DESERT COMMANDOS (1967)

It's Christmas, 1942 in Berlin and five German soldiers are called upon to cut their holidays short to go on a mission. They are parachuted into the North African desert, disguised in British uniforms, and told to head to Casablanca where they will meet up with an agent who will help they complete their task: to assassinate Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, the Allied "Big Three" who are meeting there to plan war strategy. The leader, Scholler (Ken Clark), is a by-the-rules guy and, seemingly, a fervent Nazi, though he doesn't seem fazed when one of his men, Wolf (Horst Frank), expresses admiration for a Jewish writer. An officer named Huber and two young guys, Mainz and Ludwig, round out the group, all picked because they can speak English and have some connection in their past with America. After some problems in the desert (lack of water, falling under enemy fire), they get near Casablanca where they find, not their contact, who has been killed, but his daughter Faddja (Jeanne Valerie) who agrees to help them. Is this Arab woman sincere or is she actually an Allied sympathizer? The same question is asked about the lovely Simone, a club owner who may or not be genuinely helpful. Though we know from history that they can't possibly succeed in their mission (unless this turns out to be a Quentin Tarentino movie), we do end up engrossed in their situation, wondering what will happen to them when they fail.

This Italian war film is, as other commentators have noted, almost existential in its view of human life, conflict and ambition. The upbeat/downbeat ending works because we have grown to know, if not necessarily like, these men. We don't want them to succeed but we don't want bad endings for them, either. Though the first half of the film drags in places, real tension is built up in the last half-hour, and the conclusion is satisfying. This acting is a bit above average for a grade-B war film: Ken Clark (pictured above right), a big slab of blond manhood, is quite good as the hard-ass German soldier who may not be a Nazi sympathizer but who answers the call of duty; Jeanne Valerie keeps us guessing as to her true nature (pro-Nazi or pro-Allies); Hardy Reichelt and Howard Ross provide some handsome beefcakiness as the two younger (somewhat interchangable soldiers; one of them, I'm not sure which, is pictured to the left with Clark). The desert backgrounds are effective. The best scene involves a scorpion crawling up to an badly injured soldier on the sand—will Clark let it bite him to put him out of his misery? The climax involves a clever trick that I didn't see coming. One odd mistake: the Jewish writer that Wolf admires is William Faulkner who was not Jewish. The dubbing is distracting, as usual, but overall this was an enjoyable film. Its original Italian title, Attentato ai tre grandi, translates as Attack on the Big Three. [Amazon streaming]