Quel maledetto treno blindato (1978)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.7/10   

Director:

Enzo G. Castellari

Escritores:

Sandro Continenza (writer)
Sergio Grieco (writer)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

diciembre 1981 (USA)

Género:

Acción | Aventura | Comedia | Guerra

Frase comercial:

Whatever the Dirty Dozen did they do it dirtier!

Plot:

Set in Europe during WWII, a group of American soldiers are in the process of being shipped off to military prison for a variety of infractions...

Plot Keywords:

WWII | Prisoner | Murder | Escape | American

Comentarios de los usuarios:

THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS (Enzo G. Castellari, 1978) **1/2

Reparto

Bo Svenson	...	Lt. Robert Yeager
Peter Hooten	...	Tony
Fred Williamson	...	Pvt. Fred Canfield
Michael Pergolani	...	Nick
Jackie Basehart	...	Berle
Michel Constantin	...	Veronique
Debra Berger	...	Nicole
Raimund Harmstorf	...	Adolf Sachs
Ian Bannen	...	Col. Charles Thomas Buckner
Flavio Andreini
Peter Boom	...	German Officer on Train
Vito Fornari
Manfred Freyberger	...	SS Commander
Joshua Sinclair	...	The Sergeant (as John Loffredo)
Mike Morris	...	Colonel Hauser

También conocida como:

Bastardi senza gloria (Italy) (working title)
Counterfeit Commandos (USA) (reissue title)
Deadly Mission (USA) (video title)
G.I. Bro (USA) (recut version)
Hell's Heroes (USA) (video title)
The Dirty Bastard (Philippines: English title)
The Inglorious Bastards (USA)

Duración:

99 min | UK:90 min (cut version) | Germany:76 min (cut version)

País:

Italy

Idioma:

Italiano | Alemán | Francés | Inglés

Color:

Color (Telecolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Sweden:(Banned) | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 (US version) | Sweden:15 (video rating) | Norway:15 (uncut DVD version) (2007) | Singapore:M18 | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (2007) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1978) | USA:R | Norway:16 (video) (1981) (unrated video version) | Norway:(Banned) (1978-2003) (cinema release)

Locaciones de Filmación:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Compañía:

Films Concorde

Trivialidades:

Fred Williamson is named as a co-writer on screenplay on deposit at the Library of Congress Copyright Office.

Errores:

Errores que Revelan: During several of the battles, the same actors can be seen dying multiple times, only from different camera angles.

Citas:

[first title card]
Title Card: FRANCE 1944

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in Train Kept A-Rollin' (2008) (V)

THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS (Enzo G. Castellari, 1978) **1/2

Quentin Tarantino was already interested in re-making this when it was shown (as part of the Italian B-movie retrospective presided over by the geeky QT himself) during the 2004 Venice Film Festival; what I vividly recall, however, is that I wasn't all that impressed by the film…though I guess this had more to do with its being a midnight screening (having already spent most of the day watching movies) and in Summer to boot! Still, with all the hullabaloo the remake news is causing, when I happened upon the 2-Disc German edition at my local DVD rental outlet, I opted to give the film another look sooner rather than later (and I must say that our own Michael Elliott's recent viewing of it also had a hand in this!).

Anyway, the second-time around, the film proved more rewarding: my opinion of director Castellari's work runs hot and cold (for what it's worth, he personally asked me to photograph him with a gushing fan as soon as that Venice screening was over – but, being the seasoned tough-guy, he was displeased with how the digital photo came out and promptly ordered another 'take'!) but this can now be seen as one of his more satisfying efforts, if still far from a classic (of either the war genre or the "Euro-Cult" style). While it was clearly modeled on THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), the film's plot is quite original as a quintet of soldiers being transported throughout France to be tried for various crimes find themselves at large (after the convoy suffers an aerial attack by the enemy); they try to make it to the neutral Swiss border but, along the way, encounter first a sympathetic German and then an American commando unit dressed up as Germans – unaware of the ruse, they simply fight for their lives and this would-be professional outfit is effortlessly slaughtered by our desperate heroes!

Eventually, they meet a band of French partisans (led by Michel Constantin) who take them for the undercover Americans – when the leader of the operation (Ian Bannen) turns up, he's furious but the officer among the group (Bo Svenson) offers to do the job themselves, assuring Bannen that his team has proved to be equally resilient! Apart from providing the necessary exposition for all five characters – also including an imposing black man (Fred Williamson), a handsome but pushy type (Peter Hooten, from John Derek's horrid FANTASIES [1981]!), a shell-shocked mechanical expert, and an Italian 'hippie' (inspired, no doubt, by Donald Sutherland from KELLY'S HEROES [1970]) acting as comedy relief – the first half of the film sees the protagonists getting into various scrapes with their superiors, themselves, various German soldiers (naturally) but also a group of nurses skinny-dipping and who promptly turn their guns on the sex-starved men when they realize (upon catching a glimpse of Williamson) that they're the enemy!

The last act, then, involves the deadly mission (one of the film's myriad alternate titles, by the way) itself – Svenson and Bannen are to board a train disguised as German scientists (the former happens to be fluent in the language) in order to steal a prototype of the V2 bomb, while the young soldier is to replace the machinist; Hooten is in charge of blowing up a bridge, so that the train will be derailed where it will then be ambushed by the partisans (Williamson among them); the hippie is to give the go-ahead for the demolition (if anything goes wrong, the train will be allowed to step on the bridge so that it will go down with it). The first 70 minutes of the film or so are generally easy-going, sparked by the hippie's irreverent humor (often breaking into heavily-accented English – for the record, I watched the film in Italian); this, however, leads somewhat jarringly into the tragic denouement as most of the gang lay down their life for a just cause (presumably, the rather unsympathetic Hooten is allowed to survive merely because he has been redeemed after falling for a French nurse serving with the partisans!).

As expected, the film is packed to the gills with exciting action – even if Castellari seems overly fond of the obviously choreographed stunt-work (parading it right from the animated opening credits sequence); still, one other definite asset here is a rousing (if repetitive) score courtesy of the ubiquitous Francesco De Masi. Finally, one anticipates Tarantino's remake will be much different (full of the director's individualistic touches to begin with) and far more graphic (as news of script leakages have already intimated); having said that, the names currently being banded about as potential cast members – Brad Pitt(!), Eli Roth(!!), Mike Myers(!!!) – are a far cry from the "Planet Hollywood" trio which were first rumored as being a cinch (I bet the prospect of having Myers as a villainous Jew-hunting Nazi seems so cool to Tarantino that he gets frostbite just thinking about it)! If anything, the interest engendered by the 'remake-in-nothing-but-name' has served to give an otherwise little-regarded item such as the enjoyably unpretentious Castellari effort a new (and not undeserved) lease on life…