From Hell to Victory - A George Peppard Classic War Movie

Reviewer: David Forehand (Nashville, Tennessee United States) on Amazon.com

For those who haven't yet seen this forgotten Italian-made war film (aka Contro 4 bandiere), this movie has the lovely actress Capucine in it. That alone earns the movie at least three stars! Despite the great cast and the abundant action, this movie has so many cliches and corny dialogue that you'll need a dose of Aleve just to finish it. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed watching this war movie ever since I was a kid, only now I see all the plot holes and flaws. I mean come on, the "German" fighter planes are nothing but British spitfires with German insignia painted on them!

The movie begins on August 24, 1939, in a Paris cafe, where six friends (George Peppard, George Hamilton, Horst Bucholz, Anny Duperey, Sam Wanamaker, and Jean Pierre Cassel) from different countries (of course) are about to be torn apart by World War Two. They vow to meet again on the next August 24, not realizing that the war would still be raging then. All six join the Allies, except the lone German in the group, Horst Bucholz. Bucholz becomes a Panzer commander and eventually fights against his former friends in the battle of Normandy in June 1944. Each of the six friends takes an active role in the war, and from the British evacuation from Dunkirk to the liberation of Paris, they stuggle to survive and keep in contact with one another. Along the way, Capucine enters the picture as a heroine who will risks everything to save Allied pilots from being captured by the cruel Gestapo.

By the liberation of Paris, however, only three of the six (I won't say which) have survived, and they share a tearful reunion in the same Paris cafe where they had vowed to return. The battles scenes have plenty of explosions, but they are extremely unrealistic. With a cast like this, though, I absolutely recommend this guilty pleasure to fans of war movies. Just don't set your standards too high! By the way, a lot of the battle scenes in this are the same scenes featured in another European war movie (Partizanska eskadrila (1979), aka "Battle of the Eagles"). Unfortunately, since both movies were released in 1979 I have no idea which movie copied from the other.