Tempi di Guerra

Wartime
Kommando Schwarzer Panther

Italy/Yugoslavia 1987
produced by
Alessandra Spagnuolo, Boro Banjac, Walter Brandi (executive), Ettore Spagnuolo (executive) for A.M.Trading International, Sutjeska Film
directed by Umberto Lenzi
starring Peter Hooten, Werner Pochath, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Maurizio Schmidt, Boris Dvornik, Ljiljana Blagojevic, Igor Galo, Demeter Bitenc
story by Umberto Lenzi, screenplay by Ambrogio Molteni, Umberto Lenzi, music by Fabio Frizzi

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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World War II: Captain Rosen and Sergeant Grant land somewhere in occupied Yugoslavia by parachute to tear Professor Amundsen (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), who is just about to develop some kind of superfuel, from the Nazi-clutches - even though he works for the Nazis voluntarily.

Freeing the professor is actually rather simple: with the help of the local partisans, Rosen and Grant raid a brothel that is frequented by German military and force SS-Major Dietrich (Werner Pochath) to hand Amundsen over. However, then the troubles begin when the Germans bomb the partisan camp including the Americans' escape plane and are now trying to hunt down the partisan, also to once more get a hold on Amundsen.

Eventually, Amundsen falls back into Nazi hands, but the Americans have opened his eyes to Nazi butality, and when they once more free him, this time in the disguise of orthodox priests, he comes with them willingly. However, he has already completed the superfuel for the Germans, so it's now up to our heroes to blow up the train delivering the superfuel to wherever - which they do by using the train's engine as a projectile.

Then the Americans and the partisans decide to make it to the next airstrip to steal a plane and use it for their getaway - but on the way to the airstrip they are under constant German attack (who even use the Luftwaffe to bomb the partisans to kingdom come) - but our heroes make it through anyways with the professor, only to realize they are already expected at the airstrip by Dietrich and his men. In the end though it's the professor who saves the day when he pretends to side with the Germans, only to get hold of a machine gun and perforate Dietrich and his men ...

Cheaply made Italo-Yugoslavian warfilm (of which Umberto Lenzi made several during the mid-1980's) that has rather little to go for it: The story is pretty much tired routine, the actors are all second rate (with the exception of Werner Pochath, who at least makes a charismatic villain), the characters are one-dimensional, and most of the more elaborate action scenes are visibly lifted from another warfilm and rather clumsily edited into this one (which means that some of the battles vary considerably in scale from shot to shot within the same sequence). Plus, the synthie soundtrack by Fabio Frizzi does little to create any kind of proper atmosphere and/or suspense. Umberto Lenzi has undoubtedly proven in other films that he could do better (but also worse for that matter).

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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