Tête de pont pour 8 implacables

(1968) Hell In Normandy /Testa di sbarco per otto implacabili DUBBED SPAGHETTI WAR

Another fictional war movie centering on two guys as well as Guy Madison as Captain Jack Murphy posing as high ranking Nazis to sabotage plans of destroying a dangerous device made by the Nazis to execute and kill American paratroopers. What are the odds, Nazis using German sniffing dogs to find dead Nazis corpses buried in six inches of dirt while browsing on a sand drivel road. Anyways, European production with an Italian cast acting as Americans and Germans. And particularly the end, the action is hard to make out since lot of the shooting was done in the dark which if the screening was shown on widescreen might be able to make out what was happening so as a result you might end up ignoring some of the action altogether. Lousy dubbing, lousy acting mediocre action sequences gives this a not so great experience.

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.

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 .

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+

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.