Quei dannati giorni dell'odio e dell'inferno

Good Lord, I can't recall ever coming across a movie so unique and so promising that turned out to be so unbelievably bad! HELL IN THE AEGEAN is easily one of the rarest Italian war movies out there -- and that's probably because nobody ever watched it when it premiered in 1973!

Roughly the first half of the film chronicles the journey of a ship carrying the gold bullion of Crete across the Aegean Sea. The second half focuses on one of the ships crew, who must escort the gold across German-infested land to where a British ship is waiting.

I can't really begin to name all the things that are wrong with this movie. I might as well start at the beginning. The one thing I really hated about this movie was the lack of familiar actors. I'll admit the only Fernando Sancho movie I've seen is the spaghetti western HATE FOR HATE, and he was the ONLY guy I recognized in the whole stinkin' movie.

The combat scenes are pretty low-budget and actually quite boring. They feature a few extras but are comprised mostly of old black and white WW2 stock footage -- which is pretty badly spliced in. It's very reminiscent of EAGLES OVER _LONDON only Castellari only did this once or twice in that film. The death scenes feature actors falling over and writhing for several seconds while moaning and screaming. It's all pretty over-acted and unconvincing.

There are lots of plot holes, especially one very annoying subplot about a Greek refugee who turns out to be a guerrilla. I can't really get into this, but you'll see what I mean if you watch the film. There are many characters who are introduced right off the bat and followed for several minutes -- and then done away with. There are also lots of important characters who are introduced so late in the proceedings that one can't indentify with them.

The music is pretty dull stuff. The one good thing about the film is the scenery: this is almost as beautiful and breathtaking as THE GUNS OF NAVARONE.

I saw this as a dub from a Chinese VCD. It's presented full screen with annoying obligatory Chinese subtitles. Unfortunately only some of the lengthy German scenes have been dubbed in English. But it was a miracle I found this to begin with as it's pretty rare. So, oh well, I guess I can put up with some German audio and Chinese subtitles. It's not a big deal since I'll probably never watch it again.

Overall, this is a dismal, boring and poorly put together movie. Avoid it at all costs!

The picture is set during Battle of Greece and Crete Battle in 1941 , after the fall of the mainland and then the Germans entered Athens . These battles were fought during World War II on Greece and the Greek island of Crete . A group formed by Captain Andreadis (Stephanos Stratigos) , British secret agent Lt. Bob Tucker (Paolo Casella as Paul Sullivan) accompanied by a journalist , Anna Gordon (Maria Pia Conte) , are assigned by the High Command to carry out a dangerous mission to transport the gold Bank of Greece in the Middle East to first stop the homeland of Crete . As they have to carry out the gold reserves to England in a disguised Red Cross ship . Then , on the ship appears a stowaway called Anthony Fletcher (Giorgos Tzortzis) , and , subsequently , the team is betrayed by a traitor . Despite the obstacles they find on their way , they arrange to reach the island , where are helped by a sympathetic partisan (Fernando Sancho) along with his family to cross the path of Armenians and simulating they are transporting sanitarian material . There the Germans have already begun their attacks . It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany began an airborne invasion of Crete . Greek forces and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island . British forces had initially garrisoned Crete (in the film commanded by high official Freiber : Ángel del Pozo) when the Italians attacked Greece on 28 October 1940, enabling the Greek government to employ the Fifth Cretan Division in the mainland campaign . The Italians were repulsed, but the subsequent German invasion of April 1941 (Operation Marita), succeeded in overrunning mainland Greece . After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures , Allied tactical hesitation and German offensive operations, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island . Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. Over half were evacuated by the Royal Navy ; the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance . Either way, every secret, Greeks and British soldiers will try to transfer the gold to Greek destroyer South of Crete . The existence of a secret agent will not be perceived as information about the company would reach the enemy so that business and the lives of Greek fighters put at risk . The Battle of Crete was the first battle where German paratroops were used en masse, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence from the decrypted German messages from the Enigma machine and the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population . Due to the heavy casualties suffered by the paratroopers, Adolf Hitler forbade further large-scale airborne operations. In contrast, the Allies were impressed by the potential of paratroopers and started to form both airborne assault and airfield defense regiments .

This passable wartime picture contains high-powered action-packed , busy shootouts , spectacular parachuting , stock-shots , noisy explosions , mass slaughter with violent firing squad and bustling battles in medium budget . It presents the historic events of hokey and rowdy manner but it does so fascinatingly entertaining , being better than expected . Fairly decent acting by the mostly Greek stars , this one resulted to be an acceptable and exciting WWII actioner , though mediocre . All in all, it's an ordinary piece of warlike fluff . Although average , it has good battle footage , functional acting , breathtaking scenes which help offset a sometimes far-fetched plot , but suffers on television, as the small screen damages its really spectacular images . Highlighted by a stirring and thrilling climax . Though the cast is unknown , it appears some familiar Spanish faces such as Fernando Sancho and Angel Del Pozo , both of them played lots of Spaghetti/Paella Western . Atmospheric and thrilling musical score by Enrique Escobar . Evocative cinematography by Julio Perez De Rozas ,though a perfect remastering is necessary . Including colorful exteriors from Crete , similarly to ¨Guns of Navarone¨ and gorgeous caves . Being decently written and produced by prolific Ignacio F. Iquino from production company ¨IFI¨ . The motion picture was regularly directed by Siro Marcellini and Vasilis Georgiadis . Marcellini , who often used pseudonym Omar Hopkins , was a nice craftsman who directed various Westerns such as ¨Lola Colt¨ , "The Man of the Accursed Valley" but his speciality was the adventure genre such as "The Beast of Babylon Against the Son of Hercules" , I Cavalieri del Diablo¨, "The Two Rivals" and "The Secret Mark of D'Artagnan" .

I really have no idea of what the Italian or Spanish versions of this film look like. But the Greek one doesn't look that bad and it appears unmistakably at least once a year in the Greek TV, during the anniversaries of the battle of Crete or the German or Italian invasions.

The action is of theatrical rather than cinematographic kind and fails to satisfy the international public, used to the spectacular "realism" of the Hollywood flicks.

Unknown outside the borders, the actors were very well known in Greece at the time (some of them still are today) and for a Greek movie it was not that cheep. Trying to turn it into an international production didn't work that well and it is clearly distinct among Greek war movies for that.

True to the spirit of the time (a military dictatorship was running the country) it tries to glorify the allied struggle against Nazism, underline the usually forgotten Greek factor in the WWII and whisper accusations about the failure of the anyway doomed Greek defense against the German invasion.

I guess the strong point of the Greek cinema was hilarious cheep comedies and human dramas rather than imitations of war epics.