Königstiger vor El Alamein

Italy, along with much of the rest of the world, was into producing lots of cheapo war movies (mostly WW2) during the late-60's. The trend died out with the disillusionment caused by the Vietnam war, as did the popularity of these "gung-ho" war films.

Battle of El Alamein isn't such a film. It's probably the most objective and anti-war film made since ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. While the battle sequences are big and exciting, there's nothing glamorous about fighting this kind of war. The soldiers are all shown as equally miserable, barely eeking out an existence in a network of trenches on the sunbaked deserts of North Africa. While it primarily focuses on the heroics of an Italian division (the real-life Italian army was best known as one of the most poorly-led and low-morale armies at the time), the film doesn't get too preachy and while it villifies no one, only showing how some generals (especially the fictional Schwartz) inevitably swung the battle in their enemy's favor due to their impatience and misguided ideals.

THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN also does a great job of blending fictional characters with nonfictional ones (like Rommel, Montgomery, Von Thoma, and Stumme) in a nonfictional setting. While the battle itself is abridged and perhaps over-simplified to focus on the Italian division, that's perhaps best for the sake of narrative, character development, and making the emotional impact as strong as possible.

Stylistically, the film is done fairly well in late-60's style, with plenty of zoom-lens technique, close-ups, etc. It does drag in spots but only due to the predictability because we KNOW that the axis is gonna lose, but it does a good job keeping the suspense high by showing the Italians taking heavy losses in every engagement. We never know which characters are gonna make it through and which ones aren't.

Despite it's flaws, I doubt a better, larger, or more compelling depiction of the battle of El Alamein shall ever be made.

This isn't a bad WWII adventure, in fact a fair imitation of the big-budget Hollywood films from that vintage; the international cast is second-rate but both Michael Rennie and Robert Hossein cut a serviceable figure as General Montgomery and Field Marshall Rommel respectively - and there's a good performance by Enrico Mario Salerno as an Italian officer of the Bersaglieri.

The film deals with Rommel's famous North African campaign, in which the Nazis were 'aided' by the Italian forces (more precisely, the latter served as a shield to the former, with their largely disheveled armies being deemed disposable). Interestingly, but unsurprisingly, the Fascists are the heroes here (though Frederick Stafford is portrayed as a martinet) while the Allies, i.e. the British, are the villains (at one point, they're even shown massacring a group of unarmed Germans in cold blood) - but, at least, there's one sympathetic member in George Hilton; the Germans stand somewhere in the middle: Rommel is treated as a level-headed strategist who, however, is extremely critical of the Fuehrer's unrealistic orders (and, even if the film is clearly set in 1942, is already seen to be a willing participant in what eventually became the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler). The cast also includes Gerard Herter (who, memorably, had been the aristocratic sharpshooter and Lee Van Cleef's alter-ego in THE BIG GUNDOWN [1966]) as a German officer who doesn't see eye to eye with Rommel.

The action is frequent and well-handled, and there's even a healthy dose of comedy - at least among the Italian lines (which may well have been lost in the English translation!); besides, Carlo Rustichelli's upbeat score is a major asset...and surprisingly - but satisfactorily - the film provides a downbeat ending! I'll be following this with two other Italian war films - Enzo G. Castellari's EAGLES OVER London (1969), also with Stafford, and Sergio Martino's CASABLANCA EXPRESS (1989)...

OK I know, it's a cheesy flick with a low budget, but I really enjoyed it. The Italian tanks coming into the battle was awesome! I always play this game called Panzer General and my favorite moves are trying to amass Italian troops against the Allies just to test my ability. I'm glad the Italians were run by very VERY incompetent Officers because they could have been a real asset (more so) to the Germans. This is the story of an elite Italian Infantry unit (the Bersaglieri). In all, six of the 12 total Bersaglieri regiments fought in North Africa, compiling an excellent combat record. More than once, Bersaglieri units fought to the last man to hold a position while German units ran away. This movie tells of one of those engagements, and the first time I saw it and what armament they had to face a dozen tanks, I was really entertained and so will you! Try to get a decent print though because I was so desperate to see this one time that I bought it on tape and it was horrible, the DVD was really bad but at least it was watchable. It's the only one of it's kind that I've seen although I loved movies like Stalingrad (the BW version) that showed some of the Romanian army's in action. Interesting for war film buffs and recommended.

One of these days the Battles of El Alamein, first and second, will get an epic film like The Longest Day, worthy of the sacrifice of the men who fought it. La Battaglia di El Alamein concentrates on the second battle which comes after Claude Auchinleck was replaced as Eighth Army Commander by Bernard Law Montgomery. English actor Michael Rennie whom I never would have chosen to play Montgomery is the only name the English speaking world will recognize from this cast. Funny thing is that a year earlier Rennie played American Fifth Army commander Mark Clark in The Devil's Brigade and Rennie actually even looks a bit like Clark. In fact I'm not sure his voice was used for Montgomery, it didn't sound like him.

The film is thrown together with some stock footage of other and better war films and it tells the story of El Alamein from the Italian point of view. Poor dubbing doesn't help matters either.

The Italians were there at El Alamein, but it seems as though Mussolini sent his troops in without any armored transport, so when Erwin Rommel orders the retreat of the Axis forces, the Italians had no way to get out of harm's way. Not that the Germans really cared because if that was the case they could fight a rear guard action. Some did and some didn't and this story centers on a small group of soldiers who did not.

As a historical side note La Battaglia di El Alamein does serve a useful purpose. But the film is hardly worthy of the story it tells let alone of the scope of the battle itself.

From the British bulletin:

The opposite resistance from the "Divisione Paracadutisti Folgore" is indeed admirable. The rests of the Italian division Folgore have resisted beyond every limit of the human possibilities.

6450 paratroops, at the end of the battle only 340 survived. Some tanks on this movie looks like after war tanks. 25,000 Germans and Italians had been killed or wounded in the battle and 13,000 Allied troops in the Eighth Army. The glorious Division was destroyed during the 2nd El Alamein Battle. During this episode the V an VI Semoventi 75/18 Groups, and the DI Semoventi 90/53 Group operated under the 'Ariete' Division Command.