Les léopards 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.

During the latter days of World War II, a British Special Forces unit is sent behind enemy lines to destroy a dam key to the German war effort.

It wouldn't be unfair to describe Churchill's Leopards as a pretty standard entry from the Italian war movie cycle that was popular circa late 60's. After all it focuses on a crack team of soldiers on a dangerous, borderline suicidal mission. Not only that, it features an even more specific detail that films from this sub-genre often bizarrely used - the lookalike who is used to fool the Germans. Movies such as When Heroes Die (1970) and Casablanca Express (1989) also used this slightly ridiculous gimmick. Richard Harrison is the guy here who plays the dual role of a British soldier pretending to be his identical brother who happens to be a Nazi officer, although the latter is admittedly killed within the first five minutes by a partisan woman, leaving the door open for the English brother to saunter in and take his place - completely silly of course but par for the course when it comes to Macaroni Combat movies. Another regular feature seen here is Klaus Kinski as a ruthless SS officer, although rather stupidly they have this German baddie dubbed with an English accent which makes no sense and unfortunately reduces his potency on screen somewhat. I found this one to be overall not too bad for this kind of thing. I've found these Italian war movies to not be exactly a guarantee of quality, with the majority hovering around the mediocre end of the scale. This one ultimately is no different although I did think it set things up slightly better than most. The best scene has to go to the tense, well-handled part where the Nazis gather a group of French citizens on a picturesque mountain in order to be executed as revenge for the killing of two of their men. This scene is paced really well and does have some good tension; it shows that it's more low-key moments such as this that can have more impact than the more typical, and a bit tedious, gun battles that seem to be part of the formula for this kind of thing and which compromise the latter stages of this one too. Events ultimately culminate perhaps unsurprisingly with the dam explosion, which most people seem to think was terrible but which I actually thought was pretty good.

One of the most average Italian war movies to emerge in the genre. A great cast and some decent photography highlight this otherwise mediocre entry.

The plot is pretty straightforward and familiar: A British commando team heads into France to blow up a German-held dam, while a British agent infiltrates the German garrison to give inside help. The twist is the British officer is replacing his twin German brother (!)

Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (The Greatest Battle), one of my favorite Eurowar co-stars, makes a pretty bland lead. He doesn't get to do too much, unfortunately. He is reduced to uttering boring dialog and leaves most of the real acting up to Richard Harrison (Thirty Six Hours of Hell), who plays both a German officer and his British twin. Klaus Kinski (The Liberators) has his usual glorified cameo role as a German officer, though his role lacks any of the weirdness which usually accompanies his part. He is a straightforward, evil SS type and nothing more. Unfortunately, he sports a dubbed English accent rather than a typically nasty, thick German voice. Pilar Velasquez (His Name was Holy Ghost) is the French resistance woman in love with Harrison. Finally, Antonio Casas (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) has a glorified cameo as the genius leader of the French partisans. In support, Frank Brana (The War Devils) plays a French partisan, and Claudio Biava (Battle of the Damned) has a juicy role of a skeptical British commando. Look fast for Herb Andress (The Rangers) as a German officer, and Geoffredo Unger (Hornets' Nest) as a British commando.

The whole course of the film is weighed down by some low production values that can easily kill a film. First of all, Vassili Koducharov's familiar score from Heroes in Hell, Thirty Six Hours of Hell and The Rangers is used once again. This piece of music is trash, and I don't get why so many films use it. The special effects are pretty bad, and one dam destruction sequence ranks as one of the worst miniature effects in film history. The movie is set in France in 1944, but looks like it was shot in an Italian rock quarry - maybe on some of the same locations as the earlier action flick Five for Hell.

On the plus side, the cast all do excellently and seem to be having fun with their parts. The script is excellent, with an unexpected conclusion for one of the main characters. Maurizio Pradeaux keeps the action flowing whenever possible. When nobody is getting shot on screen, people are moving about and so is the camera. Close-ups, pans and zoom-ins rule for the duration of the movie. The final combat scene is excellently-shot and tightly edited, with some fine suspenseful moments.

CHURCHIL'S LEOPARDS is a pretty average commando movie, with a good cast and fine camera-work but little else of value. It's an entertaining 90 minute piece, but no classic.

RATING: 6/10

The farmers are already working hard, the Nazi subordinate is already waiting impatiently with his car. But top Nazi Hans Müller (Richard Harrison) is still having fun with his beautiful girlfriend Elise (Pilar Velazquez). She suddenly pulls out a knife and the virile powerhouse is over. But it turns out that the German Nazi has an English twin brother who quickly takes on the role of the murdered man. Under the command of his British superior (Giacomo Rossi Stuart), the demolition of an important dam is to be prepared. But it is important that a nasty SS man (who else but Klaus Kinski) doesn't become suspicious. One evening the British twin, who already has his eye on his brother's murderer, also has to stand up for an ex-girlfriend from Paris. Will he also be able to convince the beautiful Marleen Schumann (Helga Liné, who just turned 90 a few days ago!!!)...?

Maurizio Pradeaux didn't make a particularly original Macaroni Kombat film. After all, after the dam is blown up, a lot of water flows through the picture. What may be interesting is that Richard Harrison is one of the few Peplum stars who has made the leap into other genres. Basically from Hercules to a womanizer with hard fists! In German-speaking countries the film is also known as "Geheim Code Leopard".

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.