enemy territory in Inglorious B*stards, we've got Gerry taking the fight to Blighty. The Germans use the Dunkirk evacuations to sneak some troops into England, in order to destroy the British Army's radar equipment, led by Luigi Pistilli and Franciso Rabal, who, in disguise, quickly makes friend with dashing Hungarian (?) officer Van Johnston. Van's no fool, though - he knows something's amiss as he's just found a pile of dead British soldiers with their ID missing. The Germans are all jacked up after gaining France and now preparing to invade Britain (this is all leading up to the Battle of Britain), and as Van is trying to be taken seriously with his spy theory (you'd think they would have taken it seriously, but we're talking Italian movies here so just let it slide), the German spies are conspiring together to hit the radar stations, with their big prize in sight: The radar command centre. Can Van, some Air Marshall guy, his cockney sidekick who says 'arse' a lot, and some French pilots stop them in time? Although tame by later Enzo films (Bronx Warriors, The Big Racket etc), in this particular film he seems to have a very large budget to work with. Check out the scenes in Dunkirk! There's plenty of action here, from dogfights to gun battles between the British and Germans (the number of which who have actually sneaked into the UK is kept vague, which makes sense in respect to the action). Some stock footage, clever model work, and our Enzo goes berserk with the split screen, as well as filming scenes from the most unusual angles. Po-faced military fact people will have an aneurysm upon viewing this film, but who cares about that? I just want to be entertained after a hard day's work. Both Pistilli (The Devil's Obsession) and Francisco Rabal (Nightmare City) hold their own here. Van Johnston's a bit stiff though. Good old Enzo hasn't let me down yet.
This is a surprisingly elaborate war film which tackles the same events as the big-budgeted BATTLE OF Britain (1969), but from an entirely different perspective - the infiltration of German spies into London prior to the Luftwaffe's aerial attack in order to destroy the RAF's infallible radar system, and British Captain Frederick Stafford's efforts to root them out in time.While the generally slick presentation belies the modest funds that were obviously available, the overall achievement is still hurt by too much concession to elements particular to lowbrow film-making and especially some grating comic relief (culminating in a brawl between British and French soldiers) provided by Renzo Palmer - but there's also a baffling over-emphasis on the heroics of a French air ace (who's not even a major character!), as well as obviously choreographed stuntwork...not to mention the fact that every revelation in unmasking the Nazi plot is left to the ingenuity of one man, which makes one wonder just what would have become of Great Britain if Stafford hadn't been there!! Besides, even if I was watching the film in Italian, the fact that none of the cast is British or German is inescapable - which certainly doesn't award it any marks for authenticity! Castellari's often flashy direction doesn't work either: shooting from odd angles (through a bullet hole in a helmet, through a pair of clasped hands or through a loudspeaker!) and utilizing distracting editorial techniques, such as his playful use of the split-screen - which is partially lost anyway, given that the aspect ratio on the print I watched has been changed from the original 2.35:1 to 1.85:1! The action-packed film (with a couple of romances thrown in for good measure) is enjoyable in itself but, even if flawed, BATTLE OF Britain is clearly superior (the familiar Euro-Cult faces here are no match for the roster of Britsh stars which populate that film!) - though they did engage the services of Bunuel regular Francisco Rabal (as a conscientious German) and American Van Johnson(!) as the British RAF officer in charge of the country's defense (who, in the final decisive action, takes to the skies himself to repel the invading Nazi forces).
If the spectator is able to abstract from the "historical" collocation of the plot, and is willing to spend some time watching an Italian action B movie of the seventies, it may prove a passable distraction. If compared with the majority of similar Italian efforts, one could even term it a masterpiece. The story evolves at a good pace and isn't marred by too many sentimental diversions, the action scenes are a bit naive but enjoyable. On the other hand, from the point of view of historical correctness or even sheer plausibility, the movie is really ludicrous (and, for some, this can be enjoyable, too!). The very idea of German spies taking and maintaining the identity of British soldiers seems to be improbable: soldiers must return to their units, where there will be a lot of people able to recognize them; let alone when some of them pose as members of specialized radar corps. Every lover of war aircraft will laugh her/his head off: Messerschmitts (or similar fighters) confused with Spitfires, Stukas with straight wings... But the top is reached, IMHO, when Sir Winston Churchill, after the first German bombardment of London, announces through the BBC an imminent retaliation against Berlin, that even takes place! I can't help thinking of F.D. Roosevelt announcing Doolittle's plan in advance! All in all, there is perhaps more historical truth in those Italian mythological pastiches featuring Hercules, Samson or the local "Maciste" allied of fighting each other. If it had been a "peplum" movie, too, my evaluation would have been higher.