Os Comandos de Churchill

CHURCHILL'S LEOPARDS - great title, by the way - is yet another addition to the wave of WW2 flicks that emerged from Italy in the late 1960s after the initial enthusiasm for the spaghetti western genre had run dry. It's a very familiar tale about a group of soldiers on a mission to blow up a dam in Nazi-occupied France.

What follows is routine in the extreme, a film with only a handful of memorable moments (like the bit where a crowd of collaborators are about to be executed, an exercise in tension). The action is sparse and when it comes it's a bit of a disappointment, but then director Maurizio Pradeaux had only made a couple of films previously so he was hardly a seasoned expert behind the camera.

The most interesting thing about the film is the cast. American strongman Richard Harrison plays the dual role of a Nazi officer and his lookalike who's brought in to help the team, while Klaus Kinski is the nasty Nazi bad guy. Giacomo Rossi-Stuart has a supporting role as another hero, while Euro crumpet Helga Line shows up (and is welcome) and Spanish actor Frank Brana (RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD) has a cameo.

The mission: search out and destroy a radio station in Normandy before the D-Day invasion.

The volunteer commandos, misfits from the American army do not care how its done and will run over anyone who gets in their way.

Hasn't this been done a thousand times?

And isn't it STILL being done?

The music is weird.

The direction is spotty.

Over all not really a good movie.

Makes me wonder when the market fell out for spaghetti films that have one or two known American actors.

A routine Italian low budget war action movie about English dam busters working in occupied France. Best feature in the film is, obviously, the great Klaus Kinski whose SS captain brings a sinister edge to the final battle.

All in all an interesting film that suffers from the same problem than most of its peers: lack of ambition. The only scene that stands out is the execution of the resistance leader (by Kinski's SS men), which makes one wonder why the rest of the film wasn't made with similar effort.

This is a decent example of the Italian brand of war movies which, although they never quite reached the artistic heights or levels of influence which their peplums, giallos or Spaghetti Westerns had, frequently offer an offbeat, mildly diverting perspective on familiar historical events. This one here stars Richard Harrison (as an English agent posing as his dead German officer twin brother!) and Klaus Kinski as a sadistic SS official; the fetching female parts (on both sides of the fence, naturally) are personified by Pilar Velazquez and Helga Line', while Giacomo Rossi Stuart and Antonio Casas have key roles to play within the Resistance lines. There are no overwhelmingly spectacular action set-pieces or jaw-droppingly clever plot twists to speak of, but I found this to be an unassuming and adequately handled time-passer which, unlike some of its Italian war film contemporaries, does not heavily feature Hollywood has-beens in an attempt to pass for one of their productions and is, in any case, mercifully short.

A tough team carries out a relentless assignment plenty of thrilling action , risked adventures and hazardous feats . Spaghetti/War film about a misfit outfit led by Richard Harrison who carry out a suicide mission behind enemy lines . The mission: search out and destroy a dam in Normandy before the D-Day invasion . The movie is set during World War II in the days just prior to the D-Day invasion. A special parachute unit is sent to destroy a German dam installation . A group of two-fisted soldiers formed by various experts are drafted to go on a near-suicide mission and attempt to destroy it . The volunteer commandos, misfits from the American army do not care how its done and will run over anyone who gets in their way . ¨Commando attack¨ or ¨Curchill's leopards¨ is an entertaining film with Richard Harrison as a stiff officer posing as a Nazi lieutenant , his true brother , as his father is British and his mother is German . Richard Harrison leading a group of motley and eclectic soldiers for a dangerous assault on strongly armored Nazi position . In the hands of hardboiled director Maurizio Pradeaux , and a tough-as-leather cast , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring wartime flick . Harrison's mission is two-fold and in violent and cynical style ; first turn his G.I.s into a valiant fighting unit , being parachuted Major Powell , Giacomo Rossi-Stuart , then turn loose on a French location in Normandy where they run into partisans -such as Pilar Velazquez , Frank Braña and Antonio Casas- , helps them penetrate behind enemy lines . The first half of the film allows the colorful cast of character actors to have their fun as they get their tails whipped into shape and develop shaky relationship with their leader . The final part is all action , as the brave commando wreak havoc and then run for their lives . The dangerous mission includes a selected group formed by a motley and varied squadron played by usual of Italian B-series . This is a rugged WWII actioner concerning about an experienced officer , he's assigned by Military staff to lead a group of valiant G.I.s , as they pull off a extremely risked assignment called ¨Operation Over Edge¨ . At the end they must participate in the suicidal mission behind the enemy lines , to wipe the German group by means of a violent assault over a strongly protected position and put an explosive rocket into dam .

Richard Harrison in a double role as Lt. Richard Benson / Lt. Hans Müller assumes the character of commando leader along with Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Major Powell in this ordinary wartime movie regularly directed by Maurizio Pradeaux . This moving film packs frantic thrills , perilous adventures , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action and violence . The noisy action is uniformly well-made , especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes on the dam , including some spectacular shootouts , firing and bombing . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Harrison into his varied group , the film is full of feats , shots and thrills though contains excessive dialog and a lot of night scenes . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Richard Harrison is good in his usual tough role , here playing the unshakable Lt. Richard Benson . Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as rough Major is fine as officer of the motley pack together thwart the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast full of familiar faces as Spanish actors such as Pilar Velazquez , Antonio Casas , Helga Line , Frank Braña as Italian players such as Máximo Righi , Goffredo Unger and many others ; all of them habitual secondary players in multiple Italian/Spanish films and mostly playing brief interventions . Atmospheric and functional musical score by Franco Salina and aceptable cinematography in Eastmancolor filmed by Miguel Fernández Mila on locations in La Pedriza , Manzanares del Real , Madrid ; being necessary an urgent remastering because the film copy is washed out . This is a wartime typical vehicle and into the ¨warlike commando genre¨ , in USA style which also belong the American classics as : ¨Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich) ¨ Where eagles dare¨ (Brian G. Hutton) , ¨Kelly's heroes (Hutton ) , ¨Tobruk¨ (Arthur Hiller) , ¨Devil's Brigade¨ (Andrew V McLagen) and many others .

The movie was produced in enough budget by Ricardo Sanz who financed various Paella Western such as "My Horse, My Gun, Your Widow" , ¨4 Implacables¨ , ¨Bala Marcada¨ and "I'll Kill Him and Return Alone" .The film was professionally directed by Maurizio Pradeaux and some moments he gets a competent Italian war actioner . ¨Commando attack¨ or ¨Churchill's leopards¨ belongs to Spaghetti War sub-genre , whose maxim representatives are the followings filmmakers : Umberto Lenzi with ¨Battle of commandos¨ ,¨Desert commandos¨ , ¨Battle force¨ , Leon Klimovsky with ¨June 44 , Normandy¨, "Hell's Brigade: The Final Assault", "The Legion of No Return" ¨ , Alfonso Brescia with ¨Objective : Rommel¨ , ¨Misiones Ardientes¨ , ¨Hell in Normandy¨ , Albert De Martino with ¨Dirty heroes¨, Jose Luis Merino with ¨Hell commandos¨ , Armando Crispino with ¨Commandos¨ and Robert Bianchi Montero with ¨36 hours of hell¨ . ¨Churchill's leopards¨ rating 5'5/10 : Average but entertaining .