L'enfer des héros

Heroes in Hell (1974)

* (out of 4)

Rather boring Italian attempt at THE GREAT ESCAPE and various other war pictures. This one here centers on a couple men who are captured by the Germans and thrown into a prison camp. The two eventually make a great escape and they go undercover to try and kill an evil Nazi leader (Klaus Kinski).

This film was directed by the one and only Joe D'Amato. I've seen well over one hundred films by the famed Italian director and there are a lot of really, really bad movies. Sadly, this WWII drama falls into that category as there's really not too much going on here and the film drags extremely bad for something that clocks in at just 84-minutes.

The only real entertainment comes from some of its low-budget issues. For starters, there's a lot of "action" that is clearly just stock footage shot during the real war. There doesn't seem to have been much of an attempt to match the footage up so trying to pass this off as something that was really happening in the film just doesn't work. Once we get to the real action, well, it's really not that much better and there's certainly nothing good about it.

The majority of the cast members are easily forgettable and that includes Ettore Manni in the lead. Kinski gets the top=billing and his face is all over the posters but he doesn't appear until the final ten-minutes of the movie. I wish I could say he gave the film a jump start but he doesn't. It's clear he was just picking up a paycheck as he doesn't add any memorable.

In World War II, some soldiers are captured by the Germans and thrown into a prison camp where are mistreated, harassed and punished by a feared commandant (Luciano Rossi) . Finally the soldiers (Ettore Manni as a doctor and Lars Bloch) make a great getaway and after that , they are assigned to a dangerous mission, as they go undercover to attempt to kidnap an evil Nazi general (Klaus Kinski) , but things go wrong.

Ettore Manni is the leader in this ordinary wartime movie about a commando goes in action , shot in very low budget . Being a ridiculous European war film that lost continuity with US cuts . This moving film packs frantic thrills , perilous adventures , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action and violence . The noisy action is uniformly bad made , with rip-roaring final scenes in which the motley group is really besieged , including some spectacular shootouts , bombing and along the way a lot of stock-footage about aviation . 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 a complex and tense relationship . The final part is all action , as the brave commando wreak havoc and then run for their lives . Stars Ettore Manni, here appears a few familiar faces from Spaghetti Westerns, Eurothrillers, Giallos and other sub-genres, such as : Lars Bloch, Luciano Rossi, Garofalo, Attillio Dotessio, Paul Muller, Roberto Dell'Acqua, Rosemarie DeLindt , Prieto Torrisi or Peter McCoy and, of course, Klaus Kinski. This one belongs to a numerous group of Italian/Spanish WWII films , these types of B-war films have never enjoyed enormous popularity in Italy because they were made mostly just to make money , especially with foreign distribution in poor countries and little conviction on the part of the producers. These were films made in De Paolis (Rome), Lacio, Italy , Morocco, Libya, the Egyptian desert or Almeria , Spain. These movies follow the American style and usually directed by José Luis Merino , Leon Klimovsky , Umberto Lenzi , Roberto Montero, Bitto Albertini , Al Bradley and including tarnishing Hollywood stars , such as ¨The legion of no return¨ with Tab Hunter , ¨Hell's brigade¨ with Jack Palance , ¨Command attack¨ with Michael Rennie . All of them supported by local armies that lent tanks , weapons , soldiers and extras to make these films . The typical team was made up of an Italian director, Italo-Spanish technical staff, and a cast of Italian and Spanish actors and sometimes German and French, sometimes a fading Hollywood star. This is a wartime typical vehicle and into the ¨warlike commando sub-genre¨ , in USA style which also belong the American classics as : ¨Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich)¨ ,¨ Where eagles dare (Brian G. Hutton)¨ , ¨Kelly's heroes (Hutton)¨, Navarone Guns (J. L. Thompson), ¨Tobruk (Arthur Hiller)¨ , ¨Devil's Brigade (Andrew V McLagen)¨ and many others.

The motion picture was lousily directed by hack director Joe D'Amato or Aristide Massaccessi . He was a prolific cameraman/writer/producer/director who made all kinds of genres . His first directing work was in 1972's low-budget Scansati... a Trinità arriva Eldorado (1972), co-directed by Diego Spataro, under the pseudonym Dick Spitfire, but it was a commercial failure. As he directed hardcore , soft-core, erotic films starring Laura Gemser, such as Emmanuel and francois (1975), Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), Emanuelle in América (1977), Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (1978), Erotic Nights of the Living dead , L'alcova (1985) . Gialli and Terror movies : Gomia , Hitcher in the dark , Death Smiles on a Murderer , Buio Omega . Scifi and Sword-witchery : Ator , Ator l'invincibile, Ator 3 , 2020 Texas Rangers , Bronx Endgame, and many others. Rating : 2.5/10 . Inferior warlike movie.

Omg this movie is just awful. You can actually hear the Italian accent when the nazis speak. You'd think they could have put forth some kind of effort.

One of the most obscure titles in the early part of the filmography of Aristide Massaccesi, this one was signed as Michael Wotruba, the same pseudonym used for other films of the period, like "Novelle Licenziose Di Vergini Vogliose", "Diario Di Una Vergine Romana" and "Pugni, Pirati E Karatè". Back then, Aristide was still working as a cinematographer for other filmmakers, so he was still hesitant in taking seriously a career as a director, although in late 1972 he had made his most ambitious project so far, the masterpiece "La Morte Ha Sorriso All'Assassino", which was signed with his real name. The weak reception of it, probably left him quite disillusioned, and in 1973 he kept his habit of putting together ultra cheap productions with the help of stock footage. This "Eroi All'Inferno" was one of them.

The plot, set in France during the German occupation, tells the story of a group of prisoners in a Nazi camp trying to escape and joining forces with some partisans, with whose help they plan to kidnap a Nazi officer played by Klaus Kinski. Among the partisans, we have some well known faces of the cinema of Joe D'Amato, like Attilio Dottesio, who was a regular presence in this period, and Rosemarie Lindt, who, two years later, would be the protagonist of the excellent "Emanuelle And Françoise (Le Sorelline)". The commander of the camp is played by Luciano Rossi, who was the incestuous brother of Ewa Aulin in the aforementioned "La Morte Ha Sorriso All'Assassino" and also appeared in "Emanuelle And Françoise". One of the main prisoners in incarnated by Danish actor Lars Bloch, who would have a supporting hole in "Emanuelle In America". And then there is Klaus Kinski, in his second and last collaboration with the director, prominently showed in posters, but appearing in the last ten minutes only. In short, D'Amato fans are in a very familiar territory here.

Shot very quickly and with a tiny budget, we can't expect a very well developed script, but this aspect is easily compensated by the extraordinary job made in the cinematography. Aristide was very inspired here, and we get a lot of his unique excellence in creating unusual angles and operating a handheld camera. I was so excited with the technical side that I could not mind with the plot failings. The World War II stock footage found a creative use in the sequence depicting the nighmare of one of the prisoners, and D'Amato shot new footage in black-and-white to match them. A graphic scene showing a bullet being removed from a prisoner's wound is very effective and will make the joy of those who, like me, love the gore side of Joe.

"Eroi All'Inferno" is very underrated, often ignored or heavely criticised. It is unfair, especially considering that Hollywood bombs like "Midway" (Jack Smight, 1976), a big budget war production that also made copious use of stock footage, has received praising reviews. D'Amato didn't count with the same budget and schedule to make the film here reviewed, but he certainly put much more creativity on the screen.

Italian war movies are usually a lot of trash. And this Italian war movie is definitely among the worst of the subgenre. Ettore Manni stars as a an Allied soldier who leads an escape from a German POW camp. The escaped POWs hook up with French partisans and aid them in capturing a German General.

The movie starts out with an incredibly long credits sequence, which is just stock footage with the names of the actors and director scrolling by. Then we get about 40 minutes of hand-held camera action showing the prisoners move throughout the "camp". The "camp" consists of about 2 different rooms, a dozen prisoners and maybe four or five Germans. And during the first 40 minutes or so there is also some annoying music playing lightly in the background for no apparent reason.

Then there was the very long "nightmare" sequence, which is just a whole bunch of B&W stock gun camera and airplane footage. Thrown in for no reason.

Then there's another thing I don't get. Whenever the Germans are talking, it's evident that their lines were dubbed from Italian to German. Quite evident and embarrasing. And we don't even get subtitles to know what the Germans are discussing.

Klaus Kinski, billed as a "star", appears only in the last few minutes of the movie. He's constantly referred to as "General" although he wears an SS Colonel's uniform.

The American escapees also had far too easy of a time getting into that German high command building. No security checks or anything.

The battle scenes were filmed on a tight budget, only allowing a few actors to grace the screen at one time or another and only a couple of explosions.

Granted this movie isn't as bad as BRIDGE TO HELL but it's definitely near the bottom of the barrel.