Stylish but barely mediocre overall

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Blistering performances.

If you are looking for an accurate and gripping war film then this probably wont be the film for you.But if your looking for a drama filled,exiting film then this is the film for you. it is about a couple of undercover Germans who get to England from Dunkirk disguised as British solders.Their mission is to infiltrate and sabotage British radars which are detecting German aircraft and stopping them from attacking England. the German agents get found out and stopped by an English commander who befriended one of the German agents.The plot is not the reason why this film is so weird it is the combat and the way it is all displayed making it so bad. it begins with some British soldiers defending a position which is attacked by German tanks which are quite clearly not from world war 2 later on in the film there are dog fights between messerschmitt and spitfires (fighters) but the actual planes that are used were messerschmitts as spitfires and spitfires as messerschmitts making it very confusing and not very accurate. the fighting and the special effects are not that good either. i found this film very disappointing i am very fond of war films but i wont recommend this war film

If the spectator is able to abstract from the "historical" collocation of the plot, and is willing to spend some time watching an Italian action B movie of the seventies, it may prove a passable distraction. If compared with the majority of similar Italian efforts, one could even term it a masterpiece. The story evolves at a good pace and isn't marred by too many sentimental diversions, the action scenes are a bit naive but enjoyable. On the other hand, from the point of view of historical correctness or even sheer plausibility, the movie is really ludicrous (and, for some, this can be enjoyable, too!). The very idea of German spies taking and maintaining the identity of British soldiers seems to be improbable: soldiers must return to their units, where there will be a lot of people able to recognize them; let alone when some of them pose as members of specialized radar corps. Every lover of war aircraft will laugh her/his head off: Messerschmitts (or similar fighters) confused with Spitfires, Stukas with straight wings... But the top is reached, IMHO, when Sir Winston Churchill, after the first German bombardment of London, announces through the BBC an imminent retaliation against Berlin, that even takes place! I can't help thinking of F.D. Roosevelt announcing Doolittle's plan in advance! All in all, there is perhaps more historical truth in those Italian mythological pastiches featuring Hercules, Samson or the local "Maciste" allied of fighting each other. If it had been a "peplum" movie, too, my evaluation would have been higher.

If you have absolutely nothing to do, or you need to critique a film as an academic exercise, try this one. I saw the USA version, with English dubbed in, out of sync with the lip-movements.One can't help but notice the style of cinematography, music, editing and direction so much like the Clint Eastwood "spaghetti-westerns", or Hercules movies of the 1950's.If you want to see a movie about the Battle of Britain, there are others that are better (e.g. "The Battle of Britain").

The story starts off at the Battle of Dunkerque as a German Unit infiltrates British lines and joins the evacuation to England for the purpose of conducting covert operations. As the Battle of Britain commences the Germans focus on disabling the new British Radar stations.As an old Italian movie it was filmed without sound and voice-overs were added later just like a Spaghetti Western. Filmed as a wide-screen movie the pan and scan job to fit a TV screen is poorly done. But that is not the worst of it. There are several split screen periods in the movie with up to four different pictures at once and to refit for a 4:3 aspect ratio the editors just cut out the edges of the film, essentially cutting some of the multiple views in half. Very sloppy.The acting and directing is dull if serviceable but the script and editing (not just the editing for TV) is weak. The casting deserves special mention as laughable. I like Van Johnson, but a British Air Marshall? And the very Mediterranean looking Germans are a hoot!For World War Two history buffs you may enjoy the scenes of the beaches of Dunkerque as I can't recall ever seeing it represented in a movie before. Unfortunately, the scenes of the air battles later in the movie will make you cringe.This movie may have some curiosity value for those of us who love war movies but others will probably be disappointed. I gave it 4 out of 10.Bob