Nur drei kamen durch

I agree with all of the other comments about this sorry movie. But I was watching it with an eye to accuracy. There were a couple of very outstanding goofs! There is a scene during the early occupation of France by Germany where a German soldier is telling an American woman that she cannot leave France. Why? Because today is December the 8th, and we are at war with America, he told her.

Wrong! Germany did not declare war on America until December 11. (Historical footnote: Germany never declared war on any country it invaded. The one nation it declared war against, the US, it never invaded!)

Later in the film during the sabotage raid on the munitions factory in Holland, a bomber was supposed to keep the Germans busy by dropping bombs all around the area. Funny thing, though, the plane never had a bomb bay door open, but the bombs kept falling anyway. I'm no expert on types of planes, but was there a two engine bomber with only a two man crew?

Mediocre Italian/French/Spanish warlike with big name actors and regularly staged battles , dealing with a group of different nationalities vow to meet each year , at the same date , but WWII interrupts their lives . This spectacular movie starts on August 24, 1939, at a small French Cafe , six friends (George Peppard as Brett Rosson , George Hamilton as Maurice Bernard , Horst Buchholz as Jürgen Dietrich , Anny Duperey as Fabienne , Jean-Pierre Cassel as Dick and Sam Wanamaker as Ray) of various nationalities are about to go their separate ways , they vow to reunite on that day each year at the cafe , though it is not always possible . And when the war breaks out , the events go awry . They all go join the war for their countries and one of them is German (Horst Buchholz) and Fabienne (Anny Duperey) begins working with the French resistance , joining forces with Partisans (Lambert Wilson) , one becomes a flier (Jean Pierre Cassel) and two others are just simple officers-in-command . An upright officer named Rosson incarnated by George Peppard is assigned to OSS and his son (Ray Lovelock) takes the ranks as a soldier in special operations along with Maurice Bernard (George Hamilton) . After the action is placed on several locations . As in France Maurice/George Hamilton and Jim Rosson/Ray Lovelock whose mission to destroy a German bridge before it's used against the Allied forces . Follow the feats about Partisans and a squadron attacking German positions . Meantime Rosson/Peppard must neutralize a German installation where Nazis hide combustible for V2 rockets .

This is a regularly conceived WWII with action filled, , character drama and exciting battles , but nothing special . Packs inaccurate details and an extremely talented though wasted casting make this one of all-star-cast European epic productions though failed . The film contains news-reel documentary , stock-shots vignettes and miniatures , however lost continuity with several cuts and zooms. Spectacular battles and fights , including miniaturized tanks and planes , whose footage is taken from ¨Battle of commands¨ also by Umberto Lenzi , and The Dirty Heroes by Alberto De Martino and Eagles over London by Enzo G Castell. The battle scenes shot in Hoyo De Manzanares , Spain , where in the 60s and 70s , along with Almeria location , were filmed a lot of Western . This average movie contains a prestigious cast as George Peppard , Sam Wanamaker , Jean Pierre Cassel , George Hamilton , Capucine , though really wasted . Furthermome , numerous Italian/Spanish/French secondaries in brief interventions such as as May Heatherly ,Howard Vernon , Ritza Brown , Franco Fantasia and Antonio Mayans . Appropriate cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine , though being necessary a right remastering , this magnificent cameraman has been making a prestigious career as Pedro Almodovar's usual photographer such as The skin I live in , Volver , Bad education and Women on the verge of a Nervous breakdown . Emotive as well as functional musical score by Riz Ortalani .The tale produced by Jose Frade is middling directed by Umbert Lenzi, he used the pseudonym Hank Milestone and Humphrey Logan. He's an expert on wartime genre such as he proved in ¨ Desert commandos , Battle of commandos and Bridge to hell .

Not that George Peppard and George Hamilton were any kind of buddy duo in the way Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas were, but they did do two well received films together, The Victors and Home from the Hill. But for a reunion film it would have been nice if they had gotten something better than this.

In fact this is a reunion film of a bunch of players who seem to hit the heights of their careers around the beginning of the Kennedy years. Peppard, Hamilton, Capucine. Horst Bucholtz all were at their respective peaks around 1961. None of them ever really reached any kind of screen immortality and with only Hamilton left among them were not likely to see another reunion film.

Thankfully not another one like Contro 4 Bandiere. It's a cobbled together film of action sequences from other products and newsreels. The plot has six friends of varying background in Paris having good times a week before the start of World War II. They pledge to see each other at that Paris cafe every year, but war does intervene and they're all not on the same side.

Some make it, some don't and if you're interested to see who shows up then watch Contro 4 Bandiere.

There is something deeply anachronistic and oddly revealing about this 1979 film, one of those late attempts at cinematic patchwork that stumbles under the weight of its own ambitions and yet, paradoxically, exposes much about the mechanics of European co-productions in the waning years of the Cold War. Ostensibly a sweeping WWII saga, it aims for grandeur while relying heavily on recycled narrative devices, cross-national casting, and even the direct reuse of visuals-giving it the appearance of scale while it operates within the economic constraints and aesthetic formulas of spaghetti war cinema.

This film's core weaknesses can be summarized in four major flaws that severely undermine its potential: cinematography, casting, narrative, and props.

Technically, the cinematography is notably uneven and disjointed. While there are moments of genuine visual tension-such as the well-staged shootout atop the Eiffel Tower-these stand out precisely because much of the rest of the film is plagued by incoherent and patchy visual storytelling. The narrative flow is balbuceante, or stammering, with incoherent scene transitions and a lack of consistent visual language. Much of the battle footage is actually stolen from earlier productions, awkwardly inserted into the film, creating an inconsistent texture and tone. This lack of homogeneity in the cinematography prevents the film from establishing a solid atmosphere or emotional rhythm, robbing it of immersive power.

Casting, although filled with familiar faces from the previous generation of European and American cinema, is a case of miscasting and underutilization. The director apparently relied on name recognition rather than suitability for the roles. George Peppard, who delivers one of the more controlled performances, still does not elevate a character that is thinly written. George Hamilton's portrayal, by contrast, veers towards caricature, hinting at a performance more interested in charm than complexity. Horst Buchholz's character arc, involving a sudden and poorly motivated ideological transformation, is especially difficult to swallow and suggests that the casting choice did not fully match the psychological depth required. This misalignment between actor and role leaves the ensemble looking disconnected rather than cohesive, detracting from any emotional engagement.

Narrative is perhaps the film's greatest shortcoming. It attempts to juggle too many subplots and emotional registers simultaneously, resulting in a disjointed story that never coheres into a meaningful whole. The film tries to explore the multifaceted impact of WWII through six friends from different nations, but these attempts feel superficial. There is no real psychological depth, either at the individual character level or within the broader thematic framework. Instead, the narrative flits from one vignette to another without fully committing to character development or moral complexity. This scattering of focus results in a story that is both cluttered and shallow-ambitious yet ultimately hollow.

Props and historical details constitute the fourth glaring flaw. Throughout the film, anachronisms and inaccuracies abound: tanks and aircraft that never coexisted, uniforms that do not correspond to the correct units or time periods, and military roles that shift inexplicably. The American character, for example, inexplicably shifts from OSS officer to commando to airborne trooper without logical narrative justification. Similarly, the German character oscillates from colonel to tank commander during battle sequences with no sense of military hierarchy or coherence. These inconsistencies not only break the illusion of historical authenticity but also disrupt the viewer's suspension of disbelief, highlighting the film's patchwork nature.

Musically, the score by Riz Ortolani provides a functional but uninspired accompaniment. While not detrimental, it lacks memorable themes or emotional weight, merely underscoring the on-screen events in a generic manner. The music annotates rather than enriches.

Placed in the context of late 1970s European war cinema, this film illustrates the transitional phase where spaghetti war films, once more visceral and ideologically charged, had become increasingly formulaic and market-driven. It borrows heavily from successful Hollywood epics like Midway (1976) and ensemble war dramas such as A Bridge Too Far (1977), yet it lacks their narrative coherence and production values. The film's multinational cast and sprawling narrative reflect a desire to appeal internationally, but this ambition is undercut by the four major flaws outlined above, resulting in a product that feels neither fully European nor Hollywood-an uneasy hybrid that ultimately fails to satisfy.

Interestingly, when compared with the director's previous work, this film shows a degree of restraint in direction, perhaps an attempt to disguise its spaghetti war roots. Yet, beneath this surface lies the familiar formula: recycled storylines, repeated action set pieces, and patchwork visuals lifted from earlier productions. The film's structural and technical shortcomings are a revealing testament to the economic and aesthetic pressures shaping European genre cinema at the time.

Though it stumbles at every turn, the film retains a nostalgic watchability. It moves like an epic, sounds like an epic, and acts like an epic, without ever becoming one. The uneven cinematography, miscast ensemble, fractured narrative, and glaring prop errors together form a series of fundamental flaws that prevent the film from rising beyond a middling, forgettable entry in the WWII war subgenre.

Apart from the German and Allied uniforms in this film, there's not much else to it. I mean, come on, they painted German markings on British spitfires and funnily enough the Brits looked like they were flying Curtis fighters (US-made). And the whole sequencing of the air battles looked so fake, as if from a 1930s film. And some of the air shots looked like they were done in a studio with arm-sized aircraft models!! Did anyone remember the tank battle as well at the end. The 'German' Panzers were actually American Patton tanks, built around the late 40s. It just looked so amateurish and cheap when you compare it to a film like a Bridge too Far, made ten years earlier (and which I concede had a much bigger budget). I mean, why bother with air and tank battles when you can't even make them look half realistic? The other thing i noticed was that all the explosions that were supposed to be stopping the 'Panzers' actually exploded beside or in front of the tanks, and yet the tank would come to a grinding halt!! Ridiculous.

But I'll admit the military action not involving tanks and aircraft looked decent enough (such as when Peppard infiltrates enemy installations to plant explosives, etc.) But overall the acting was wooden, mainly from the main actors. The only good performance was from George Hamilton who played 'Maurice', a French commando. Peppard himself was ok, but he did have a better acting scope than this which was not utilised.

Overall, 3/10.