La Gloire des canailles

The Dirty Heroes Completely the worst war movie I have ever seen !!!!! talk about stereotypical,the Germans are all terrible shots and seem to be eager cannon-fodder, as they make little or no effort to take cover, dying in a hail of rounds screaming comic book "aieeeeeeeeeeee's" and thats not to mention the "ve haf vays of meking you talk" SS officer...oh my god !!! Another scene that really must be seen to be believed has Captain O'Connor flying over German lines in a reconnaissance plane which,is suddenly and miraculously transformed into a heavy bomber dropping its payload from wide-open bomb bays and pulverising the Germans beneath, before once more instantaneously reverting to being a small reconnaissance plane again. Since when did Recce planes carry bombs and what about the flagrant disregards of any orders !!!! Imagine if Monty had said " Oh Bugger Alamein, I'll attack Cairo instead...

In summary all I can say is avoid at all costs a complete waste of my time, wooden, NSF acting, terrible production costume design a blatant attempt to jump on the Dirty Dozen bandwagon and the only reason I kept watching was to see if it could get any worse !!!!...

(Talking of worse, the Italian and original title of the movie refers to the Ardennes-since when has Amsterdam, Holland, where the film is set, been anywhere near the bleedin Ardennes?...oh lord)

This film sits squarely in the phenomenon often referred to as macaroni combat, those European co-productions of the late 1960s that attempted to replicate the scale and spectacle of Hollywood's Second World War extravaganzas while simultaneously bending them toward European tastes for intrigue, melodrama, and a touch of pulp. What distinguishes this particular effort is not its originality of theme-after all, capers, sabotage, and doomed romances were staple ingredients of the subgenre-but rather the ambitious attempt to fuse the mechanics of a diamond heist with the iconography of the collapsing Third Reich. The result is a film that lingers in an uneasy space between action, melodrama, and near-parody, where technical craftsmanship alternates with stylistic excess.

Visually, the production embraces the widescreen scope of Techniscope, a format that Italian cinema of the era deployed to inflate spectacle despite modest budgets. The compositions are broad, accommodating not only the numerous extras, tanks, and machinery lent by European armies, but also elaborate matte shots and miniature work that, while occasionally artificial, succeed in creating a sense of scale absent from many contemporaneous productions. Yet the film is not free from the pitfalls of its visual strategy: the frequent use of zooms-so fashionable in European action cinema at the time-dates the film considerably, lending certain sequences a televisual quality. The Technicolor palette, rich in deep reds and fatigued greens, creates atmosphere but also highlights the artificiality of costumes and sets, particularly when the narrative moves from muddy exteriors to brightly lit interiors that could just as easily belong to a spy thriller.

The score, a collaboration between Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, stands as one of the film's most enduring qualities. Its alternation between driving, martial rhythms and melancholic interludes offers tonal complexity that the images themselves sometimes lack. Yet, the music also underscores a tension in the production: while the narrative oscillates between gritty war film, caper adventure, and romance, the score stitches these disparate elements together, often with more coherence than the editing manages. Without it, many sequences would collapse under the weight of their abrupt tonal shifts.

Performance-wise, the international cast provides an eclectic range of deliveries. Frédéric Stafford carries the central role with stoic resolve, though his acting style-more suited to espionage thrillers-sometimes undercuts the desperate realism of wartime peril. Daniela Bianchi, with her elegance and restrained presence, lends glamour but little psychological depth, functioning more as symbolic figure than as a fully developed character. Adolfo Celi and Curd Jürgens bring gravitas, yet both remain trapped within archetypal roles that the script never allows to expand. The most memorable performance arguably comes from Helmut Schneider, whose SS officer manages to embody menace without resorting to cartoonish excess, a rarity in this cycle of films. Still, compared with American ensemble works like The Devil's Brigade (1968) or the semi-satirical Kelly's Heroes (1970), the acting here feels more mechanical, as though the actors were primarily deployed for their marquee value rather than for the nuances they could bring to their roles.

The action choreography alternates between exhilarating and muddled. Large-scale battle scenes impress with their abundance of extras and hardware, yet the staging often lacks clarity, relying heavily on quick cuts and noise rather than spatial logic. The underwater vault sequence, however, remains notable for its originality, representing the moment when the film most successfully marries the war genre with caper conventions. Elsewhere, though, the prolonged climax suffers from bloat, with narrative threads stretching beyond their capacity to sustain tension.

Historically, the film emerges at a time when European co-productions sought to capitalize on both the popularity of Hollywood war films and the growing international market for Italian genre cinema. By 1967, the political and cultural climate in Italy was one of both reflection on the Fascist past and unease about the present. The film channels this through its ambivalence: it flirts with solemnity in depicting occupation and resistance, yet it simultaneously indulges in escapist thrills, glamorous stars, and the fantastical premise of a diamond heist amid the ruins of Europe. Rather than confronting history directly, it reprocesses it into spectacle, a move typical of its subgenre, which preferred to deliver excitement over authenticity.

As part of the macaroni combat lineage, it is more polished than many of its peers, thanks to Martino's professional if uninspired direction and the contributions of top-tier technicians. Yet, its hybrid nature-part war film, part heist adventure, part melodrama-prevents it from achieving the tonal consistency of more focused works. It is precisely in this hybrid quality, however, that the film's peculiar charm lies, a testament to an era when European cinema was unafraid to borrow, imitate, and experiment, even at the risk of incoherence.

Possibly the best that I've watched of the "Euro-Cult" variations on Hollywood's war-themed spectaculars of the 1960s (ditto with respect to the films of director De Martino); that said, its overall quality is only comparable to second-tier legitimate efforts like, say, THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE (1968) or KELLY'S HEROES (1970)!

I've watched a few of these during the past year and they mostly emerged to be competent and enjoyable, but also instantly forgettable; being usually co-productions between various European countries, they still managed to attract a number of international stars. In this case, the hero is played by American Frederick Stafford (who later made BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN [1969] and EAGLES OVER London [1969]). Interestingly, the film co-stars four James Bond alumni in leading lady Daniela Bianchi (FROM Russia, WITH LOVE [1963]), Curd Jurgens (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME [1977]), Adolfo Celi (THUNDERBALL [1965]) and Anthony Dawson (DR. NO [1962]); also on hand are Howard Ross, Michel Constantine, John Ireland and, most impressively perhaps, Helmuth Schneider as a nasty SS officer.

What's unusual about this particular title is that it throws in an elaborate diamond caper (with access to the vault gained from under water) amidst the usual Nazis-vs.-Partisans action. Of course, to complicate matters further is the budding romance between Stafford and Bianchi (she's a Jew married to high-ranking German officer Jurgens!) and, besides, virtually all those involved have their own agenda as to what to do with the loot! The action sequences are no less sweeping than those of the typical Hollywood outing, particularly during the (rather protracted) climax – this is then followed by a clumsy attempt to tie up its many loose ends, thus making the whole even more overlong! As a matter of fact, in hindsight it seems that the film doesn't know whether it wants to be a straightforward war actioner, a tongue-in-cheek caper adventure or something a lot more solemn altogether, but at least it does have its moments in each of these facets.

Incidentally, this was one of the few times where composers Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai shared credit for a film score (which is alternately stirring and melancholy); usually, the latter either composed alone or conducted the former's themes.

Just watched this offering on movies4men.

I'm not sure if the first poster was watching the same film as the rest of us!

An unbelievable plot (or lack of it), dreadful script, wooden acting even from stars like Curt Jurgens, awful sets with absolutely no basis on historical reality, comic book Nazis, and so on.

This film was so embarrassingly bad it was captivating viewing. I found myself gasping in amazement at the awful cinematography, poor editing and the final clichéd romantic scene was just ....

Sorry (gulp) I can't take any more.

The script writers and produces of this movie seem to have focused on the misnomer that it was the US Armed Forces that liberated the Netherlands.

Whilst there may have been some US presents in the Amsterdam area to my knowledge it was the Canadian Armed Forces that actually liberated the Netherlands.

Canada is not the United States of America!