Inferno na Normandia

Spaghetti/War film about a misfit outfit led by Guy Madison who carry out a suicide mission behind enemy lines , in Omaha Beach . 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 flame thrower installation on Omaha Beach . A group of two-fisted soldiers formed by various experts are drafted to go on a near-suicide mission and attempt to destroy an installation from a Nazi fortress . ¨Hell in Normandy ¨ is an entertaining film with Guy Madison as a stiff officer along with Peter Lee Lawrence posing as a Nazi lieutenant . Guy Madison leading a group of motley and eclectic soldiers for a dangerous assault on a beach . In the hands of hardboiled director Alfonso Brescia , alias Al Bradley , and a tough-as-leather cast , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring wartime flick . Madison's mission is two-fold and in violent and cynical style : first turn his G.I.s into a valiant fighting unit being parachuted , then turn them loose on a French location in Normandy where they run into partisans (Erica Blanc) and there Lt. Strobel (Peter Lee Lawrence), a German spy, helps them penetrate a flamethrower installations which threatens the landings on Omaha Beach . 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 train a group of valiant G.I.s who get a chance to redeem themselves and later on , they pull off a extremely risked assignment called ¨Operation Gambit¨ . 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 .

Guy Madison as Capt. Jack Murphy assumes the character of commando leader along with Peter Lee Lawrence as Lt. Strobel in this ordinary wartime movie regularly directed by Al Bradley . 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 beach fortress , including some spectacular shootouts , firing and bombing . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Madison 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 , Peter Lee Lawrence is good in his usual tough role , here playing the unshakable lieutenant Strobel . Blond German youth Peter Lee Lawrence, who made his uncredited debut in Sergio Leone "For A Few Dollars More" (1965), was the hero in many Spaghetti Westerns. His short cinematographic history can be enclosed in nine years of Italo-Spain co-productions such as "More Dollars for the MacGregors" , ¨Winchester justice¨,"Pistol for a Hundred Coffins", ¨The man who killed Billy the Kid¨ , ¨Fury of Johnny Kid¨ and several others . Rough Guy Madison is good as leader of the motley pack together thwart the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast with special mention to Philippe Hersent , Pierre Richard , John Bartha and Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia as Navy officer , all of them habitual secondary players in multiple Italian films and mostly playing brief interventions . Atmospheric and functional musical score and mediocre cinematography in Eastmancolor filmed by Fausto Rossi , 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) and Kelly's heroes(Hutton ), Tobruk (Arthur Hiller), Devil's Brigade (Andrew V McLagen) and many others .

The film is middling directed by Alfonso Brescia . He began directing muscle-men epics as "The Conqueror of Atlantis" ; ¨ The magnificent gladiator¨, ¨La Rivolta dei Pretoriani¨. After that , he continued with Spaghetti Western as ¨Winchester Bill¨ , ¨Ley Del Colt¨ , ¨I Giorni Della Violenza¨ , Adventure as ¨Zanna Bianca¨, ¨Amazons against Supermen¨ and warlike movie as ¨Objetivo Rommel¨ , ¨Misiones Ardientes¨ and this ¨Hell in Normandy¨. Rating : Average but entertaining .

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

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+

I like to watch at least one film from the '40s, '50s or '60s of a weekend, and by preference a war film. Often, it will be one I remember watching many years ago on TV, so there's a kind of nostalgic added-value.

Sometimes I can't find one I remember watching, or have even heard of, so I cast around to find something to fulfill this craving. This weekend's search produced this one.

It's ... OK. It's not good enough to have engaged me fully, nor leave a lasting impression, but not bad enough to give up watching once I'd started.

My feelings may be somewhat marred by the version I got hold of being dubbed. I'm not a fan of that, prefering instead to hear 'natural' voices and read subtitles. Actually, though, that was one thing that scored quite highly for me. The dubbing was pretty good, so I didn't spend much of the time being distracted by lips moving completely out of sync with what was being said.

On the whole, though, I wish I'd chosen something else.

It's a spaghetti World War II film rife with all of the elements of a spaghetti World War II film. I was just wondering if every World War II motion picture produced in Italy in the late 1960s was required to feature a female in the movie and on the poster to make people go see it. I also have to wonder if the cast ad-libbed the script all the way through it. Okay, never mind the last one. No one would ever use the kinds of lines that are used in these films, except the writers, obviously, at least until they graduated from high school.

Most of the outdoor shots were too dark to see what was going on. It's also pretty amazing that the people firing the machine guns were able to hit anything with the way the would wildly wave them back and forth while firing. Of course the Germans could rarely hit anyone as usual, so I guess there's that.