A World War II adventure, involving a group of Allied POWs, Nazis, black market priceless art treasures, Greek resistance, a Greek monastery, and a secret German rocket base. The ever efficient German war machine had little trouble sweeping over Greece, yet some stubborn resistance remained active. Various civilian prisoners were thrown with the officers in Stalag VII-Z, a camp on the site of a Neptune temple under two masters: SS Major Volkmann enjoys the unpleasant ways of brutal Nazi extremism, but the gentleman camp commandant, former dodgy Viennese art merchant Major Otto Hecht, definitely prefers the finer things in life, regardless of political 'correctness'. Therefore the camp, meant to sent Berlin archaeological treasures, actually keeps the true treasures for his private black market trade, via Hecht's sister in Switzerland. His 'guests', all fortunate to be spared by him the usual harsh treatment of escapees etc., include the brilliant archeology professor Blake, the Italian cook Bruno Rotelli, American show-people Charlie and Dottie Del Mar, and even black US POW Nat Judson. Hecht's hospitality seems poorly rewarded when they mount an elaborate plan to take over the camp, in league with the local Greek resistance leader Zeno, who is determined to prevent the arbitrary execution of villagers as reprisal. As they all seem to agree upon a common goal, the priceless art treasures in the monastery on nearby Mount Athena, Hecht is persuaded to join for a cut, but Zeno has a military agenda, as the allied invasion is approaching, and the monastery's mountain is also the cover for a secret German rocket installation… Roger Moore is the commanding officer of a Nazi POW camp on the Greek coast. His main task is to use three prisoners … David Niven, Richard Roundtree and Sonny Bono … who are experts in antiquities to retrieve valuable archaeological relics for the Reich. A pair of American entertainers … Elliot Gould and Stefanie Powers … are picked up by the German army near the camp and became it's latest guests. Moore is not particularly sympathetic to the Nazi cause, so he teams up with his 3 experts and Greek partisans lead by Telly Savalas to take over the camp and steal some extremely valuable items from a nearby mountaintop monastery. This film is clearly meant to cash in on the success of "The Dirty Dozen" and it's imitators, most notably "Kelly's Heroes". It's characters are mostly morally questionable folks who walk a thin line between noble intentions and naked self-interest. In addition, many of the characters, Gould and Bono being the clearest examples, are just raging anachronisms who have stepped right out of the 1970's and into WWII. Unlike "The Dirty Dozen", this film just does not work for me. Major plot points are just frankly unbelievable (the Greek partisans use a brothel that caters to Nazi officers as their headquarters), and the action, when it finally comes, is rather flat and uninteresting. Great cast though … although Moore should have never ever ever tried to do a German accent. I happened across this film at a used video sale, saw the cast list and immediately bought it. I mean, Sonny Bono AND Richard Roundtree? Cosmotos did a bang up job of translating the James Bond formula to the 1940's (though with the ocassional anachronism – the word "groovy," Bono's haircut). And what a motorcycle chase! I'm not a chase fan, but this one is on par with some of the greats. Just enough stuff to keep the jaded fan amazed.
Flowepadu replied
344 weeks ago