COMMANDOS Combat Classics 50-Movie Pack

Italy - W. Germany | 1968 Directed by Armando Crispino Starring Lee Van Cleef Jack Kelly Marino Masé Color | 98 Minutes | PG Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC | 12-disc set) Mill Creek Entertainment

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		Review by Brian Lindsey Film:6 DVD:2

NOTE: DVD Rating is for entire 50-film set

Co-scripted by horror maestro Dario Argento (he's one of four credited screenwriters), Commandos is an interesting, above-average example of the Italian "Macaroni Combat" genre. Don't expect any lighthearted moments of humor as in Inglorious Bastards (1978) — it's an uncompromisingly grim, downbeat affair. War is anything but an adventure in this film, a reflection of not just the Vietnam era in which it was made but also one a little bit closer to reality.

As 1942 draws to a close, the Allies are preparing their big Mediterranean offensives with the goal of smashing Rommel in North Africa once and for all. One small aspect of Allied strategy involves a special forces mission to be undertaken by a platoon of Italian-American soldiers. These G.I.s — some of them gangster types — speak fluent Italian and should therefore be able to pass themselves off as grunts in Mussolini's army. Their mission is to parachute behind enemy lines and capture a remote desert oasis, site of strategic water supplies. The Italian garrison at the oasis is to be neutralized and the Americans, disguised in Italian uniforms, take their place. The U.S. commandos are to hold the oasis until relieved by advancing Allied forces, preventing any retreating Axis troops from blowing up the wells.

The men selected for the mission have been training for a month under the tutelage of tough Sgt. Sullivan (Lee Van Cleef, Sabata). A veteran of previous commando missions, Sullivan is deeply traumatized by his combat experiences during the American defeat in the Philippines, suffering flashbacks of a moment when he had to play dead amid a pile of corpses as Japanese troops bayoneted his fallen comrades. These memories sometimes trigger mental freak-outs although Sullivan is able to camouflage his shell-shock by generally being a grouchy, short-tempered bastard. (The movie doesn't bother to explain how Sullivan — he of the distinctly Irish surname — also happens to speak fluent Italian.) But the last-minute arrival of a new officer to lead the mission, Capt. Valli (Jack Kelly, Red Nightmare) really sets the surly sergeant on edge. He absolutely hates the pencil-pushing 'desk commander' type, and that's exactly what Valli seems to be. Because the lieutenant in charge of the mission is sidelined with a training injury, Capt. Valli — the intelligence officer who created the original plan — is replacing him. The order to go is imminent. This gives Sullivan and Valli just enough time to rub each other the wrong way. Valli's going to have to prove to him that he has the stomach for killing. ("Do you know what blood smells like, captain? It's a hot smell...")

Ten minutes into the film we're night-jumping into Axis-occupied North Africa — there's no prolonged Dirty Dozen-style buildup to the mission in this movie. The platoon quickly moves in on the desert oasis (a collection of ramshackle buildings around a water pumping station) and captures it after a brief firefight. Sullivan wants to execute the Italians who've surrendered but Valli can't bring himself to condone a massacre. Instead he orders the captured Italians to be locked up in the hotel cellar, whereupon their honorable lieutenant (Marino Masé) starts plotting an escape. A very different kind of P.O.W. has to be dealt with when the commandos discover a sexy prostitute (Marilù Tolo) living at the hotel; a favorite pastime for enemy troops in the area, she'll have to remain incommunicado for the duration. (She's confined to her room and kept stone drunk.) Sgt. Sullivan, already on edge, isn't pleased with any of these developments. He thinks Valli is screwing things up and doesn't hesitate to say so to his superior's face.

Amid these tensions the commandos hunker down to await further orders... They soon learn that the oasis is a favorite hangout for officers from a nearby German panzer division, who like to drop by and party for hours at a stretch — bringing plenty of heavily armed Afrika Korps troopers along with them. How long can the Americans hold out before they make a mistake and blow their cover?

Fairly well staged and directed, Commandos is an entertaining mix of suspense and action. Director Armando Crispino (The Dead Are Alive, 1975's Autopsy) would naturally seem better suited to the former but handles the battle scenes quite effectively, too. Production values are relatively high (the nicely detailed oasis sets; an abundance of armored vehicles during the climax) and the filmmakers avoid many of the problems seen with other macaroni combat pics — they paid at least some attention to the little things. (There are no WWII soldiers with hippie haircuts or Elvis sideburns, for example, and I only spotted one glaring flub in the military regalia: the placement of the captain’s bars on Kelly's U.S. Army uniform would merit an instant ass-chewing by a superior officer.) Composer Mario Nascimbene's spare, minimalist score — often consisting of single, prolonged notes — conveys an ominous disquietude rather than wartime heroics, befitting the relentlessly grim tone. The cast is generally quite solid, even if the script is a tad thin where it concerns Sullivan and Valli's instant loathing for one another (crucial to the story), while the English dubbing is a step up from many of its contemporaries. (Van Cleef and Kelly loop their own voices.)

Now while I don't know how much Dario Argento contributed to the screenplay overall, I'm fairly certain he's responsible for much of at least one character's dialog: the cultured and erudite German Lt. Heitzel (played by Joachim Fuchsberger). A professor of entomology before the war, Heitzel is presented as the film's most sympathetic character; he quotes Goethe at the dinner table, impressed that Valli (posing as an Italian captain) is also quite familiar with the scientist-philosopher's writings. It's just the kind of quirky detail that Argento would toss into the middle of a war movie.

Commandos has long been a mainstay of public domain releases, thus its inclusion in Mill Creek’s Combat Classics 50-Movie Pack issued in 2008. It might seem a pretty good deal to get that many flicks for only ten to fifteen bucks but their value is severely mitigated by the horrendously shitty presentation of almost all of them. Culled from VHS tape, the vast majority of the included titles look like utter garbage — they’re simply unwatchable. (Maybe Stevie Wonder wouldn't mind that much, but I do.) Fortunately Commandos is perhaps the best-looking movie in the entire set. It’s at least letterboxed in the correct 2.35 aspect ratio (albeit not anamorphic); colors fluctuate at times between natural-appearing and washed out within the same scene, but there are moments when it looks surprisingly good considering the source. (This faint praise doesn't extend to many of the outdoor night scenes, which are often way too dark.) The mono audio track is in slightly better overall shape than the visuals.

As an aficionado of Euro-Cult cinema I'd love to see a quality home video outfit like Blue Underground, Synapse, Mondo Macabro or Severin do a proper DVD release of this film… Given its PD status, however, that's unlikely to ever happen. And that’s really too bad. 5/07/12

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