Commandos
Tags: violence, flashback

Plot synopsis:
It is the middle of World War II, and in the deserts of Africa, Sgt. Sullivan (Lee Van Cleef) puts together a group of Italian-Americans into disguise as Italian soldiers in order to infiltrate a North African camp held by the Italians. Sullivan, along with Dino (Romano Puppo), was one of three that survived from the Pacific War against the Japanese, although Lieutenant Freeman was killed in his last mission. Their Captain in charge of the mission, Captain Valli (Jack Kelly), has a bunch of soldiers with special training. They have recruited Italian-Americans for the mission to host as the enemy. The team includes Corbi (Pier Paolo Capponi), Rodolfo (Ivano Staccioll) the teams radiomen, Riccio (Pier Luigi Anchisi), Aldo (Giampiero Albertini), Marco (Gianni Brezza), Bruno (Dullio Del Prete), Antonio (Emilio Marchesini) Carmeio (Blagio Peligra); however, Valli doubtfully has his issues for Sullivan, and the unit of his men. However, though Sullivan has his worries for Valli that he will put all the men at risk, the mission is to the Oasis, the drop zone, as it is two miles from the objective, the plan is to reach the objective and capture the Italian base to learn of the plans, also no prisoners, as the objective is to think Italian not American, as the German would be the close ally to Italian to learn of the truths.
After taking an airplane to North Africa, they jump out of the plane and parachute into North Africa and land in the desert during night hour and also bury the parachutes in the sand so as to leave no evidence. After receiving a distress signal from a fellow soldier they quickly head on task all the commandos join up for the capture of the Italian base. However, after fewer of the men regroup including Dino regroup, after however reaching the Italian base, many of the unit splits into two sections or teams, they take out the guards, and they capture the radio operator as well, but after an elderly watchmen spots that a man was killed he has alerted the guards, but however this results in a huge battle, however in the battle that follows, Valli sees that he will use the prisoners as bate but as Sullivan kills few of them, Valli clashes with Sullivan and tells him they would be needed as bait for the plan, while outside they're is no time for waiting around as It could get close to daylight so they have to use explosives to quickly do the trick, Riccio joins them to tell Valli and Sullivan they're is another way in, but however in the battle several of the Italian-American commandos are killed as a result of too much gunfire; however, Sullivan takes a squad to take out the machine gunner, Dino clears the gunner out,
After the soldiers have killed the Italians in their beds, they find a hooker living at the camp. Sullivan's commandos are to hold this camp and its weaponry until an American battalion arrives; however, though an Italian Hooker named Adriana (Marilù Tolo) however is a stool away in the camp, Valli tells a fellow soldier all men stay clear of the room away from Adriana, among the prisoners Italian Lieutenant Tommassini (Marino Mase) however Sullivan angrily threatens Tommassini, as why they was three Germans in the camp, later Tommassini is interrogated for information by Valli about why they was few Germans in the camp as he tells Valli, the Germans where he to mine the wells, and where meant to leave that morning, however meanwhile a German Professor named Oberieutnant Heitzel Agen (Joachim Fuchsberger) however is planning an invasion that will spark the end of allied lines for good, later on at the Italian base, Italian Mortar Trucks are coming to the Italian Oasis base, they attempt to use Tommassini as a decoy which they end up doing, as it is made to look like everyone is around camp stationed and doing fun, Aldo however kicks a ball at the Italian Truck Driver but however Aldo says he is sorry which the Driver agrees to, later on Aldo however asks what one of the men is doing with the fuel truck but he tells him he needs is a wrench and wire to which Aldo agrees to, but what they don't realize is one of the men who is the Elderly Guard, is still alive and has survived, however Aldo accompanies the man to the warehouse for wire, but he tells him it is to be used for carburetor, however though later on Tommassini is told that he will however have to play the dangerous game when convoys come everyday by Valli and Sullivan's words, however while Tommassini is locked up he makes a plan with his fellow men.
Later after receiving a call from the German's a guest named Professor Agen is coming to the Italian Camp for a meal, later in the dining room where however they use Tommassini and tell how the dining tables are set up, preparations are in full swing, when the German's arrive for the meeting and the night meals, while getting to know the Germans, the Italian-American's however get to know however all of the men while in the bar, however one of the men Oberieutnant Rudi (Götz George) starts to worry about the four men sent to the camp, but Agen tells him to not worry about it, however Rudi is off to check around the camp to see what his boys did, but while Sullivan witnessed it, he orders Dino to check it out, however when Rudi goes to see that a cable was detached it turns out it was to avoid a certain disaster, later Dino returns telling Sullivan that however everything is back in good control, meanwhile one of the German men, Offizier Hans (Heinz Reincke) goes to see Adriana but finds she is too sleepy and drunken although Hans insists to speak to Adriana, Sullivan listens from the room but as Hans exits the door, Sullivan speaks to Hans and tells him they were up late last night which Hans agrees to, meanwhile in the dining area Professor Agen asks if he should have the last wine, but Valli agrees to let Agen have it, however meanwhile outside the two Italian-Americans who are guarding do not realize that the Elderly German Soldier is about to sneak up on one of the men, although the other went for a bottle of champagne, however though Sullivan sees they might be trouble going on but hopes to stop it, meanwhile one of the Italian-American commandos is however knocked unconscious, in the dining room, Agen hopes to give Sullivan a drink of wine but he rejects the offer but it is given to him anyway, meanwhile as the men singing in the dining room occurs, Sullivan starts to suffer from past events happened in the Pacific War fighting the Japanese, meanwhile one of men sees Sullivan who wants air but while on duty the elderly German attacks Sullivan. As a result, the elderly German soldier fires his gunshots as Sullivan quickly strangles the German who attacked him to death, but this however alerts the Germans and the men around the base, Valli demands to know who fired the shot, but however one of the men says it was a jackle however, though Professor Agen tells Valli they would have been attacked by commandos but although it does seem it wasn't a commando attack at all, after Dino congratulates Sullivan, they clear the dead Elderly German soldier out of the way, but as Sullivan soon gets a flashback of Japanese soldiers attacking Sullivan, and how the death of Freeman occurred, however Dino tells the story to Corbi about the time Sullivan's attack in the Pacific occurred how the Japs attacked him and killed Lieutenant Freeman, but explains that Dino, Sullivan and a third man survived back in the Pacific, but as Corbi soon realizes the shocking truth that he has it against Valli, Corbi tells Dino who he has found, however Dino goes to see his close friend Sullivan and asks what is bothering him, but Dino tells Sullivan to try not think about his past back in the Pacific and that its past and gone, however as Sullivan tells Dino how he got the medal in hospital for his bravery,
Later on it is time for Professor Agen, Rudi, Braumann and Hans to return to the German lines, they thank the Italian's really Americans for the night event and wish them good luck, however Tommassini goes finds a way to wonder off but Valli and his men stop him, but Tommassini ensures him he wasn't and Valli agrees, Tommassini is escorted to the brig with the remaining prisoners, but meanwhile during the night the prisoners break free from the cell, however one of the men fakes being ill and cuts the power and takes out the guards which Tommassini and his men escape, Tommassini and the men however soon take out a few of Valli's men, but not before one of the guards finds few of the men dead and soon a fight ensures, but however Tommassini and the men soon hijack a truck in the process and get away, as such Sullivan realizes they are out of range so the men must pursue them in a truck, meanwhile in the desert the truck containing Tommassini and his men stalls in the sand while trying to get away from Sullivan's patrol, Valli goes to follow the trail they went as it left tracks in the sand, but while Tommassini and his men try to get the truck out of the sand, they use their jackets to get the wheels to work but while Tommassini and the men get aboard onto the truck, Sullivan, Valli, Dino, Aldo, Corbi and several others has caught up with the stolen truck, but while it drives through the desert, most of Tommassini's men are both killed in the back of the truck, but while Sullivan's men kill many of Tommassini's men in the shootout, Dino is mortally wounded, but neither does Tommassini know he is taking the truck into a minefield where disaster is to strike, Valli realizes they have won the round and return to base soon after, but neither do they know Tommassini has secretly survived the explosion of the truck accident, meanwhile at German lines, Braumann and Miller decide on what is bout to happen which the Germans plan an invasion which will spell disaster for the Americans, but Professor Agen, and Rudi, Braumann and Miller plan to return to the Italian camp to say goodbye to them,
Meanwhile, as the men return to the base, it is too late and Dino sadly dies in Sullivan's arms from his wounds, however though Sullivan makes an effort for his dead comrade and friend to bury his body in the sand, Aldo sees in his heart how sorro he feels for Sullivan's mate Dino, but meanwhile on a Tank patrol two of them on watch on a tank spot Lieutenant Tommassini who has been saved by friendly Germans, but back at the Italian base Sullivan however does the honor of burying his dead friend Dino alone, meanwhile a friendly airplane drops a supply into the Italian base, however the new orders as Valli read was to leave out of the base immediately, and Operation Torch is to be abandoned, later Valli orders Rodolfo to make radio contact, but however Sullivan stops him in time, Sullivan soon comes face to face with Valli and torments him over arrogance for the losses of the men like what happened to Dino back their, Valli soon realizes that Sullivan is bluffing and will have him court marshalled for the crime of assaulting Valli, and despite the losses of six men that died due to Valli's arrogance and the plan he did for Operation Torch, however Corbi tells Sullivan what happened but Sullivan doesn't want to hear it out of Corbi's words, realizing Valli might get everyone killed in this mission, Valli soon will see Sullivan shot for this, but before Sullivan is able to shoot Valli, one of the men reports vehicle's are approaching, it is Professor Agen and the Germans to say goodbye to the Italians before they leave, Agen however thanks Valli for the effort, however though Agen asks about the American landings that might have upset him but as a result Agen asks what happened to Tommassini but although Valli tells that he was about to get out of their alive as Tommassini has gone to headquarters, (in reality he was already still alive and will soon be telling Agen about this on radio) as Agen is to report onto the radio, Valli accompanies Agen to the radio, as Agen reports to the radio that the Italian's are actually Italian-American commandos, but Agen however sees Valli smiling and Agen although sees good in Valli as a friend, however though Sullivan suspects Tommassini has warned them and will soon be in grave anger, however the man Hazel he talks to is to bring a column of his tanks to attack, but eventually Agen realizes the men will arrive as fast as they can to stop them, however Agen asks about Tommassini he did want to see him but realizes it was too bad he wasn't their, Valli tells to Agen that he said his goodbyes for him, however Agen and his friend Valli drink to the alliance they made and friendship they made, however Agen and Valli respect the friendship, however meanwhile Sullivan asks Corbi how much time they have got, but Sullivan orders Corbi to get the guns ready before something is about to happen, however Agen sees Sullivan again and asks him for a drink but he tells it is a special moment but an order he should obey, but as a result Sullivan refuses to drink and drops it, Valli tells Agen not to do this but Sullivan however despite his arrogance starts a huge fight against the Germans,
Sullivan wounds Agen and the a huge battle however costs many lives, Agen, Rudi, Hans try to escape in the car but they are cut off, Sullivan and Corbi destroy the wells, Hans asks Agen what are the wells about but Agen tells he doesn't know what they are as they maybe machines made to pump water, as Rudi drives away two of the Italian-American's take out Rudi's car with a bazooka, but the battle becomes costly and lots of Italian-American's are killed as well as Germans in the battle, however several of the Italian-American's escape to a truck but although too late it is destroyed by Germans, Valli witnesses in horror few burning men, as Sullivan and Corbi take out the German truck with the machine gun, but as Tanks arrive, many are killed and although Aldo comments 'Someone should tell them our mission is scratched that we don't need the dam war?" to Valli, however the firepower from the tanks blows up barracks and also an Italian flag, meanwhile Agen takes his troops with him to take out the remaining Italian-Americans, Aldo also warns Valli of a incoming German Tiger Panzer Tank, however as incoming tanks arrive, Valli tells Aldo they have to go around, bur as they blow up more stuff two more Italian-American's are both killed by tank machine gun firepower and fewer more are, however the truck arrives and it to their surprise is Tommassini whom has returned to get his revenge, Tommassini sees a fuel truck and attempts to destroy it but however Aldo sees him and shoots him mortally wounding him as he reaches for the TNT, as he attempts to use it, Aldo guns Tommassini down saying his final words, "Wells, the world," as he hits the TNT which blows up the wells, only few Italian-American's are left, Valli, Sullivan, Aldo and Corbi, but however Agen kills Corbi and the other Italian-American in the process, Agen soon panics in the attack but at point range, Agen is about to shoot Valli but realizing he is a good kind friend, he screams, "No, Valli I can't, VALLI!" as Valli witnesses him and understands this, Sullivan all too well kills Agen and shoots him in the back, however Sullivan sees the dead body of Corbi on the ground and takes the bazooka to avenge for his death, Valli however tells Sullivan what is going to happen now, but Sullivan tells Valli he will carry out the plan, just as Sullivan attempts to take out the Panzer he successfully takes it out, but as he goes and makes a breakthrough to the second, Valli calls out, "Sullivan look out!" but as a result the tank fires at Sullivan mortally wounding him as Sullivan attempts to use a grenade the last thing he ever does is throw it into the caterpillars and the explosion impacts Sullivan and before Sullivan dies, he gets a last look at his memories back in the Pacific before dying from his wounds.
The only survivors are Valli and Aldo, but as Valli and Aldo finish off the remaining Germans from the Panzer Tank, Sullivan has just destroyed, Valli and Aldo look at the now dead Sullivan and understand what he died for, but suddenly Valli is shot in the back and killed by a German soldier from nowhere, allowing Aldo now the sole-surviving Italian-American commando of the mission to react, Aldo sees many dead Germans and Italian-American's that where people he knew now gone, all too silent everything seems quiet and now he is all by himself, but not before Hans, the last of Professor Agen's Junior NCO's survived the battle by himself, he nearly attempts to kill Aldo, but he sees in his heart the truth and he begins to understand Aldo's feelings and looks back the time he first met at the dining room, then seeing the truth Aldo and Hans agree a truce and they lay down their guns allowing a truce after realizing they have all their dead friends they have to bury now into graves, Aldo and Hans agree to help, together like friends they now help bury the dead soldiers including Sullivan and many others, and Agen as well, as all are lined up, Aldo and Hans now complete the dead in place and together they now await for allied Americans to come find them,

Review: This is one of the easiest to find Italian war films, and it's really not too shabby, either On the eve of the American landings in North Africa, a band of Italian-American soldiers are recruited for a special mission behind the enemy lines.
The main conflict is between Sergeant Sullivan (Lee Van Cleef, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and Captain Valli (Jack Kelly, "To Hell and Back").
It's very nice to see a late-1960s war film in which a German character has a sympathetic role, rather than a clichéd "evil Nazi" part which was so common in other action films produced during the era.
The Germans and Americans discuss culture and politics over dinner in one long scene, and this makes their face-to-face encounter during the final battle all the more moving.
The American takeover of the Italian garrison is excellently shot and finely edited, and the climactic tank battle in the oasis is purely awesome.
"Commandos" is a well-written, well-shot and action-packed war drama with a fine supporting cast and some nail-biting combat sequences, which put it a notch above many other Italian war productions in the same vein.
Lee Van Cleef leads a small special force into North Africa to take a Italian/German camp.
Decent Italian/German co-production with enough action and dramatic events to make it worth looking in on .
It deals with the inexperienced but stalwart Lieutenant Valli (Jack Kelly) who puts together a group of Italian-Americans (Giampiero Albertini , Pier Paolo Capponi , Ivano Staccioli) led by a tough sergeant (Lee Van Cleef) .
But there is a hidden man (Helmut Smith) on the fort , and problems emerge and things go awry.It follows the commando-sub-genre with familiar plot and cliché-filled, as an expert group of soldiers into disguise as Italian soldiers in order to infiltrate a North African camp held by the Italians and often hosting the enemy , but things go terribly wrong after that .It displays thrills, noisy action, extreme violence, fatalism and impressive final battle .
Nice acting by Lee Van Cleef as unsettling sergeant who has a war trauma and constantly argues with his superior and fine performance from Jack Kelly as a green by-the-book officer .
Support cast is frankly excellent , full of secondaries usual in co- productions (Spaghetti , Eurospy , Peplum) such as Giampiero Albertini , Marino Masé , Götz George , Pier Paolo Capponi , Duilio Del Prete, Ivano Staccioli , Marilù Tolo , and Joachim Fuchsberger from Edward Wallace series , among others .Evocative and atmospheric cinematography in Cromoscope, being shot during July , August 1968 in Cerdeña.Enjoyable and adequate musical score by Mario Nascinbene.The motion picture was well directed by Armando Crispino .
As for all the nay sayers on this site, it doesn't sound like they actually saw the movie or watched it all the way through.If you love WWII films or action films, make this a must see.
Lee Van Cleef leads a band of New York Italian American paratroopers whom must raid and hold an Axis water supply depot.
Most importantly they must be about to pass for Italian solders in order to fool their German comrades.The oasis depot proves to be a very elaborate but well fortified Axis hotel.
Their Italian prisoners escape, more and more German squads keep visiting and worse yet Van Cleef himself is a deranged and unstable veteran of Bataan who hates all superior officers as glory hounds carelessly putting his men at risk.The final scene is a really great one.
Even if they are the main characters.Unlike neutered German WWII films like 'Stalingrad.' The Italians got it right.
No drama or romance, just guts and glory.'Desert Commandos' is a perfect companion piece to this film..
Who would of thought that a low budget Italian/U.S. war drama with no big stars would be one of the best films of 1968?
In an era of glamourized war films (The syrupy "McConnell Story" and ludricous "Sands of Iwo Jima" come to mind), a gritty film like "Commandos" is a real pleasure indeed.It stars Lee Van Cleef, who you may remember from "A Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." He was sort of the Harvey Keitel of that time, an actor who took risks and made unconventional films for the time.
What makes "Commandos" special is its' focus on two things: mind boggling action sequences and characterizations.I would like to make everyone aware that for a budget video copy, the video transfer is excellent.
Intense not so covert war action with good drama between characters and a few twists in the plot.
Sergeant Sullivan (Lee Van Cleef) shows scares from previous conflicts, illustrating the personal side that never is far away from the professional.
The personal conflict and struggle between Sergeant Sullivan and Captain Valli (Jack Kelly) is constantly simmering and sometimes boiling over.
Another fantastic slice of war drama from the Italians, who were at their best filming on a tight budget in the middle of the African desert and blowing up shedloads of jeeps and tanks along the way.
Following in the footsteps of dozens of similar offerings post-DIRTY DOZEN, the simplistic plot line tells of a small group of American soldiers who capture an Italian base in the middle of the desert (what for is never quite explained) and then who have to pretend to be Italians when the Germans show up looking for a good time.
An excellent script with full-on characterisation, a few moral messages about the nature of war and comradeship, and heapings of suspense (realised through a monotonous but effective chordal note on the soundtrack) make for one heck of a film.The film is based on a short story by notorious exploitation producer Menahem Golan, with the script co-written (with three others) by none other than Dario Argento, who later found fame as the "Italian Hitchcock".
Lee Van Cleef handles the part of his tough sergeant as well as you would expect, and as a bonus gets extra psychological torment via some Filipino flashbacks.
The action sequences are mostly saved for the finale, but what a finale it is: packed with gunfire, explosions, destruction, mayhem and death, this easily rivals much more lavish productions and is the best battle I've seen in a long time.
It might be because this is more or less a straight-up war movie that happened to be made by Italians rather than a Spaghetti Western with tanks instead of horses.
The film seems to be lacking in the "fun" department too, with a heavy handed musical score, shameless overacting by the usually more low-keyed Lee Van Cleef, a cast of hundreds of nobody's rather than just a dozen or so, and a brooding sense of doom that builds into an over-the-top final battle scene where everyone of importance to the movie dies horribly.
Thank God. Even the funky desert goggles couldn't liven things up, might as well kill everybody.War Is Hell and of course it shouldn't be fun, so fans of mainstream war films will perhaps enjoy this more than the cultists -- and they got the stupid machine guns + uniforms etc right for once, thank freakin' God for that ...
Look for Singing German scenes in HELL IN NORMANDY, CHURCHILL'S LEOPARDS and BATTLE OF THE LAST PANZER for more information.COMMANDOS does have a great sequence where the captured Italian officers break out of their jail cell to fight their American commando captors, and like with Umberto Lenzi's DESERT COMMANDOS this movie sort of tricks you into rooting for the Axis soldiers, including a sympathetic German officer who comes off as rather a decent chap.
Lee Van Cleef on the other hand comes across as a sweaty faced, sneering, jittery psychopath barely able to contain his homicidal rage, and the best image of the film has him staring into the eyes of a dead man he killed with his bare hands, reliving a flashback to a disastrous raid gone bad from his days fighting in the Pacific.
Welcome to the world of public domain genre films, where the point is to rip off the best version possible, undercut the original releases with a ridiculously/suspiciously low price, and as such de-value a rugged little distinctive movie into a bit of garbage on sale for $.49 cents in the store where people go to buy things like forks, mutated Doritos or cheap party decorations.
Standard low budget war movie.
The movie itself was decent...acting a bit over the top from some of the players, the plot very predictable, and the ending a bit smarmy, intent on teaching us a nice lesson about the horrors of war.The worst part of the film were the technical details.
The obvious use of the 1944 M3 Grease Gun as the weapon of choice for the commandos, a weapon which didn't even see North Africa, let alone North Africa in 1942, the year before it made it to Army usage.One can forgive the use of US Chaffee and Walker Bulldog tanks repainted in German Afrika Tan (after all, Patton did too), but too many errors upon errors crept into the movie to make it truly enjoyable.
Lee Van Cleef and Jack Kelly are the two American stars of this European made war film with an Italian and German cast.
Van Cleef is a combat veteran of the Pacific and Kelly is a Captain in his first mission.
That mission is a gem.Kelly and Van Cleef head a team of picked Commandos all of whom have an Italian background and speak fluent Italian.
In the meantime the group is to kill all the Italian soldiers and take over their command like a relief unit and keep their cover under the watchful eyes of the Germans.
Lee Van Cleef can really frighten the audience while maintaining a good guy innocence at the same time.
An entirely different description of Commandos was listed, so imagine my surprise when I saw it was the old Lee Van Cleef movie!
There's no historic accuracy to it at all, other than the Germans and Italians were fighting in North Africa (or the Western Desert, for our British friends).
surprisingly good war film for under 50 cent !.
for this jarring start to the movie one would suspect the film to be "el cheap-o", but one look at the mean ass sgt.
then the opening credits roll and that old school, Italian movie masterpiece symphony music comes on and grips any real hard core war flick fan by the nads!
though the mission the "commandos" are on may seem to be absolutely impossible, for some reason this film makes it all seam possible and looks rather realistic, especially for its 1968 release.
and anybody who is a fan of tanks and tank crews in film, such as "the beast", will love the presence of the Germans in their panzer units, riding and fighting threw the desserts of Africa.
Gritty World War II Secret Mission Thriller with Lee Van Cleef.
"Autopsy" director Armando Crispino's historically inaccurate but nevertheless gripping World War II behind-enemy-lines, secret-mission thriller "Commandos" qualifies as a rugged, gritty, suspenseful combat epic.
Lee Van Cleef delivers a riveting performance as a belligerent, battle-scarred Bataan hero who survived, along with two other companions, a death-defying ordeal.
Interestingly, she points out that she can earn more money in the army camp than back home.The conceit of "Commandos" is that our heroes are descendants of genuine Italians and Sergeant Sullivan and his right-hand man Dino (Romano Puppo of "Death Rides A Horse") have spent a month training them for the mission.
Sullivan has little regard for most of them, but he has nothing but sheer contempt for his superior officer, Captain Valli (Jack Kelly of "To Hell & Back") who has never baptized in combat.
"You got a lot of bright ideas, Captain, but do you know what killing is—exactly—with these (makes gestures with his hands) and (brandishing a bayonet) this?" Later, Valli explains that they will parachute near their destination.
Captain Valli refuses to watch Sullivan turn the raid into a massacre, and he spares the lives of Italian Lt. Tomassini (Marino Mase of "The Five Man Army") and many of his troops.
No sooner do the Germans leave than the Italian hatch a plan of escape.The themes of "Commandos" include the inhumanity of war, experienced versus inexperienced combatants, battlefield shock, and the duty that an officer has both to his men and the mission.
The irony is that the Germans and the Italians are depicted with greater sympathy than the tough guy Americans.
The German soldiers get along with each other as do the Italians, but the Americans clash, principally Sullivan and Valli.
Consequently, "Commandos" concludes with the Americans exploding the water holes and fighting the Germans with tragic results for both Sullivan and Valli.Mind you, the authenticity of the action doesn't bear close scrutiny.
Instead, they are repainted U.S. Army Chaffee and Walker Bulldog tanks with German insignia, and the M3A1 submachine guns that the Americans tote weren't available for another year.
Allowances must be made, however, and the Cold War tanks overlooked since the German tanks were long since kaput, while the "Dirty Dozen" machine guns look cool.
The sun-scorched widescreen photography of "Taste of Death" lenser Benito Frattari makes this desert-locked minor war film look sprawling and the nocturnal actions scenes have a perilous, primitive quality.
The strident music of composer Mario Nascimbene enhances the suspense, especially when Sullivan and his men search for a wounded German engineer who remains at large in the compound.
Sergeant Sullivan summarizes it succinctly to Captain Valli in an earlier scene.
Drama of World War II in North Africa from the Italian Point of View.
In North Africa the German-Italian Axis forces under Field Marshal Rommel are at El-Alamein.
Italian-American commandos, led by a humane Captain Valli and a tense Sergeant Sullivan, have the mission of taking an oasis held by Italians in preparation for Operation Torch, the planned American invasion of Africa in November 1942.
Without going into details, the movie focuses on the escapades of the commando unit as they first take on the Italians, then pose as the "regular" Italians in deceiving the Germans, and then battle the Germans in a lengthy and exciting action sequence (only to face a bitter irony revealed during the denouement).The movie was not cliché-filled as Leonard Maltin has written in his Movie Guide.
Instead the ending is a complete surprise  BIG TIME SPOILER ALERT  as only one Italian-American (not a lead character) and a German (a jovial sort of fellow) are left.
A group of American commandos, disguised as Italian solders, must infiltrate North Africa and take of an Italian outpost.
This may prove to be the biggest hurdle that the American solders face.Commandos has a lot to recommend - action, suspense, cast, and locations.
The final battle scene is a thing of beauty and far exceeded my expectations given the films obviously limited budget.
Chief among them are Marino Mase (the Italian officer who must work with the Americans to save his men) and Joachim Fuchsberger (the German officer who would rather be at home than fighting a war).
You can look far and wide but I doubt you'll find anyone who overacts and chews the scenery quite like Van Cleef does in this movie.
I just can't imagine a real solder questioning a superior officer quite like Sullivan does in Commandos.
A more realistic disagreement between the two solders would have made the movie much better.There are several budget companies that specialize in public domain films that have released Commandos.
I'm another one who got in the bargain bin at wal-mart in an 8 "Classic War Movie" package for $5.50.It was enjoyable, especially the battle sequences.
There are some technical problems here and there with weaponry and the producers/scriptwriters' love of submachine guns.It surprised me how halfway through the movie I realized that the Italians and Germans were the ones portrayed sympathetically and the Americans weren't.The Germans are very well portrayed with accurate Afrika Korps uniforms (down to such details as pink piping and skull collar insignia for tankers) as are the Italians.
Conversely the American details are off, from the postwar M3A1 submachine guns to the late war "Ike" jackets.The use of US tanks is always excusable for me because where were you going to get real German WW2 tanks in 1970?
It ain't a classic but it ain't bad and the little uniform details and sympathetic portrayal of the Germans/Italians made it worth while for me..
The 89-minute version is most strictly adults only.COMMENT: "Commandos" suffers from a director who insists on getting far too close to the action.
My experience with Italian war movies are that most made in the 60's (well just about all) are comic book with the exception of the one about the Naples uprising and the one about the Battle Of El Alemain, both are good for a couple of viewings before you see some pretty bad flaws with the acting.
I had low aspirations for Commandos but the print on this public domain set was so good, and Lee Van Cleef is so warped that I started to get into it and was ready to give this a 8 star review.
Its a shame too because this film print is really decent and a really wide format wide screen, plus you've got two actors you will recognize, Van Cleef and the German guy who flew the fighter plane over Omaha beach in The Longest Day movie (among other recognizable roles he has played to American audiences).
The story curiously enough was written by someone with a Jewish sounding name, I find that curious since it's a joint Italian/German production and clearly puts both of their armies in a good light were as the Americans kind of stink.
5 of 10 only for hard core war film buffs.