Written, directed and filmed by Joe D'Amato - using the name Michael Wotruba - this film wasn't seen much in the U. S. until Lightning Video released it in 1985 as Heroes In Hell.
Look, I saw the poster and I know that this was the second movie in a row that D'Amato made with Klaus Kinski, but I have to tell you, when Klaus strode on screen as SS-Brigadeführer Kaufmann, dressed in the finest death's head costume that a beyond low budget Italian film can get, I jumped out of my chair and yelled, "Klaus Kinski is here!" Honestly, it's such a good thing that we moved to country and not the city where neighbors heard frequent screams of "Kinski! It's Kinski!" and "I love Joe Don Baker!" and "I want to be George Eastman's best friend!"
A group of American POW's played by mostly Italians* have escaped from a German POW camp into the French countryside and are part of a plan to capture Kinski that involves stolen uniforms and escaping the very same soldiers that captured them before. And like Shakespeare, well, nearly everyone dies.
But you know, for forty minutes of B-roll footage, you get ten minutes of Kinski flipping out over Renaissance artwork, so you know, I'll pay that fee.
*I mean, Lars Bloch - AKA Carlos Ewing - is Danish. Paul Muller is Swiss. And Rosemarie Lindt is German. The funny thing is, Both Block and Ewing's names are in the credits even though they're the same person. But hey - Kinski's name is listed as Klaus Kinsky.
Look, I saw the poster and I know that this was the second movie in a row that D'Amato made with Klaus Kinski, but I have to tell you, when Klaus strode on screen as SS-Brigadeführer Kaufmann, dressed in the finest death's head costume that a beyond low budget Italian film can get, I jumped out of my chair and yelled, "Klaus Kinski is here!" Honestly, it's such a good thing that we moved to country and not the city where neighbors heard frequent screams of "Kinski! It's Kinski!" and "I love Joe Don Baker!" and "I want to be George Eastman's best friend!"
A group of American POW's played by mostly Italians* have escaped from a German POW camp into the French countryside and are part of a plan to capture Kinski that involves stolen uniforms and escaping the very same soldiers that captured them before. And like Shakespeare, well, nearly everyone dies.
But you know, for forty minutes of B-roll footage, you get ten minutes of Kinski flipping out over Renaissance artwork, so you know, I'll pay that fee.
*I mean, Lars Bloch - AKA Carlos Ewing - is Danish. Paul Muller is Swiss. And Rosemarie Lindt is German. The funny thing is, Both Block and Ewing's names are in the credits even though they're the same person. But hey - Kinski's name is listed as Klaus Kinsky.