Testa di sbarco per otto implacabili

Just before the D-Day invasion, a group of American paratroopers (led by Guy Madison) team-up with an American lieutenant impersonating a German officer (Peter Lee Lawrence) and a resistant fighter (Erika Blanc) to destroy a bunker on Omaha Beach with the controls of a device that would burn alive Allies in the water.

An Italian/French production, "Hell in Normandy" (1968) is titled "landing head for eight relentless" in Italian and "beachhead for relentless eight" in French (translated, naturally). There's some quality action and the Italian interpretation of American soldiers is entertaining. Meanwhile, redhead Erika Blanc spices things up as the French farm lass (she was 25 during shooting). The way her aged father is desperate to comply with the occupying troops of Hitler is an interesting touch.

On the dubious side, the American fatigues appear to be mid-60's Italian NATO uniforms with the wrong camouflage patterns and helmets, but passable for non-sticklers, I reckon. Meanwhile the German "secret weapon" and the Allied operation to destroy it smacks more of James Bond than history. Also, the Italian locations are a far cry from Normandy landscapes, but I've seen far worse geographical substitutions.

At the end of the day, this is comparable to 60's WW2 flicks, like "Battle of the Bulge" and "Anzio," just on a lower budget and from an Italish perspective.

The film runs 1 hour, 30 minutes.

GRADE: B-/C+

A bunker on Omaha beach presents a serious problem for the planning of D-day, and a few daredevil agents are sent out to investigate it to prepare for its demolition. Some paratroopers are sent in time for D-day to accomplish the operation, when D-day is postponed one day, while the paratroopers already have jumped and are lost behind German lines without support. Naturally, they go ahead with the operation anyway, led by Guy Madison in German officer's uniform, who is very elefgant in it. The film is full of action, there is nothing wrong with the excitement and suspense, but the direction seems a bit unprofessional at times. You have to remember that this is an Italian version of the D-day hullabaloo, you could call the film "D-day Italian style", and naturally the Germans are as wicked and naughty as ever, real monsters, with one notable exception. The film is perhaps enough for an evening's entertainment but blows over like so many other ordinary war action reels without leaving anything behind except perhaps a relief that it's over.

The enjoyably frantic 'Hell in Normandy' is a boisterously fun Italo-French WW2 actioner from infamous exploitation director Alfonso Brescia. While clearly under-budgeted, he effectively utilizes some authentic looking locations, and is blessed with a cracking cast, namely B-cult heroes Guy Madison, Peter Lee Lawrence and the positively incandescent heavenly body Erika Blanc! While Brescia is, perhaps, better known for unleashing his torrid grindhouse duo of 'The Beast in Space' and Sci-schlock disasterpiece 'Star Odyssey' on a wholly unprepared world, happily, Brescia also proves himself a capable B-Action filmmaker, jollying things along at a bracing pace, ably constructing some terse interludes, plus orchestrating a rowdy number of bullet-shredded exchanges as the daring squad's Gung-ho 'Suicide Mission' comes to a satisfyingly explosive climax! 'Hell in Normandy' is a rumbustious, hell-for-leather, switch the brain off for 90 minutes WW2 yarn that gives the luminous, flame-haired Euro-starlet Erika Blanc a chance to shine as heroic resistance fighter Denise.

Poor Guy Madison was reduced to picking up "coffee and dough-nut" money making second rate Itailian stinkers during the 1960s and early 1970s. I saw this film in Italy and it was the non-dubbed version. Surpringly, I thought Guy came across very well dubbed in! I'm joking! Seriously, Guy looked stiff and unhappy here. He plays a Captain in the U.S. Army who leads a group of doomed paratroopers on a "deadly" mission. Nothing much to the whole thing. Nice uniforms, some stock black and white film on World War II, a bit of action, and really nothing else. If you look hard enough, you can find "cult" actor William Conroy playing a German soldier in yet another of his countless uncredited roles in Italian made 1960s films.

The king of average, mediocre Italian action movies, Alfonso Brescia, does his best work in this action-packed, anti-war commando story, released in 1967. "Hell in Normandy" may not be the best of a slew of Italian "commando" movies, but it's somewhere near the top of the pile, simply because Brescia manages to pack so much into a 90-minute running time.

American commandos, led by Captain Murphy (Guy Madison), parachute into occupied Normandy, where Lt. Strobel (Peter Lee Lawrence), a German spy, helps them penetrate a flamethrower installations which threatens the landings on Omaha Beach. Murphy is skeptical of his mission's practicality, but Strobel is fanatically dedicated to destroying the base, and the two butt heads several times before the film's bullet-ridden climax.

This was an Italian-French co-production, and was quite possibly shot in France – this is noticeable in the first few shots. For once, an Italian war films opens with the landscape actually looking like the country it represents. I can't count the times I've seen semi-arid climates and rock quarries passed off for "southern France", so Brescia's choice of shooting locations earns him major points in my book. The movie looks just as real throughout – uniforms, weapons, vehicles and sets all look very authentic. Many Italian directors, such as Leon Klimovsky and Umberto Lenzi, disregarded accuracy in favor of action, and that damaged their credibility. Here, one can respect the time and money Brescia puts into making his film look credible.

This was Guy Madison's first Italian war movie, and he hasn't grown comfortable yet in a part which he would eventually own in the genre – he's starred in several similarly-themed films, each helmed by a different director. Man, does this guy get around! That said, he seems a bit unsure of himself as Captain Murphy, quite possibly because the role has its limitations. Murphy is cynical and critical of the way his mission was planned by superiors and how he's been ordered to execute it, but that's about all he gets to say – and he says it so many times that his dialog gets old and worn out very fast.

In direct contrast, Peter Lee Lawrence seems to be enjoying himself as Lt. Strobel, and has plenty of good dialog as well as some physically active scenes to be involved in. From the moment we meet him, Strobel is obsessed with the success of his mission, even if it means killing anyone who gets in his way. But he also has a tender side, demonstrated in his love for the French partisan girl Denise (Erika Blanc), a relationship which never gets the full development it deserves.

Brescia then loads his supporting cast with familiar names and faces, most notably, Max Tarilli ("Hornet's Nest"), an always under-used and under-appreciated actor. Here, Tarilli is a vicious German Corporal who is hot on the trail of Murphy's commandos, and never ceases in his search. It's refreshing to see what talent Tarilli has, and he never appears less than fully convincing as the vicious-Nazi-type. Massimo Carocci, Pierre Richard, Giuseppe Castellano, Luciano Catenacci, Gianni Pulone, and Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia all have small parts, too, which give a necessary boost.

When stacked up against similar films, such as "Where Eagles Dare", "Attack and Retreat" or "Tobruk", this little action story doesn't hold up as well. But Brescia takes his craft seriously, and earnestly tries to make everything look and sound as good as possible given the circumstances. "Hell in Normandy" is a well-meaning war film with a good premise and enough good acting, suspense and violent action to keep it entertaining, even if it is all clichéd.

SGT. SLAUGHTER'S RATING: 3 Bullets