The Secret Invasion

Plot synopsis:
In 1943, British Intelligence in Cairo recruits criminal mastermind Roberto Rocca (Raf Vallone), demolitions expert and Irish Republican Army member Terence Scanlon (Mickey Rooney), forger Simon Fell (Edd Byrnes), cold-blooded murderer John Durrell (Henry Silva), and thief and impersonator Jean Saval (William Campbell) for a dangerous mission. The men are offered pardons in exchange for attempting to rescue an Italian general sympathetic to the Allies who is imprisoned in German-occupied Yugoslavia. The group is led by Major Richard Mace (Stewart Granger), who is trying to expiate his feelings of guilt for sending his own brother on a dangerous mission and waiting too long to extricate him. The fishing boat transporting Mace's team is stopped by a patrol boat, but they dispose of the Germans.
With the assistance of local partisans led by Marko (Peter Coe), they split up and enter Dubrovnik. Durrell is partnered with Mila (Spela Rozin), a recent widow with a baby. They are attracted to each other, but Durrell becomes extremely distraught when he accidentally smothers her crying child to avoid detection by a German patrol. The team is captured and taken to the same fortress where the Italian general is being kept. They are tortured for information, but manage to escape and fulfill their mission, although Mace, Mila, Fell, Scanlon and Saval are killed while fending off German troops.
At the last minute, Rocca and Durrell discover that the man they have freed is an impostor, and he is about to exhort "his" troops to stay loyal to the Axis. Durrell pretends to be a Nazi fanatic and shoots the fake general; he is killed by the outraged Italians. Rocca, the last man standing, directs the Italians' anger to the Germans.

Tags: cult

Review:
In 1943, British intelligence sends five convicted criminals into Yugoslavia to rescue an Italian General and convince him to turn his troops against the occupying Nazi forces.
This story was essentially copied a few years later by director Richard Conte in OPERATION CROSS EAGLES, which has a similar look and feel but doesn't hold a candle to this film's characters or action scenes.
The ever-annoying Edd Byrnes doesn't give too hoots about the mission and even attempts to escape to a German PT boat almost immediately, but has come to his senses near the end.
Working with a low budget, Corman is surprisingly able to create a high number of suspense scenes and well-done action sequences.
The action scenes are excellently filmed, too, making great use of location photography to heighten the suspense.
The film boasts a great Hugo Friedhofer score which adds the perfect mournful touch to a scene involving a dead baby; and just the right rousing action theme for the combat portions.
No, THE SECRET INVASION, a solid Roger Corman programmer released two years earlier, with a talented cast led by Stewart Granger, Mickey Rooney, Raf Vallone, Ed Byrnes, William Campbell and Henry Silva.
Far less predictable than DOZEN, this film has some dynamite performances (Byrnes, Rooney and Silva are especially good), great action, and some surprising plot twists.
Although producer/director Roger Corman is known for his "economical" pictures, this World War II actioner belies its $600,000 budget (small by conventional Hollywood standards, but an epic for Corman) and is a well-acted, tightly directed, enjoyable not-quite-so-little picture.
The story of a group of misfit Allied soldiers sent to rescue an important Italian general who has been imprisoned by the Nazis, Corman makes good use of the Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, locations and a cast consisting of much better actors then he usually got, especially Mickey Rooney, Stewart Granger and Henry Silva (in an outstanding performance as a taciturn, deadly killer who isn't quite as cold-blooded as he seems).
The action scenes are very well handled, the picture looks much more expensive than its budget would indicate, and it actually garnered some of the best reviews of Corman's career up to that time, and deservedly so.
This exciting and so-so war movie produced by Gene Corman packs thrills, suspense , plot twists , lots of action sequences and climatic ending , but doesn't quite hang together.
It deals with Major Mace (Stewart Granger) , a tough commandant , he assigns a motley team(Mickey Rooney ,Raf Vallone , Edd Byrnes, Henry Silva, William Campbell) for a dangerous mission whose aim is to free an Italian General (Enzo Fiermonte) .
The commando must participate in a suicidal mission, the first to wipe a Yugoslavian little town and after an assault over a strong position located on Dubrovnik , Croacia, where is imprisoned the Italian General.
Serious and rough Stewart Granger is good as leader of the motley pack together thwart the the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast with particular mention to Henry Silva and Raf Vallone who finish developing a sincere friendship .
The film belongs to Commandos sub-genre operating beyond enemy lines whose maximum examples result to be the classics as ¨Dirty dozen¨(Robert Aldrich) , ¨Guns of Navarone¨ (J.L. Thompson) , ¨When eagles dare ¨ (Brian G Hutton), ¨ and ¨Kelly's heroes¨ (Hutton) and other movies that were made during the 60s and 70s regarding wartime adventures about special forces in risked missions .
After his period realizing poverty-budget horror movies as ¨Swamp woman, The beast with a million of eyes, Attack of the crab monsters , Undead¨, then came the cycle of tales of terror based on Poe as ¨ House of Usher, Pit and pendulum, The raven , Tales of terror, The masque of the red death ¨ , and meanwhile Corman made this passable war film that achieved limited success..
This film is well directed by Roger Corman and has a great plot with some good twists.
Edd Byrnes, Stewart Granger, William Campbell and Henry Silva give solid performances and Raf Vallone adds an introspective quality that raises this film a few notches above the average adventure.
Although there are only a few, the scenes were shocking and tense in 1964 and still strike a chord now.The Dirty Dozen(1967), which I also like very much, may be the best known of the two but the Secret Invasion was a forerunner of the genre and in my estimation is the better film..
Stewart Granger, Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney, William Campbell,Edd Byrnes, and Henry Silva are part of "The Secret Invasion," directed by Roger Corman.
Vallone, Rooney, Campbell and Silva are prisoners who are brought in as part of a mission to free an Italian general, who was about to turn on the Nazis and turn his army over to the allies and is now being held by the Nazis.
Saval (Campbell) doesn't trust him.While this is a derivative movie, it's filled with action, some good characters, sadness, and violence.
On a side note, because I know German, the German spoken was perfect and, unlike Das Boot, easy to understand.Corman made this on a low budget, and the actors' performances vary as a result of not being able to fill this movie with an all-star cast.
Granger, Vallone, Rooney and Silva are excellent as are the members of the German cast.Good drama, good war story..
Secret Invasion had a better premise than Dozen.In Dozen the mission was to kill as many German officers as possible at a castle which also would include their their wives and girlfriends.
In Secret Invasion the mission was to rescue a popular Italian general from German captivity so that he could return to lead Italian forces.
At that time many Italians wavered between German and Allied forces so a strong leader could turn the tide so Italians would join the Allied cause.The film demands some understanding of the war to fully understand the plot.
There are plenty of convincing battle scenes and Corman does a fine job of directing with good acting.
Even though the story is a combination of The Dirty Dozen and The Guns Of Navarone, it's all delivered in nice style.Heading the mission is Major Stewart Granger and the time is during those days just before the Allies invaded Italy proper having already landed and occupied Sicily.
His team includes Raf Vallone, Edd Byrnes, William Campbell, Mickey Rooney, and Henry Silva.
With Granger that makes it a half a dozen.These six are to go into occupied Yugoslavia and kidnap a popular Italian general.
Still the mission is completed kind of and a few actually survive to tell the tale.Best in the cast is Mickey Rooney who adopts a nice Irish brogue as he plays an IRA man who's good with explosives.
But remember he was born Joe Yule, Jr. quite Jewish.The Secret Invasion will not be one of Roger Corman's cult classics, it had too big a budget for that.
It was Stewart Granger, Mickey Rooney and above all Edd "Kookie" Byrnes whose acting was really bad.
In Cairo, Egypt, during World War II, British Major Stewart Granger (as Richard Mace) pardons five criminals from prison - "master of disguise" William Campbell (as Jean Saval), boozy Irish revolutionary Mickey Rooney (as Terence Scanlon), well-coiffed forger Edd Byrnes (as Simon Fell), close-mouthed assassin Henry Silva (as John Durrell), and educated crime lord Raf Vallone (as Roberto Rocca).
"The Secret Invasion" is relatively bloody for its time, with good action and locations.***** The Secret Invasion (9/16/63) Roger Corman ~ Stewart Granger, Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney, Edd Byrnes.
The Secret Invasion (1964) ** (out of 4)Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney, Edd Byrnes, Henry Silva and William Campbell play convicts who are given an opportunity for parole but to do so they must cross into enemy territory and rescue an Italian general who is being held hostage during WWII.
By that description you'd think this Roger Corman film was nothing more than a rip-off of THE DIRTY DOZEN but it would be important to check the dates because this one here was actually released three years before the more popular film.
With that said, if THE DIRTY DOZEN was a reworking or remake of this then it was certainly needed because while this film might look good it offers very little else.
Going on this mission with five characters that you really don't like pretty much stops this film in its tracks.
For such a low budget movie the battle scenes at least look very good with the various gunfights and explosions.
British officer Major Richard Mace recruits a bunch of convicted criminals in to a carrying out a secret mission that involves rescuing an Italian General being held hostage by the Nazis in Yugoslavia .
If they fail they won't have to worry about living long enough to be sent back to jail because this is a literal suicide mission The above premise is very similar to THE DIRTY DOZEN a fact reflected that everyone on this page has brought up the 1967 film directed by Robert Aldrich .
THE SECRET INVASION probably didn't have much or any influence over THE DIRTY DOZEN and perhaps this 1964 movie owes more to the 1961 big budget release THE GUNS OF NAVERONE ?
You want a demolition expert then who better than Mickey Rooney who shockingly was only 44 when this movie was released but looks like a man at least 20 years older .
You do get the impression that his character would have a problem running up a flight of stairs never mind taking part in a physically draining mission against the Nazis THE SECRET INVASION is directed by Roger Corman and that alone tells you what the production values are going to be like .
That said the resolution to the mission is somewhat surprising and unexpected which means if the film had a bigger budget then it might have been held in higher regard than it actually is.
It's not just the low budgets, it's the scripts, the way the story lines are handled, the acting....This film was so bad, I couldn't make it past about 45 minutes.
Fun war movie with dirty dozen theme.
The characters are probably not as well drawn as in the Dirty Dozen, but the plot and the turns are better.
The Secret Invasion is directed by Roger Corman and written by R.
It stars Stewart Granger, Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney, Edd Byrnes, Henry Silva, Spela Rozin and William Campbell.
Arling.1943 and British Intelligence send Major Richard Mace (Granger) and five convicts into Yugoslavia on a dangerous mission.
They are to rescue an Italian General from German captivity in the hope that he will join the fight against the Nazis.An army based reworking of Corman and Campbell's Five Guns West from 1955, The Secret Invasion is cheap on budget but rich on action.
There's such a sense of fun about the whole thing and Corman still manages to create suspense and craft potent action scenes.The ensemble cast bring to life the roll call of damaged characters who are either looking for redemption, personal gain or just a crack at getting the freedom dangled in front of them.
The Eastman Color is very appealing, the pic actually filmed on location in Yugoslavia, and Friedhofer provides a very effective musical score that hits the right beats for the blend of drama and sorrow that fills out the plot.Corman inevitably has to cut some corners, such as one key character is killed off screen, not all the acting is great and veers close to being second string Spaghetti Western standard, and of course the plot is bonkers.
But the flaws never stop it being worth the time of the Action War film fan.
See it- Raise your hand if you like a rousing World War 2 suicide mission movie.
It's kind of hard not to chuckle when the soldier, after being tortured, says with a straight face, "It's okay, they didn't hurt my writing hand." This war film has no huge movie stars, but familiar faces include Stewart Granger, Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney, and Henry Silva.
Now Secret Invasion isn't in the same league as The Dirty Dozen in terms of Production, but for its low budget, it's worth a watch.
3 years before the Dirty Dozen, Secret Invasion was first in the "Prisoners who get a 2nd chance so they hand pick 5 to carry out a secret mission" fighting the Nazi's storyline.
Producer/director Roger Corman actually comes up with a very commendable war movie on his typical "B" budget.
The British feel rescuing the general will influence him to have his army fight with the Allied forces.Interesting and diverse cast featuring: Stewart Granger, Henry Silva, Raf Vallone, Edd (Kookie) Brynes, Mickey Rooney, Spela Rozin and Peter Coe. Filmed in Yugoslavia and Croatia..
Their mission is to distract the Nazis from the actual invasion by liberating a high-ranking officer General Quadri (Enzo Fiermonte of "A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die") from a Nazi prison stronghold who can unite the partisans and keep the German Army busy.Producer & director Roger Corman earned a reputation cranking out low budget, drive-in movie creature features, but "The Secret Invasion" represents a drastic departure of his usual nonsense.
This above-average World War II epic is bolstered by a strong cast headed by English actor Stewart Granger and scenic locations in both Croatia and Yugoslavia that lend a sense of authenticity to this impossible mission epic.
Furthermore, produced as it was in 1964, "The Secret Invasion" beat director Robert Aldritch's superior pardon the convicts for a top secret classified mission "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) by three years.
Mind you, "The Secret Invasion" wasn't the top box office draw of 1964 that "The Dirty Dozen" proved it was in 1967, but this offbeat World War II movie is still pretty damned good in and of itself.Our heroes enter the Balkans by way of a fishing boat, rather like Gregory Peck and his companions in "The Guns of Navarone," but things go awry when Simon tries to escape and the others have to dive over the side and swim around behind a Nazi patrol boat to kill the enemy.
"The Secret Invasion" qualifies as one of the few times that director Roger Corman proved that he could make a bigger budget picture.
Although a low-budget film, "The Secret Invasion" earns a high score from me.
But "Secret Invasion" was more realistic and it was the first film to use a theme with convicts selected for a special, high-risk mission.
It has good doses of action interspersed with intrigue and suspense at every major turn.The plot in "Secret Invasion" is realistic – even for a fictitious war flick.
In this film, a small group is led by a British Army major, and they are to rescue an Italian general from a prison in Dubrovnik, Croatia (Yugoslavia during WW II and in 1964 when this film was made).
This is much more of a realistic and high-minded plan, it seems, than the violence and carnage of "Dirty Dozen" which was just to kill as many top German officers as possible – along with anyone else who might get in the way.
I don't think Stewart Granger gave his role the best he could, but that didn't hurt the film with all the other good roles and the action and intrigue.
I highly recommend "The Secret Invasion" as a very good World War II film..
Mickey Rooney as Terence Scanlon, Henry Silva as John Durrell and Stewart Granger as Major Richard Mace are just a few found in this stinker.The Germans aren't much better since they seem to be played by idiotic Slavics and a highly annoying boneheaded commander.
A super-cheap film like "The Dirty Dozen:--though it came out several years earlier..
It's interesting that this film came out in 1964--several years BEFORE "The Dirty Dozen".
A very low budget, cheap sets (which look circa 1964 instead of WWII vintage), one-dimensional characters and acting that can't come close to the stellar cast of "The Dirty Dozen" will make it VERY easy to tell the two films apart!
Like 1450342 other Roger Corman films, this one is very economically made.
The film involves this motley international group sneaking into Yugoslavia to rescue an Italian general from a German prison.
***SPOILERS*** Combination "Mission Impossible" & "Dirty Dozen" action movie with some half dozen misfits whipped into shape by their equally misfit commander British Major Richard Mace played by the very suntanned, who must have got his gorgeously striking tan sunbathing in the Sahara Desert, and refined looking Steward Granger.
The real purpose of the "secret invasion" is to rescue Italian General Quadri, Enzo Fiermonte, who's being held captive by the Germans.
The plan is to have the very popular Italian general rally his troops to join up with the Yugoslav partisans to fight against the German Army!laughable war movie until the German Army depicted at first as a German version of the Keyston Kops gets down to business and starts kicking butt on Maj. Mace and is boys who includes a leprechaun looking Mickey Rooney as IRA demolition expert Terances Scanlon.
We also have the Tony Curtis looking William Campball as disguise artist Jane Saval and dead eye assassin John Dorrell, Henry Silva, with the always smiling Italian ex-convict and now super patriot Reborto Rocca, Raf Vallone, to round out the members of the secret invasion force.Boring to the point of putting its audience to sleep the film really start to move in the last twenty or so minutes of its running time.
It's then when Maj. Mace's secret invasion force goes into action together with some 1,000 Yugoslav partisans who end up giving the Germans all the hell that they can handle.