User Reviews

I came across this film quite unexpectedly, and boy was I glad I picked it out! It's one of the better Italian war films I've seen, with a good cast and very interesting plot line.

North Africa, 1943: a German security team, headed by a loyal Nazi officer (Venantino Venantini) pursues an American commando unit led by an experienced Captain (Guy Madison). The two units end up joining forces in order to cross the desert. Venantini eventually frees his captives, but vows to kill them if they ever meet again. Lo and behold, a year later, Madison is sent to rescue a British intelligence officer (Anthony Steel) who's being held in Venantini's base.

The film contains a slew of familiar European actors that one familiar with the genre will instantly recognize. American tough guy Guy Madison has appeared several Italian-made war films including A Place in Hell, Hell in Normandy, The Battle of the Last Panzer and Hell Commandos. Venantini, likewise, had a small role in Anzio and a cameo in Lenzi's Battle Force. Both men are incredibly good actors and it really shows --look at Venantini's face when he allows Madison to escape! It's almost as though neither were acting and REALLY were friends. (Perhaps they actually were off the set?) Anthony Steele has a really small role as a British intelligence officer, but it's important to the plot and he plays the role quite convincingly. Frank Brana, Massimo Righi, Giuseppe Castellano and Federico Boido all have minor and almost unrecognizable roles as American and German soldiers. John Ireland (The Dirty Heroes) appears in one really quick scene near the beginning as an American officer, and Tom Felleghy (Kill Rommel!) is on for about 2 seconds longer as another American officer.

The combat scenes are actually quite sparse. The first long sequence is a familiar firefight, involving a chase through some ruins is well-done but doesn't involve anything spectacular. The big tank battle in the middle of the desert is very well filmed, but unfortunately the Germans and Americans use the same type of tanks. The final combat scene in which an American commando units mounts a rescue is very reminiscent of The Dirty Dozen and Five for Hell; in fact, I think some modified sets from Five for Hell were used during the said final, climactic combat scene.

The cinematography is quite striking. The African desert is appropriately bleak and and the scenes set in France have a ring of authenticity to them, right down to the thick pine trees and snow. The musical score is said to be written by Stelvio Cipriani. It's a perfect genre-fitting theme, reminiscent of Francesco de Masi's music for Eagles over London. Unfortunately, some of Cirpriani's score uses clips from The Battle of El Alamein which are very noticeably lifted without any modification.

I saw this as a dub from an Australian videotape. The picture quality was average, with plenty of scratches and grain as well as the expected faded colors. The pan and scanning was fine. The credits are full of pseudonyms, so don't be surprised if you don't recognize any of the actors names. (Venantino Venantini is Van Tenney; Renato Romano is Rudy Romans and so forth.) For a great script, strong characters, fine editing Renzo Lucidi and some good combat scenes, this movie is definitely one of the better Italian "human" looks at World War II.

Although this warstory has some fine actors: Guy Madison, Anthony Steel, John Ireland (the latter unfortunately in a VERY small part) it still isn't quite what it promises to be in the beginning; starting off excitingly in the battle between Americans and Germans in the North-African 1943-desert, we are given a sensitive portrayal of the comradeship between two enemies (a German "Hauptmann" -played very fine by Venantino Venantini- and US-Captain Madison) who meet again one year later in occupied France, so this movie is actually divided in two different stories, one in the desert and the other in Europe. However, in the second part the usual battlescenes appear and "War Devils" becomes another routine actionflick. At the end (of course) the German, who even in Italian (!) pictures obviously and finally has to be the "bad guy" gets killed by resistance men and US-soldiers. This I found very weak: once you get sympathy with Venantini, he is killed! However, all in all compared to the American efforts on warfilms this is a superiour must-see!

Tunisia 1943 . An allied commando parachute into the Tunisia desert to carry out a dangerous mission beyond enemy lines .Action-filled movie set in WWII , it follows the reckless adventures of a valiant platoon comanded by captain George Vincent (Guy Madison) and some courageous soldiers during WWII . Vincent is the two-fisted commando boss with only one purport : to execute at whatever cost the nail-biting as well as puzzling mission . They are dropped behind enemy lines in the desert tasked with a risked assignment called Red Devil and must make their long way to blow up Nazi guns and weapons arsenal. Along the way , being helped by a Sheik Faisal (Raf Baldassarre) , the squadron takes on the real possibility of being shot by German troops. Suffering several flops , explosion , attacks and deaths across the way burt the leader insists on attempting to complete the commandos' mission. A German Captain called Heinrich Meinike (Venantino Venantini) and the American Captain help each other survive the North African desert during WWII. France , one year later , they meet again during combat operations in France when Vincent and his US Rangers are sent to rescue a British officer , Colonel James Steele (Anthony Steel) , an expert on secret arms and V2 rockets .

This moving film packs frantic thrills , perilous adventures , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action and violence . Guy Madison is the leader in this ordinary wartime movie about a commando getting to carry out a deadly assignment . Medium budget European war film that lost continuity with US cuts . The noisy action is uniformly well-made , especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes in which the motley group is really besieged , including some spectacular shootouts and bombing . 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, including a spectacular tanks battle and subsequently developing a complex and tense relationship between two leaders , the American Guy Madison and the German Venantino Venantini . The final part is all action , as the brave commando wreak havoc and then run for their lives . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Guy Madison into his misfit group , the film is full of feats , suspense , and thrills . Good-looking American actor Guy Madison appeared in 'tough' western and drama roles under contract to 20th Century Fox and other Hollywood companies, such as : Bullwhip , Savage wilderness , Jet over Atlantic , Drums in the deep South , Since you went away, Till the end of time . After that , he moved to Italy during the 60's to star in spaghetti westerns , adventure , sword and sandal epics Then had a solid run as the second lead of several Italian low-budget, cult WWII , Spaghetti and adventure films in the 1960's such as : Special forces , Bang bang kid , Superargo , Five giants of Texas , Cold steel for Tortuga , Place in hell , Apache's last battle , The conquestor and the empress , Executioner of Venice . Here Guy Madson is the brave leader of the motley pack together thwart the enemy schemes , and he gives a so-so acting .Support cast is acceptable with B-actors ordinary , being co-production there appears Spanish actors as Frank Braña , Enrique Avila , Luis Induni , Luis Barboo , Julio Perez Tabernero , and Italian ones as Massimo Righi as Max Dean , Federico Boido or Rick Boyd , Giuseppe Castellano , Giancarlo Prete , Attilio Dottesio , Raf Baldassarre. Furthermore , we find the beautiful French actress Pascale Petit and brief apparition as a special collaboration by the North American John Ireland playing an allied commandant .

This one belongs to a numerous group of Italian/Spanish WWII films , imitating American ones , usually directed by José Luis Merino , Leon Klimovsky , Umberto Lenzi , 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 and Guy Madison in ¨War devils¨ . All of them supported by local armies that lent tanks , weapons , soldiers and extras to make these films . 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)¨, ¨Tobruk (Arthur Hiller)¨ , ¨Devil's Brigade (Andrew V McLagen)¨ and many others.

Atmospheric and functional musical score by prolific Stelvio Cipriani. Sunny cinematography in Eastmancolor filmed by Jaume Deu Casas , a perfect remastering is extremely necessary .This is a well conceived WWII with action filled , brief studio character , drama and exciting battles , being well directed by Bitto Albertini .

Guy Madison and Venantino Venantini both give it the old college try for a war tale told in two distinct episodes; one in the Sahara and a second one in France. In the Sahara, both officers are thrown together in a sheltered cave; in the latter tale, one is guarding a prisoner and one is sent to free him. There is also a totally unnecessary insertion of a female character in the second tale; in order to create a pathetic appearance of a wartime romance.

The settings are interesting, although the first one mirrors The Guns of Navarone a bit too much, while the second one has been done dozens of times in other fims. In one sequence a granade slips away from an American soldier climbing the hill and slides down to another soldier. We are led to believe this is dangerous, as the second soldier throws it away to explode. As any veteran who has been in the army for more than a few months knows, a grenade will not be dangerous until you pull its pin, but I guess a lot of young viewers will not know that.

Not the worst war film every made, but certainly not in the top tier.

I cannot speak highly enough of this movie. Made available over the years under such varied titles as WAR DEVILS, THE LEOPARDS OF WAR and CODE NAME RED DEVIL, Bitto Albertini's contribution to the 1967 - 1971 Italian Spaghetti Euro War cycle is one of the most enjoyable entries to the mini-boom of low budget WW2 potboilers churned out by the Italians in the wake of the box office success of THE DIRTY DOZEN and TOBRUK. I am completely fascinated by the mini-genre, mostly because of how the films tend to have had a cartoonish air of make believe about them that is reminiscent of playing Army Guy as a kid in the sandpit near the lake house up in Maine during summer vacations. They are B grade genre movie quickies made on the cheap, and this one is probably better than most.

The stories usually took one of two forms, either "French Villa" commando raids ala THE DIRTY DOZEN, with a squad of misfits on a do or die mission to infiltrate & destroy some country manor where the Nazis are cooking up a secret weapon, or the "Desert Battle" variant where a legion of soldiers would face off in Tunisia to try and stop Rommel from paving over North Africa. Then there would be the standard plot points for the story to check off: The Training Sequence, the Withering Assault meant to trim the cast down just to those with speaking roles; the Sadistic Gruppenfuhrer scene were the vicious SS kommandant of the Nazi legions demonstrates that while the Italians may have started out as Fascists who collaborated with the Germans in WW2 they weren't as bad as the Nazis; a War Is Hell interlude with some unspeakable atrocity meant to demonstrate that while the movie may be fun, fun is fun but War Is Hell; a Disarming The Mine sequence where the soldiers have a tense moment or three trying to disarm a landmine, a cheap but effective way to build tension; the Singing Nazis interlude where the decadent Nazi officers are seen drinking schnapps and singing some drunken ode to der Vaterland; the Heroic Sacrifice treatment when one of the team members sacrifices himself heroically for the good of the mission; and a Final Showdown usually between the intrepid commando leader and the less vicious, honorable Wehrmacht officer who has found mutual respect for the intrepid commando leader. There are slight variations including the obligatory Romantic Partisan or Lost Nurses angle thrown in by the Italians, who always made a point to work some attractive 20 year old women into their war movies. God bless 'em.

What makes WAR DEVILS so remarkable is that Bitto Albertini managed to not only combine both the French Villa raid and Desert Battle variations into a single script, but actually infuses the story with a genuine sense of humanity for once. The plot here concerns a good-natured Wehrmach commander (Venantino Venantini, who's baritone voice opens the film & sets up composer Marcello Giombini's memorable musical score) and a devil may care American commando squad leader (Guy Madison, professional, smooth and cool as always) who find themselves stranded in the desert together after a tank battle -- comprised of footage from Georgio Ferroni's THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN to keep the production costs down -- who's two units must work together to get back to their respective lines before dying of dehydration. After a "parting scene" that is right out of a Western the film changes gear and the two find themselves pitted against each other again in France when Madison's commandos (a different squad, since they all bought the farm out in the desert) are assigned to a mission raiding a French Villa who's forces are under Venantini's command. The twist on the story being that instead of destroying a Nazi secret weapon the commandos are instead assigned to rescue an allied officer with knowledge of a secret weapon program, who is himself sworn to secrecy or death.

The reason why it all works is largely due to Venantino Venantini's performance as a principled, level-headed man who is weary of the war and it's endless carnage, and has learned to value the life of even those who should be his enemy. He has found himself in command not because he seeks glory, but because he is loyal to his country and can see the duality of war as a necessary evil. Guy Madison is also good but plays his role with a more cynical sense of chagrin, and when he tells Venantini that he'll see him in Berlin there's a sense of inevitability to it that even Venantini accepts. He knows Germany is doomed but it's his duty to serve, and will do so even if it means that someday one of them will have to shoot the other in the back. War is, after all, Hell.

But because of the way the plot is structured this is a fast moving and rather energetic little potboiler, with great music, offbeat though low-key cinematography, some great lines about the futility of war and a high enough body count & images of things being blown up real good to keep any action/adventure fan entertained, regardless of whether or not the uniforms are right and the equipment accurate to the period. You get caught up in the film's human story, which is the quality that WAR DEVILS shares with the other exceptional efforts from the Euro War fad: DESERT COMMANDOS, THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN, FIVE FOR HELL, EAGLES OVER London and DESERT BATTLE. They may not have been on the same scope as the great Hollywood war epics but for low budget B grade cinema you can do a lot worse.

8/10