Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Hell In Normandy (1968)

Original title: Testa di Sbarco per Otto Implacabili

Director: Alfonso Brescia

Writers: Maurice De Vries, Lorenzo Gicca Palli

Composers: Giorgio Fabor, Italo Fischetti

Starring: Guy Madison, Peter Lee Lawrence, Erika Blanc, Philippe Hersent, Massimo Carocci, George F. Salvage, Perre Richard, Antonio Monselesan, Max Turilli, Giuseppe Castellano, Renato Pinciroli, R.O. Mantovani

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Search, find and destroy!

Plot:  In the days prior to D-Day in WWII, a special parachute unit is sent to destroy a German flame thrower installation on Omaha Beach.



My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Mabye, if a better print shows up.

If you dig on classic Euro War films made in Italy with lots of bad guys getting shot but no blood then this is right up your ally.  There's some laughably cheesy dialogue like when Strobel (Lawrence) is making the moves on Denise (Blanc) and he says, "...that sounds like a line from a play.", the she passionately says, "I was in a play in school once." and he follows it with, "Well, honey, this is dress rehearsal." and then starts mackin'.  Talk about corny.  To make it worse (or better) you've got some lush orchestral strings on the soundtrack for added effect.


On the macho side one American G.I. states he came here to kill him some Nazis.  I'm probably being generous by giving it a 6.5 out of 10 but I had fun and it's not a bad way to kill an hour and a half on some lazy afternoon.  The print I watched was widescreen but it wasn't as clear as it should be.  It looked like a poor-to-decent VHS TV print but it was dubbed in English. I'm sure a pristine DVD quality print would improve one's viewing experience.  Much of the action is reserved for the last twenty minutes and it's at night so having a good print is important if you don't like looking at silhouettes, wondering who is who.


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