Brilliant and touching

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

"The Secret War of Harry Frigg" shows the crisis in which the movie industry in the sixties has been. Stars like Paul Newman were not able to find decent material for films and had to do stuff like this. At that time WWII which had received serious treatment in the fifties was now ripe for spoofs, mostly in connection with the Italian front line because Italian soldiers did not remind people e.g. of concentration camps. Good comedies about wartime are rare ("To be or not to be") and the more distant the war got the more stupid the comedies about war. Watching Newman in the role of Harry Frigg makes me cringe. His character is completely unrealistic and so is the rest of the story. WWII became a playground for selfish soldiers who seemed to have no other problem but to have fun is definitely no fun to me.In this film as in "What did you do in the war, daddy?" the Italians are kind of cute and the Germans are the real enemies. One wonders when the first comedy about 9/11 will come out...

The story is about five World War II Allied Generals who were captured in a Tunisian Turkish bath by the Italians and at once taken to a sumptuous Italian villa that is their prison… The villa is under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ferrucci (Vito Scotti). The five generals cannot agree on an escape plan… General Homer Prentiss (James Gregory) of Army Public Relations decides to enlist the services of Private Frigg (Newman) in arranging the generals' escape… Frigg, it seems, is a rebel and consummate escape artist who lands constantly in the stockade and he might well apply his rare skills to release the generals… Frigg is promoted to Major General, and is sent in to lead them out… But once at the villa, he falls for the beautiful Contessa (Koscina), and keeps delaying the escape…Newman is amusing as the silly officer who must pass himself off as a cultured general who is too modern and cool in his role… If you are looking for a nice comedy, the film is humorous and, as usual, Sylva Koscina is so lovely to look at

This was a fun, light comedy with Paul Newman and a number of other familiar faces (Tom Bosley, James Gregory, Jacques Roux, etc).Newman plays a private promoted to a 2-star general in order to rescue five 1-star generals who have been captured in WWII Italy. There is a haphazard love story that is nonetheless fairly sweet, and several entertaining one-liners that make the movie very enjoyable.Some stereotypes are a bit heavy-handed, but it's all in good fun and not really offensive to anyone, except maybe Nazis. Too bad for them...Probably my favourite movie, although not the best I have ever seen. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Some of the movies I get to see on movie channels that play older movies are well worth the extra few dollars a month to the cable company. This was one of those movies. Not the greatest movie I've ever seen, but very entertaining, funny in a quirky way, well worth a look.