Yes the location footage is great and there are some fabulous action scenes. But it's just another excuse for its international cast to get a nice trip to the Greek isles, earn a paycheck and relax while not getting much to do acting wise. You've got Roger Moore, David Niven (working for his producer son), Elliot Gould, Sonny Bono, Stefanie Powers, Claudia Carfinale, Telly Savalas and Richard Roundtree lounging aroubd when they are not shooting bullets in sudden attacks on the Nazi's, with Moore playing an Austrian officer so you're never really sure which side he's on. Gould and Bono are present to provide some comic relief (not very good comedy), and it reminds me of that saying back in the seventies when a critic said that he saw a movie recently and was surprised that Elliott Gould was not in it. It is basically an opportunity to ask a trivia question of what ex's of Streisand and Cher were in a movie together.
At times, just doesn't know whether it wants to be a comedy or a war film, starting off with a sequence where. A Greek kid knocks on a Nazi officer's window, spits in his face and runs off as they chase him all around the area. Of course, a kid is going to be able to outrun a goose-stepping Nazi so there's no contest here. The effort is to get to a castle on the top of Mount Athena (certainly a gorgeous set) that the Nazis have taken over, and it takes well over an hour before efforts to get there again. So you get plenty of nonsense in the meantime including a not very good USO how led by Gould.
Powers looks nice in an Andrews sisters hairstyle, and Cardinale is pretty but tough as she holds some Nazi officers hostage. But unless you're going to see this on a big screen, it doesn't really flow all that interestingly, so at 2 hours in length, it's about 20 minutes overly long. There were so many WWII movies being made in this time that many of them just do not hold up as well as films made during the actual war, and as critics have said about many of these films, they are not very realistic or historically accurate. I can see why this was a box office bomb as obviously word-of-mouth for it was not good outside of the compliments about the photography and locations. It seems to be a variation of "The Dirty Dozen" style plotline, but to film overall indicates why that 60's movie is now considered a classic and this one has fallen majorly Into obscurity.
At times, just doesn't know whether it wants to be a comedy or a war film, starting off with a sequence where. A Greek kid knocks on a Nazi officer's window, spits in his face and runs off as they chase him all around the area. Of course, a kid is going to be able to outrun a goose-stepping Nazi so there's no contest here. The effort is to get to a castle on the top of Mount Athena (certainly a gorgeous set) that the Nazis have taken over, and it takes well over an hour before efforts to get there again. So you get plenty of nonsense in the meantime including a not very good USO how led by Gould.
Powers looks nice in an Andrews sisters hairstyle, and Cardinale is pretty but tough as she holds some Nazi officers hostage. But unless you're going to see this on a big screen, it doesn't really flow all that interestingly, so at 2 hours in length, it's about 20 minutes overly long. There were so many WWII movies being made in this time that many of them just do not hold up as well as films made during the actual war, and as critics have said about many of these films, they are not very realistic or historically accurate. I can see why this was a box office bomb as obviously word-of-mouth for it was not good outside of the compliments about the photography and locations. It seems to be a variation of "The Dirty Dozen" style plotline, but to film overall indicates why that 60's movie is now considered a classic and this one has fallen majorly Into obscurity.