HELL'S BRIGADE: THE FINAL ASSAULT (1969)
DIRECTOR:
Leon Klimovsky
CAST:
Jack Palance, John Gramack, Andrea Bosic, Alberto de Mendoza, Carlos Estrada, Antonio Pica, Mirko Ellis, Jesus Puente, Gerard Tichy and Giuseppe Addobbati.
REVIEW:
Infamous director Leon Klimovsky returns to the battle front with “Hell’s Brigade: The Final Assault”, a by-the-numbers commando story which sails high above his previous effort, “Commando Attack”.
Klimovsky apparently learned a few things while shooting his prior disaster. Everything about this film – cast, locations, story, and production values – is head-and-shoulders above his earlier effort. In this adventure, a small band of American commandos parachute into the heart of Germany – but they each have secret instructions, and none of them know the mission’s objective until the climax. This makes for some tension among the group, and nobody trusts any of their comrades.
Jack Palance (“Battle of the Commandos”) leads a dominantly Spanish cast (this comes as no surprise, as much of the film was shot in and around Madrid). Palance gives a very inspired performance, as if he’s aspiring to be the next John Wayne. He constantly shouts, sneers and overacts through every shot he’s in. In fine support are John Gramack and Andrea Bosic (“The Greatest Battle”) as skeptical members of the team. Mirko Ellis (“Battle of the Commandos”) stands out as an American pilot who is forced to join the unit when his plane is shot down.
Despite the fact that this film was shot in Spain, like many of its’ counterparts, the scenery looks a great deal like the forests and countryside of Germany. Instead of there being wide open arid plains and rock quarries everywhere one looks, there are densely wooded forests and blue lakes and rivers. The scenery looks stunning, and Klimovsky captures it perfectly. The uniforms are decent and accurate enough, although Palance’s costume appears to be the wrong size (unintentionally); his helmet is too big and his field jacket is far too small!
This picture seems to have a mid-sized budget, and Klimovsky makes the most of it with some well-decorated interiors and some notable action sequences. The climax of the movie is a lengthy battle set on a hilltop a la “Battle of the Bulge”, in which German soldiers try to roust the heroes from their perch. This sequence features dozens upon dozens of uniformed extras, several tanks, and a big German gun emplacement set. But, like a knife in the back, Klimovsky still has his troops armed with post-war weapons – namely, Beretta submachine-guns – instead of Schmeissers. Finally, great composer Armando Travajoli provides some excellent theme music to aid the proceedings.
Despite all of the hard work that went into this film, though, it never rises above the ordinary level. Despite an interesting twist in the story, there is no moving dialog (until a rather tacked on final scene plays out, that is) and the characters remain one-dimensional, so much so, that it’s nearly impossible to tell the good guys apart as they each meet a separate fate. Good battle scenes and passable scenery are great, but not enough to set a film or director above their peers.
“Hell’s Brigade: The Final Assault” is a mediocre, average war film which simply manages to be a fairly well-executed rehash of a story we’ve all seen a dozen times before.
SGT. SLAUGHTER'S RATING:
3 Bullets
ON DVD HERE!
