Writer: R. Wright Campbell
Composer: Hugo Friedhofer
Starring: Stewart Granger, Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney, Edd Byrnes, Henry Silva, Spela Rozin, William Campbell
More info: IMDb
Tagline: A Mad Major! A Master Criminal! A Demolition Demon! A Forger! An Assassin! Yet All Became Heroes When They Launched...
Plot: In 1943, a group of hardened criminals is pardoned on the condition it accepts a mission to free a captive Italian general from the clutches of the Nazis.
My rating: 6/10
Will I watch it again? No.
I digs me those 1960s WWII action pictures and I was so ready for this one...that is until I saw Roger Corman's name in the opening credits. He's the opposite of big budget all-star action movies. But still, I'm open to new things. The story gets right to the point from the get-go by assembling the team and presenting the mission in the first five minutes! And in the next 6 minutes, they're off to the beautiful shooting location of Yugoslavia! Corman does a quick job of getting this picture moving. The scenery is gorgeous. That helps the movie more than anything. The cast does a good job with mixed results. Granger does his standard down-to-business/I'm-carrying-the-weight-of-the-world-on-his-shoulders performance. Raf Vallone is easily the MVP here. He's fantastic. Mickey Rooney can be fun when he isn't over-doing it. It's so easy for him to over-act and he takes advantage of that. Henry Silva doesn't talk much. He was probably hired for his unusual mug and not his thespian skills. And William Campbell looks like the Tony Curtis they could afford but he does a pretty good job. Overall, they make a good team of actors.
Some of what dragged the picture down were things like the dialogue not flowing smoothing, unnecessarily padded, longer scenes, idiotic solutions for some of the problems they encounter and a general low budget vibe in spots. The whole snapping of the fingers bit was set up and executed awkwardly. First of all, they weren't keeping strict time and they were supposed to, which was the whole point of doing it in the first place. It was used like what you'd see in a heist movie where several people each have a job to do that hinges on everyone doing their job at precisely the right moment or it falls apart. They're busting out of a Nazi prison with a plan that relies on a few thought out beats but the rest has them winging it so a fixed schedule was impossible. It's that kind of silliness that hurts the picture. I also got the feeling like the film makers started with some scene ideas without a fully fleshed-out way of linking them. Plus, the story feels rushed. This picture definitely would've benefited from spending more time on the story. Oh, and the dubbing has some pretty bad spots, too.
Fortunately for us, Corman couldn't resist an exploitation-y opportunity!
LT. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD...YARRRRRR!
There's a ballsy-as-fuck scene when Silva and Rozin are dangerously close to being discovered by German guards. Her baby starts to cry and Silva covers its mouth to stop it. Once the guards leave and they're safe, the baby isn't moving anymore. THE FUCK? They had the balls to kill a baby? WOW! NICE!!! Hats off to Corman and writer Campbell! I did not see that coming.
The often cheap feel is expected since that's what Corman was used to but he does a good job at times with elevating this to the level of what you'd expect from the film's big time siblings of the day. The story is a bit reminiscent of the best of the "prisoners assembled for a secret WWII mission" sub genre with THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967). Nothing comes close to that one as DOZEN is one of the all-time great films. THE SECRET INVASION benefits by pre-dating DOZEN by three years. If you're a fan of these types of pictures, you're going definitely going to want to see this but lower your expectations. There are some nice things to be found here but overall, it's lacking.
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