Commando leopard

Antonio Margheriti was a director who knocked out many films from different genres depending what was popular at the time in the Italian B-movie industry. He made films in various sub-categories - science fiction, Gothic horror, peplums, spaghetti westerns, gialli, pollsters, a creature feature, a cannibal movie, various action flicks – you name it! Commando Leopard is one of the latter, an 80's action-fest set in Latin America about an evil dictator and his sadistic adviser in their war against heroic resistance fighters.

Its story is very routine stuff really, that only serves as a platform for much explosions and shooting. But I would have to say that this is an above average example of this kind of thing. It has a decent enough cast, with Lewis Collins and John Steiner doing well enough as the chief resistance fighters and, better still, Klaus Kinski on hand for yet another turn as a bad tattie; in this case the psychotic military adviser who blows up a plane of children as part of his day job! What really elevates this one though are some very well crafted destruction scenes where we have a dam, a bridge and a train blown up in impressive ways but best of all is the aforementioned destruction of a passenger aircraft just before landing. This sequence really is very well executed indeed and illustrates that this is an 80's action film which has been made with a bit of effort.

Commando Leopard looks outdated for today's eyes but in the case that you still like to watch such action classics like The Wild Geese, you can add this one to your watch list. Recommended, if you like 80s war action like The Wild Geese, Missing in Action, The Last Hunter and so on.

Judging by the overall look of this, it would appear that Antonio Margheriti was given a bigger than usual budget to play with for this follow up to his earlier Codename: Wildgeese.

Although not a direct sequel, the two films share many of the same cast members from the earlier picture including Lewis Collins, Klaus Kinski and Luciano Pigozzi (in different roles)

Well, I've got to say straight away that the ostensible extra budget really shows in the special effects department in this with some absolutely superb explosive sequences involving Margheriti's trademark miniature work, most notably during the opening sequence wherein a dam is detonated and even more spectacularly later on when a passenger aircraft is blown up as it comes in to land....awesome stuff!

Regretfully, I must also say that the action scenes, such as those mentioned are sadly far too infrequent with the 'filling' in between them proving to be somewhat less than engaging in comparison.

The performances are all fine with Kinski especially on typically snide and evil top form. Also of note is the soundtrack by the legendary Ennio Morricone which really lifts the action sequences up yet another notch.

Overall then, whilst this may certainly represent one of, if not the pinnacle of Margheriti's work visually (and possibly budgetary), for me at least, this is most certainly not the directors best effort in the genre. That accolade would, in my humble opinion, go to the classic The Last Hunter for it's sheer entertainment value.

This is the second part of a war actioner trilogy which seems to enjoy some kind of cult status – the others being CODENAME: WILD GEESE (1984) and THE COMMANDER (1988) – and featuring the same star (Lewis Collins), producer (Jess Franco regular Erwin C. Dietrich) and director (Margheriti, who dabbled in every "Euro-Cult" subgenre there is, though he was at his best perhaps handling atmospheric Gothic chillers). Actually, it provides little more than standard heroics – albeit done on a fairly elaborate scale, with a couple of notably spectacular action sequences (including the blowing up of a dam, a stationary airplane and a moving train); allegedly, it was the most expensive Swiss-budgeted production up to that time.

Collins plays Carasco, a quasi-mythical leader of a band of revolutionary mercenaries – which include feisty Cristina Donadio, cynical John Steiner and world-weary Luciano Pigozzi (who is curiously uncredited) – up against the dictatorial regime of an unidentified Latin American state and, more specifically, Klaus Kinski's bloodthirsty militia. Another major character is that of the heroic priest (Manfred Lehmann) of a war-torn village who stands up to Kinski and, consequently, earns the respect and help of the mercenaries; the religious/political elements of the plot may be intended to give the whole a more serious tone than the typically mindless Euro-Cult fare – but we've still seen this "saintly martyr vs, cruel oppressors" scenario countless times in earlier and better Hollywood movies, so that this segment is actually more predictable than anything else.

The German 2-Disc set of the film which I happened upon at a local DVD rental outlet also contains a 50-minute "Making Of" Documentary but, unfortunately, I didn't have time to watch more than a few samples from it...

Italian B movies don't get better than this. Great cast, fantastic action sequences, great score and top notch direction from old hand Antonio Margheriti. If there was a trio of movies that should be released on DVD it is CODENAME WILDGEESE, this and THE COMMANDER. Maybe Anchor Bay will do the right thing and get it out on disc.