Une poignée de salopards

Here's one the lightest, most fun Italian war movies I've come across. It features a top notch cast and some great action scenes.

Bo Svenson stars as an American officer who's thrown into a prison convoy with a murderer, Tony (Peter Hooten), Fred (Fred Williamson), a thief, Nick (Michael Pergolani), and a coward, Berle (Jackie Basehart). The convoy comes under attack by the Germans and the men escape across the French countryside. They enventually become wrapped up in an important Allied mission headed by Colonel Buckner (Ian Bannen).

The movie features a top notch cast. Peter Hooten is especially memorable as the bigot, Tony and Fred Williamson turns in a great performance. Bo Svenson, himself a renegade, still tries to do the decent job as an officer and keep these boys in line. Michael Pergolani has little to do in his role as the hippie/thief; he does have one great motorcycle stunt scene, though, a la Steve McQueen in THE GREAT ESCAPE. Watch for Michel Constantin (THE DIRTY HEROES) as a partisan leader; Donald O'Brien as a German officer and Enzo Castellari himself as a German officer.

The movie has some stunning action scenes; there are plenty of shootouts and explosions. The big gun battle amidst ruined German and American trucks and halftracks is especially impressive. The Partisan raid on the train near the end is well filmed, but features many repeated shots of the same action happening over and over again. The miniature work is not the greatest, but is much better than the later BATTLE OF THE EAGLES.

The plot is basically a combination of THE DIRTY DOZEN and BATTLE OF THE COMMANDOS, but it's so fast-paced that you won't really care. Castellari lets only a few minutes go by before something important happens. He really develops his lead characters, which is another important feature we don't get to see much of in typical Italian war films.

Despite all of the good stuff, this movie has a few rough spots. For one thing, it's got a very needless love story sub-plot that never goes anywhere and has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Another complaint: there are some lengthy conversations between the German characters that weren't dubbed. It's impossible to understand what they're saying.

The movie is not for young kids. It features graphic violence, plenty of profanity and even *full* female nudity in one scene.

The version I saw was from Lightning Video, entitled DEADLY MISSION. The source print was of top quality, with fresh picture and good sound. The opening and closing titles, however, were apparently new material and feature some music that isn't heard anywhere else in the feature.

Overall, this is a fun-to-watch Italian adventure piece. For the great cast, production values and action scenes, I'll give a 6/10.

We can't deny the fact that some of our American actors travelled overseas to appear in foreign-produced motion pictures. HELL'S HEROES (the video title) stars Fred Williamson and Bo Svenson, who were notably cast together in DELTA FORCE COMMANDO. Italy is by no means similar to Hollywood, and this won't appeal to war film buffs who watch THE GREEN BERETS on TNT. This one gets a lot of credit for actually willing to deliver a good amount of action right until the explosive finish. The violence is rather graphic, noticing soldiers falling out of trains and hitting landfall, but that heightens the reality of the war experience. It isn't rare to find Italian movies sleazy no matter how serious a situation is, and it's best kept that way. Fred Williamson, known for BLACK CAESAR and other "blaction" films, isn't at all a complete waste here, as long as naked broads in the water gain some vengeance in return for him stepping into the party. Well done for an actor known to possess the "mean" image, but he's fair enough as a guy smoking a cigar out to do battle. Enzo Castellari's direction comes to as a surprise for a few "trash" fanatics, just when realizing how he would soon manage to go full force on 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS and GREAT WHITE. A pretty good war flick from Pizzaland. Remember to take it with caution if you've seen Oscar-winning war battles.

It is well set in 1944 France . Five convict soldiers (Peter Hooten, Fred Williamson , Basehart , Pergolani) in WWII French territory led to martial court escape from lock-up and head to Switzerland . They are commanded by a con-lieutenant (Bo Svenson) . They , then , mistakenly attack an allied command suited as Nazis . Shortly after , the motley gang assigned by an Allied colonel (Ian Bannen) pull off a daring assault on a Nazi-held stronghold , the most heavily guarded base . To add intrigue , a female (Debra Berger) and French resistance (Michel Constantine) have joined the ranks of the rag-tag , tough outfit ; besides , a rebel Nazi (Raimund Harmstorf) has also infiltrated the band . After that , they participate on a suicidal task to thwart the Nazi schemes by blowing up a train containing V2 head-rockets in a decisive battle for winning the war .

The movie packs noisy action , slow motion explosion , shootouts , bombing and results to be quite amusing . It's well-made war-action/thriller/adventure/ Eurotrash film , it is a standout in its genre : ¨The Spaghetti-Italian warlike¨ . Relentless plot twists , in spite of some flaws , the warlike action keeps you breathless ; dealing with a peculiar band to steal the Nazi's most precious military hardware , and bring it back to the allies without getting arrested again by their own side . Rough , elegant Bo Svenson is fine as the group leader of the motley pack , he leads the misfit band of crooks from behind enemy lines . Remainder cast formed by Fred Williamson , Michel Constantine , Debra Berger (William Berger's daughter) , Enzo G. Castell himself in a brief cameo and Peter Hooten as an assassin convict are nice . The film takes part from American classic movies , just like :¨Dirty dozen¨ , ¨Kelly's heroes¨ and ¨ Where the eagles dare¨ but is actually its origin an Italian movie in similar plot , titled ¨ Hell commandos¨ (1969) .

Inglorious bastards¨ had a special remake directed by Quentin Tarantino , in fact several scenes had to be re-scripted and/or shot differently as during filming the Italian Government, in response to increasing activity by the terrorist Red Brigade, drafted a law prohibiting the holding of weapons in case they fell into Red Brigade hands . The castle rescue scenes originally featured a massive shoot out, but were rewritten into the covert attack and escape featured, using knives, catapults and crossbows instead of firearms . The picture was professionally directed by Enzo Girolami Castellari who previously had made another good war film : ¨Eagles over London¨ . Besides , Enzo usually worked with Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson (who is even named as a co-writer on screenplay on deposit at the Copyright Office) in Italian ¨B¨ films such as : ¨Delta Force commando¨ ,¨Deadly impact¨, ¨ Tides of war¨ ,¨Bronx warriors¨, and ¨Warriors of the wasteland¨ .

In 1944, in France, the rogue American soldiers Lieutenant Robert Yeager (Bo Svenson), Private Fred Canfield (Fred Williamson), the murderer Tony (Peter Hooten), the thief Nick (Michael Pergolani) and the coward Berle (Jackie Basehart) are transported to a military prison. However, the convoy is attacked by the Germans and they survive and flee with the intention of cross the border of Switzerland.

Along their journey, they fight against a German platoon and capture the German prisoner Adolf Sachs (Raimund Harmstorf) that offers to guide them to the Swiss border. When they meet a German troop, they kill them but sooner they discover that they actually were and American commando in a mission headed by Colonel Buckner (Ian Bannen) to steal a German V2 warhead. Lt. Yeager, Fred, Tony and Nick offer to risk their lives to accomplish the mission.

"Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato" is the original "The Inglorious Bastards" that Quentin Tarantino repeated the title in his film. The story is a sort of rip-off of "The Dirty Dozen", with delightful characters and non-stop action and hilarious sequences. This B-movie is entertaining parody of movies of war. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Expresso Blindado S.S." ("The Armored S.S. Express")

An entertaining action-war movie. I remember i bought this movie the in a video-store back in 1986-87. It was an old English video-version from the early 80's (from that time when video-stores in my country imported video-movies direct from England without giving them subtitles)

The movie have some similarity's with "The Dirty Dozen" and it's obvious that the film-makers got much inspiration from this great hit from the 60's. Acting and plot is not the greatest in history, but it's still a very exiting film. Not so much indifferent action-scenes here, like there are in many other movies of this type.

8 out of 10