This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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.

Using the chaos of the Dunkirk evacuation as a cover, several German agents take on the identities of English soldiers in order to gain access to England and take out the radar installations. One Captain aware of the ruse has to track the men down and stop them before the Germans can bomb England into surrendering.Good, if a bit long, spy story set in London. there are several action set pieces that are quite good, though they suffer a great deal in pan and scan because of the use of multiple images. (Oh how this film cries out for a good letterbox edition.) This is the sort of film that grabs you from the first couple of moments and then drags you along at its conclusion. I really liked this and probably should have rated it higher than 6 but I think the viewing experience was really hindered by a lack of widescreen.Worth searching out, especially if you can find a wide screen copy.

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.

Here we have, yes, another Italian war movie from the early 1970s. This one features a half-decent international cast and a slew of decent action sequences.As the British evacuate Dunkirk, several German saboteurs infiltrate their forces. They kill a squad of English troops and take their ID tags. Frederick Stafford, the platoon leader, finds the dead men and realizes their IDs are missing. Upon returning to England, he heads efforts to locate the saboteurs before they can blow up radar installations along the coast.The film boasts a good international cast: Frederick Stafford, though dubbed, is pretty good as the Hungarian-English Captain. Van Johnson does a corny bit as an English Air Marshall and even participates in a few aerial battles. Francisco Rabal is very good as the German officer who befriends Stafford; Stafford realizes who he REALLY is and must face him during the bone-shattering climax. Hottie Ida Galli turns in a good performance as Stafford's girlfriend. I must also note the presence of Luigi Pistilli as the German group leader. The man was marvelous in the Leone westerns and is very good here as well.The battle sequences range from superb to incredibly corny. The dogfights involve live action, miniatures, and poorly edited black and white stock footage. The ground combat scenes are often confusing -- but exciting -- since the British and German infiltrators wear the same uniforms. Great cinematography -- this appears to be filmed on location in England is is done well. The music score is typical adventure type stuff but does the job. Much of the combat footage found itself recycled in Umberto Lenzi's FROM HELL TO VICTORY in 1979.Overall, for a good cast and great direction by Enzo Castellari, I give it a 7/10.