Eroi all'inferno (1974) Online

Italian war movies are usually a lot of trash. And this Italian war movie is definitely among the worst of the subgenre. Ettore Manni stars as a an Allied soldier who leads an escape from a German POW camp. The escaped POWs hook up with French partisans and aid them in capturing a German General.

The movie starts out with an incredibly long credits sequence, which is just stock footage with the names of the actors and director scrolling by. Then we get about 40 minutes of hand-held camera action showing the prisoners move throughout the "camp". The "camp" consists of about 2 different rooms, a dozen prisoners and maybe four or five Germans. And during the first 40 minutes or so there is also some annoying music playing lightly in the background for no apparent reason.

Then there was the very long "nightmare" sequence, which is just a whole bunch of B&W stock gun camera and airplane footage. Thrown in for no reason.

Then there's another thing I don't get. Whenever the Germans are talking, it's evident that their lines were dubbed from Italian to German. Quite evident and embarrasing. And we don't even get subtitles to know what the Germans are discussing.

Klaus Kinski, billed as a "star", appears only in the last few minutes of the movie. He's constantly referred to as "General" although he wears an SS Colonel's uniform.

The American escapees also had far too easy of a time getting into that German high command building. No security checks or anything.

The battle scenes were filmed on a tight budget, only allowing a few actors to grace the screen at one time or another and only a couple of explosions.

Granted this movie isn't as bad as BRIDGE TO HELL but it's definitely near the bottom of the barrel.

This is an action war film, and the amount of realism thrown out the window is no more than most, probably equivalent to the more famous "Force 10 From Navarone". This is another partisan against Nazi film, by the way.

At first, this looks like another silly foreign film full of cliché shots that echo, and characters who all try to talk tougher than any one else.

We realize the doctor, a sort of anti-hero, will be the major character early on, as the characters begin in a prisoner of war camp. There is the inevitable escape, and then more action, as six escapees join the partisans against the Nazis.

What could have been very cliché turns into very unpredictable and fresh material. We get a very good look at a multitude of interesting characters which makes this film come very alive, and show the waste of war very well. This is an excellent script, and was well directed. All parties involved did a good job, and this is one foreign war flick you will probably enjoy a bit.

HEROES IN HELL is a very low budget Italian WW2 movie directed by the one and only Joe D'Amato. Despite the standard battle violence it must be one of the tamest films he ever made. The first half of the movie is an endlessly long-winded prisoner of war camp saga following the fortunes of a bunch of goonish characters at the hands of the Nazis as they suffer the usual abuse and mental degradation. D'Amato seems obsessed with having them traipse endlessly from one room to another.

The second half of the film involves the leads escaping in order to get their hands on a feared Nazi general, played by a cameoing Klaus Kinski in what amounts to a stock and stereotypical role. The action is low rent in the extreme and D'Amato seems to make very little effort in staging his production, instead shooting in close-up throughout. The visuals lack flair and the jaw-dropping inclusion of black and white stock WW2 footage during a ten minute 'dream' sequence is quite laughable. The ending feels lacklustre and too well telegraphed in advance.

Heroes in Hell (1974)

* (out of 4)

Rather boring Italian attempt at THE GREAT ESCAPE and various other war pictures. This one here centers on a couple men who are captured by the Germans and thrown into a prison camp. The two eventually make a great escape and they go undercover to try and kill an evil Nazi leader (Klaus Kinski).

This film was directed by the one and only Joe D'Amato. I've seen well over one hundred films by the famed Italian director and there are a lot of really, really bad movies. Sadly, this WWII drama falls into that category as there's really not too much going on here and the film drags extremely bad for something that clocks in at just 84-minutes.

The only real entertainment comes from some of its low-budget issues. For starters, there's a lot of "action" that is clearly just stock footage shot during the real war. There doesn't seem to have been much of an attempt to match the footage up so trying to pass this off as something that was really happening in the film just doesn't work. Once we get to the real action, well, it's really not that much better and there's certainly nothing good about it.

The majority of the cast members are easily forgettable and that includes Ettore Manni in the lead. Kinski gets the top=billing and his face is all over the posters but he doesn't appear until the final ten-minutes of the movie. I wish I could say he gave the film a jump start but he doesn't. It's clear he was just picking up a paycheck as he doesn't add any memorable.