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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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2
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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A
couple of times each year I review a war film
for EC, even though according to conventional
wisdom they're not truly cult movies. Why? Well,
for one thing, as a history buff I like a good
military drama. They typically appeal to your
average action movie fan. Also (and more to the
point), I believe that in some circumstances such
films can be classified under the rubric of 'cult'
if they deal with rarely explored subject matter,
as with The Battle
of El Alamein's focus on Italian troops in
Rommel's North Africa campaign. 1970's Mosquito
Squadron
is not very good at all, nor does it cover untrodden
ground, though it does have links to the broader
cult universe by virtue of its director and a
few of the actors.
Mainly
I just wanted to slam it after plunking down $11
at Best Buy on
impulse only to
find out I'd purchased a real turd.
Spring
1944, shortly before the Normandy invasion...
A flight of RAF Mosquito fighter-bombers makes
a fast, low level strike against German V-1 "Flying
Bomb" launching sites in the Pas de Calais. The
aircraft piloted by squadron commander David "Scotty"
Scott (David Buck) is jumped by Luftwaffe fighters
and shot down. There was no time for anyone aboard
to safely bail out. With Scott presumed killed
in action, command of the squadron passes to his
best buddy, Quint Munroe (The Man from UNCLE's
David McCallum). Also falling to Munroe is the
unpleasant duty of giving Scott's parents and
wife Beth (Suzanne Neve) the grim news. Succumbing
to one of the hoariest, most overused war movie
clich้s possible, Munroe and Beth find mutual
comfort in each other's arms and hesitantly fall
in love. Meanwhile, the RAF brass has a tough
new assignment for Munroe and his squadron. Intelligence
has identified an estate in France, the Chateau
de Charlon, as the site of a secret Nazi laboratory
developing an improved, longer-range version of
the deadly (and unstoppable) V-2 missile. The
lab is buried deep underground and accessible
only from a camouflaged bunker located near the
main building. Munroe and his boys are given just
ten days to perfect a technique for lobbing special
"bouncing" bombs directly through the bunker's
entrance; it's the only way the lab can be destroyed.
The squadron is in the midst of rigorous training
for the mission when a German fighter buzzes their
airfield, dropping a canister of film. It is a
warning. The film shows captured RAF flyers being
moved to the chateau grounds and housed there
as human shields.
By bombing Charlon the
British will kill scores of their own countrymen.
Making things even worse for Munroe, his pal Scotty
whose widow he's been lovin' on appears on
the German film alive and well. Munroe is ordered
by his superiors not to tell the men of the squadron
about the POWs at the chateau. Air Commodore Hufford
(Charles Gray of The Rocky
Horror Picture Show and Diamonds
Are Forever) gives the green light for the
mission regardless of friendly casualties. But
what about Beth? How can he not tell her
that her husband isn't dead?
Zzzzzzzzzz....
While
the romantic subplot's done-to-death clichés
are bad enough they're really not the worst
of the film's sins. Produced very cheaply, Mosquito
Squadron
relies heavily on footage taken from other movies
for its best moments. The entire pre-titles sequence,
detailing a V-1 attack on London, is lifted lock,
stock and barrel from Operation
Crossbow (1965).
Aerial scenes involving actual WWII-era
DeHavilland Mosquitos, as well as many of the
special effects shots, are snipped straight from
1964's 633 Squadron
(which, by the way, is also saddled with a real
groaner of a love story). Ditto for clips of German
flak batteries blazing away at the raiding "Mossies".
The few FX sequences created specifically for
Mosquito
Squadron
are downright terrible, with what looks like toy
planes suspended from fishing poles and aircraft
models that cast shadows on the sky just
before they auger into the ground! The producers
should've realized that when the best parts of
a film actually come from other films,
well... one might as well hang it up. (They obviously
just didn't care.)
Director
Boris Sagal (The Omega
Man) helms with all the verve and panache
of your average TV movie of the week. David McCallum,
who successfully transitioned
from '60s teen idol to solid character actor (mostly
in television productions), is
a bland and uninvolving lead here, for the most
part expressionless. The anachronistic haircuts
don't help matters, either McCallum sports his
Ilya Kuryakin/Beatles 'do even though this is
supposed to be WWII. French resistance fighters,
who figure in the film's climax (Munroe devises
a simultaneous ground assault by partisans to
rescue the POWs), look even more 'Hollywood' than
the purposefully clichéd maquis
of the Airplane!-style
comedy Top Secret.
It's a wonder they aren't brandishing baguettes
instead of Sten guns and Schmeissers.
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This is your typical MGM budget release so you
get a generally good-looking anamorphic transfer
of the film, in its original aspect ratio (1.66:1),
with a solid mono audio track. The original theatrical
trailer emphasizing explosions and aerial action
while downplaying the sudsy romantic stuff is
included as an extra.
4/17/05
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