Watch Churchill's Leopards For Free

The Age of Commercialism

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

CHURCHILL'S LEOPARDS - great title, by the way - is yet another addition to the wave of WW2 flicks that emerged from Italy in the late 1960s after the initial enthusiasm for the spaghetti western genre had run dry. It's a very familiar tale about a group of soldiers on a mission to blow up a dam in Nazi-occupied France.What follows is routine in the extreme, a film with only a handful of memorable moments (like the bit where a crowd of collaborators are about to be executed, an exercise in tension). The action is sparse and when it comes it's a bit of a disappointment, but then director Maurizio Pradeaux had only made a couple of films previously so he was hardly a seasoned expert behind the camera.The most interesting thing about the film is the cast. American strongman Richard Harrison plays the dual role of a Nazi officer and his lookalike who's brought in to help the team, while Klaus Kinski is the nasty Nazi bad guy. Giacomo Rossi-Stuart has a supporting role as another hero, while Euro crumpet Helga Line shows up (and is welcome) and Spanish actor Frank Brana (RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD) has a cameo.

A tough team carries out a relentless assignment plenty of thrilling action , risked adventures and hazardous feats . Spaghetti/War film about a misfit outfit led by Richard Harrison who carry out a suicide mission behind enemy lines . The mission: search out and destroy a dam in Normandy before the D-Day invasion . The movie is set during World War II in the days just prior to the D-Day invasion. A special parachute unit is sent to destroy a German dam installation . A group of two-fisted soldiers formed by various experts are drafted to go on a near-suicide mission and attempt to destroy it . The volunteer commandos, misfits from the American army do not care how its done and will run over anyone who gets in their way . ¨Commando attack¨ or ¨Curchill's leopards¨ is an entertaining film with Richard Harrison as a stiff officer posing as a Nazi lieutenant , his true brother , as his father is British and his mother is German . Richard Harrison leading a group of motley and eclectic soldiers for a dangerous assault on strongly armored Nazi position . In the hands of hardboiled director Maurizio Pradeaux , and a tough-as-leather cast , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring wartime flick . Harrison's mission is two-fold and in violent and cynical style ; first turn his G.I.s into a valiant fighting unit , being parachuted Major Powell , Giacomo Rossi-Stuart , then turn loose on a French location in Normandy where they run into partisans -such as Pilar Velazquez , Frank Braña and Antonio Casas- , helps them penetrate behind enemy lines . The first half of the film allows the colorful cast of character actors to have their fun as they get their tails whipped into shape and develop shaky relationship with their leader . The final part is all action , as the brave commando wreak havoc and then run for their lives . The dangerous mission includes a selected group formed by a motley and varied squadron played by usual of Italian B-series . This is a rugged WWII actioner concerning about an experienced officer , he's assigned by Military staff to lead a group of valiant G.I.s , as they pull off a extremely risked assignment called ¨Operation Over Edge¨ . At the end they must participate in the suicidal mission behind the enemy lines , to wipe the German group by means of a violent assault over a strongly protected position and put an explosive rocket into dam .Richard Harrison in a double role as Lt. Richard Benson / Lt. Hans Müller assumes the character of commando leader along with Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Major Powell in this ordinary wartime movie regularly directed by Maurizio Pradeaux . This moving film packs frantic thrills , perilous adventures , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action and violence . The noisy action is uniformly well-made , especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes on the dam , including some spectacular shootouts , firing and bombing . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Harrison into his varied group , the film is full of feats , shots and thrills though contains excessive dialog and a lot of night scenes . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Richard Harrison is good in his usual tough role , here playing the unshakable Lt. Richard Benson . Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as rough Major is fine as officer of the motley pack together thwart the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast full of familiar faces as Spanish actors such as Pilar Velazquez , Antonio Casas , Helga Line , Frank Braña as Italian players such as Máximo Righi , Goffredo Unger and many others ; all of them habitual secondary players in multiple Italian/Spanish films and mostly playing brief interventions . Atmospheric and functional musical score by Franco Salina and aceptable cinematography in Eastmancolor filmed by Miguel Fernández Mila on locations in La Pedriza , Manzanares del Real , Madrid ; being necessary an urgent remastering because the film copy is washed out . This is a wartime typical vehicle and into the ¨warlike commando genre¨ , in USA style which also belong the American classics as : ¨Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich) ¨ Where eagles dare¨ (Brian G. Hutton) , ¨Kelly's heroes (Hutton ) , ¨Tobruk¨ (Arthur Hiller) , ¨Devil's Brigade¨ (Andrew V McLagen) and many others .The movie was produced in enough budget by Ricardo Sanz who financed various Paella Western such as "My Horse, My Gun, Your Widow" , ¨4 Implacables¨ , ¨Bala Marcada¨ and "I'll Kill Him and Return Alone" .The film was professionally directed by Maurizio Pradeaux and some moments he gets a competent Italian war actioner . ¨Commando attack¨ or ¨Churchill's leopards¨ belongs to Spaghetti War sub-genre , whose maxim representatives are the followings filmmakers : Umberto Lenzi with ¨Battle of commandos¨ ,¨Desert commandos¨ , ¨Battle force¨ , Leon Klimovsky with ¨June 44 , Normandy¨, "Hell's Brigade: The Final Assault", "The Legion of No Return" ¨ , Alfonso Brescia with ¨Objective : Rommel¨ , ¨Misiones Ardientes¨ , ¨Hell in Normandy¨ , Albert De Martino with ¨Dirty heroes¨, Jose Luis Merino with ¨Hell commandos¨ , Armando Crispino with ¨Commandos¨ and Robert Bianchi Montero with ¨36 hours of hell¨ . ¨Churchill's leopards¨ rating 5'5/10 : Average but entertaining .

British commandos parachute into Nazi-occupied France before the June 6th Allied invasion scheduled for Normandy against Fortress Europe to destroy a dam in Maurizio Pradeaux's above-average World War II secret mission movie "Churchill's Leopards," toplining expatriate American leading man Richard Harrison and German character actor Klaus Kinski. Pradeaux's serious-minded, behind-enemy-lines thriller duplicates the familiar line-up of events that inevitably culminate in the pyrotechnics at the dam at the end of the film. The chief problem here is the hackneyed gimmick of identical twin brothers on which the plausibility of the mission rests and mediocre special effects when the dam is blown to smithereens. "Churchill's Leopards" generates sufficient suspense to keep you interested. The two chief flaws are its paucity of surprises and its cookie-cutter characters bereft of any memorable characteristics. Italian peplum/Spaghetti western actor Richard Harrison plays dual roles in this Macaroni war movie. He is cast capably enough as both British Army lieutenant Richard Benson and German Wehrmacht officer Hauptman Hans Muller. We are told that Benson and Muller were the sons of a British father and a German mother. The mother ardently supported the policies of Adolf Hitler before she died. Pradeaux immerses audiences with black & white, documentary World War II footage to establish the proper mood. As the movie opens, a sexy female French Resistance agent stabs Muller to death while he is making love to her in bed. Interestingly, Pradeaux doesn't show the cold, hard steel of the knife plunging into the German's flesh. Moments later, Benson steps into his death brother's boots with a twinge of regret. Later, he is informed that nobody could have been done to prevent Muller's death. The masquerade proves to be no picnic for Benson. He has to contend with the likes of an evil, sagacious Nazi Gestapo officer Captain Holtz (Klaus Kinski of "For A Few Dollars More") who persistently checks up on Benson and chides him about his lust for women. The only thing that differentiates Benson and Muller is a large, ugly scar on his lower right-hand side of his back. This identifying mark plays an important role later in the film.Meanwhile, in England, the British plan to blast the huge dam with a sophisticated underwater drill furnished to them by the Royal Navy. "Because of the narrowness of the gorge and the position of the dam, it is impregnable to air attack," an older, superior British officer explains to Major Powell (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart of "The Revenge of Spartacus") in the usual briefing before the big mission scene. At least, Pradeaux gets this obligatory scene out of the way early. "If we can break it, the water released will wash away all the roads and important bridges for miles and miles around." The colonel adds that the supply lines of two Panzer divisions will be destroyed. When Powell asked about high altitude bombing as an alternative, his commander points out that the Americans advanced that argument initially, but the experts felt that it wouldn't have been as effective as place a charge in the dam.The first moment of genuine suspense occurs 28 minutes into the picture when the good guys are hidden in a wagon piled high with hay that the Nazis decide to give the pitchfork test. Appropriately enough, complications make things none-too-easy for Powell and his commandos. The aerial drop took a toll on their explosives equipment. As a result, Powell has to impersonate a priest to confer with Benson about obtaining replacement parts. This hasty arranged rendezvous gets Powell in trouble when a Nazi patrol demands to see his permit and they have to kill them. Holtz selects twenty villagers to execute unless the killer or killers come forward. Pradeaux drums up some suspense in this scene as well as in the final part of the movie as the commandos laboriously drill a hole large enough into the dam to seat a large, cylindrical explosives charge. The Germans storm the dam with Holtz leading the charge.Klaus Kinski could sleep walk through this role, since he played a similar S.S. Officer in Gianfranco Parolini's "Five for Hell." Incidentally, Kinski served in the German Army in World War II and the British took him prisoner in the Netherlands. Harrison gives his standard but sympathetic tight-lipped performance as a British lieutenant. He has been dubbed as was the entire cast. Unfortunately, the usually reliable Giacomo Rossi-Stuart comes off looking curiously bland. The scenery is spectacular and the dam looks impressive until the pyro-technicians provide a sloppy substitute for it when it explodes.Wild East Productions has done a superlative job of transferring "I Leopardi di Churchill" to DVD; it's an immaculate widescreen print in 1.85.1 with crisp, clear colors. This formulaic, war-as-a-thrilling-adventure action yarn with the British whipping the Nazis once again, is paired on the Wild East DVD with the Klaus Kinski & George Hilton World War II movie "Salt in the Wound," a.k.a. "The Liberators." Yes, "Salt in the Wound" is more substantial than the superficial but competently staged "I Leopardi di Churchill."

A routine Italian low budget war action movie about English dam busters working in occupied France. Best feature in the film is, obviously, the great Klaus Kinski whose SS captain brings a sinister edge to the final battle.All in all an interesting film that suffers from the same problem than most of its peers: lack of ambition. The only scene that stands out is the execution of the resistance leader (by Kinski's SS men), which makes one wonder why the rest of the film wasn't made with similar effort.