OVERRUN! (1970)
DIRECTOR:
Mario Siciliano
CAST:
Ivan Rassimov, Kirk Morris, Giuseppe Castellano, Marcella Michelangeli and Al Landy.
REVIEW:
I don't think I've ever seen such an uneven Italian war action movie. It starts out very roughly, gets better as it goes on, but tries to combine almost every genre and prowar / antiwar feeling thinkable and the result is an often confusing movie.
Three British soldiers (Rassimov, Morris and Castellano) escape from a German tank (what were they doing there in the first place) and steal a German truck (where did they get the German uniforms) and drive away from a huge German column after killing a few Afrika Korps infantrymen in plain sight. The usually stupid Germans send only a small car with 2 soldiers after the escaping Brits, who, (after a long chase which ivolves the vehicles doing loop-de-loops around one another) manage to stop the enemy. They then rescue another British officer and continue their trek, running into German patrols, pillboxes, Arab horsemen and even a few stranded British nurses.
The cast and performances give this film the lift it needs. Ivan Rassimov is very good as a gruff and by-the-book lieutenant, and Al Landy is convincing as his inexperienced commander. The pro-war / anti-war themed conversations they carry are well-scripted and convincingly acted. Giuseppe Castellano (The Battle of El Alamein) is great as a short-tempered Scottish Sergeant. Kirk Morris has little to do except redeem himself during the final battle. The nurses are at all essential to the story, they just bring an added element and don't much at all.
The movie was obviously filmed on a low budget, which is obvious due to the small number of speaking roles and the somewhat unconvincing German uniforms. Also, be sure to notice that some of the Germans carry American machine-pistols. Cinematography is top-notch, with some sweeping desert vistas filmed in the same places as Desert Commando. The musical score by Stelvio Cipriani is haunting and gives the film a desperate feel. It's one of the best Eurowar scores I've heard; The action scenes are pretty cheap, never involving more than a dozen people - until the big battle scenes near the end, in which a trio of British soldiers hold off dozens of German tanks with a few machineguns and a mortar is suspenseful and well-shot. The rest of the action and plot move much like Bridge to Hell, with these guys just wandering around the desert blowing things up and avoiding German attacks. The one long, suspenseful landmine scene will have you biting your nails and cringing in suspense.
Still, I can't really give this movie a very high rating. Why? It starts out very confusingly, with 3 British troops climbing from a German tank. One's got an Afrika Korps cap, the other no shirt and the other only his British uniform. Yet they manage to stroll about the German convoy and not get caught until the last second. When they do escape in a truck, the Krauts only send 3 men after them! Such stupidity... and what were they doing in that tank to begin with?
Another thing that gets me is the lack of plot. These guys have no objective in mind, nothing to push the action. They're just wandering around the desert finding ways to get into trouble. Maybe some explanatory scenes were cut out, I don't know, but the plot and course of action strongly resembles BRIDGE TO HELL
Overall, this is a pretty decent and well-written Italian war flick. Still, it lacks any familiar supporting actors and REALLY needs some semblance of plot. Definitely worth a look though.
SGT. SLAUGHTER'S RATING:
3 Bullets
