Spaghetti/War film about a misfit team led by Gianni Garco who carry out a suicide mission behind enemy lines . A group of two-fisted soldiers formed by five experts are drafted to go on a near-suicide mission and attempt to take plans from a Nazi staff . ¨ Five for the Hell¨ is an entertaining film with Gianni Garco as tough officer along with the ordinary team of renegade soldiers of World War II whose mission is to steal the Nazi's secret attack plans -the Plan K on the Gustav Line- from a villa . Garco training a group of rebel and eclectic soldiers for a dangerous assault on a palace-château. In the hands of hardboiled director Gianfranco Parolini , alias Frank Kramer and a tough-as-leather cast , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring wartime flick. Garco's mission is two-fold and in violent and cynical style : first turn his G.I.s into a valiant fighting unit and then turn them loose on a German villa located in Italia where they run into a brutal Nazi commander (Klaus Kinski) and being helped by a double agent (Margaret Lee). The diverse characters include a fun-loving Nick Jordan as acrobat , Sanson Burke as hunk man , Salvatore Borghese as safe-cracker , and Luciano Rossi as a lame-brained soldier specialist in explosives . 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. Despite the fact that few of the "heroes" survive the bloodbath, the message here isn't that war is hell. Rather, it seems to be: war can be a hell of a good time... if you've got nothing to lose . The relentless assignment is set against strong training, risked adventures and hazardous feats . 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 dropout group of valiant G.I.s who get a chance to redeem themselves . They are a squadron of dispensable characters with no past and no future . Garco reprieves a bunch of soldiers , forges them into a two-fisted fighting unit and leads them on a deadly assignment into Nazi territory . The Privates are oddballs , rag-tag and undisciplined gang , under command a stiff Lieutenant and the team is hardly trained . In this film Garco and his motley band , are suppose to steal a plans located in a fortress where resides various Nazi officers . 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 .
Gianni Garco as Lt. Hoffman assumes the character of commando leader in this ordinary wartime movie regularly directed by Gianfranco Parolini. This moving film packs frantic thrills, perilous adventures , comedy , 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 fortress , including some spectacular shootouts and bombing . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Garco into his rebel group , the film is full of feats , suspense , and thrills . Rough Gianni Garco or Gary Hudson is good as leader of the motley pack together thwart the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast with special mention to Salvatore Borghese , a habitual comic secondary in multiple Italian films . Atmospheric and functional musical score by Mancuso and mediocre cinematography in Eastmancolor filmed by Sandro Mancori . 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 Gianfranco Parolini or Frank Kramer. He began directing muscle-men epics as ¨Rocha¨, ¨The Macabeos¨ with Brad Harris and ¨The ten gladiators¨ with Dan Davis and Gianni Rizzo , Parolini's usual actor. After that he continued with ¨commissioner X¨ series with Tony Kendall , fantastic with ¨three supermen¨ and warlike movie as ¨5 per l'Inferno¨ with Gianni Garco (Sartana) and Nick Jordan. His first Western was ¨Johnny West¨ and later on , he directed the ¨Sabata trilogy¨ . It's followed by ¨ Return of Sabata¨ with similar artistic as Lee Van Cleff and Nick Jordan and customary technician team and finally ¨Indio Black ¨ with Yul Brynner . Rating : Average but amusing .
