{"id":27977,"date":"2025-06-26T18:23:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T17:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=27977"},"modified":"2025-06-27T21:20:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T20:20:26","slug":"film-review-five-for-hell-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=27977","title":{"rendered":"FiLM REViEW: Five For Hell, 1969"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hmmm\u2026 pretty lame. I like to watch as many WWII movies as I can. This was a bit of a stretch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Italian \u2018macaroni combat\u2019 movie – the military or WWII equivalent of a \u2018spaghetti western\u2019 – it\u2019s directed by \u2018Frank Kramer\u2019 (real name Gianfranco Parolini), with a mostly Italian cast and crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these Italians pretending to be Americans, dubbed – horrendously woodenly (as was the norm it seems, in this era) – into English, makes for a disembodied and weird feel. The biggest name familiar to me here is Klaus Kinski, cast as a stereotypically loathsome SS officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mixed in with the mostly Italian meatballs, is the really rather gorgeous English actress, Margaret Lee, who made her career working mostly (perhaps entirely?) in Italy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kinski and Lee face off\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no point synopsising the plot. It\u2019s a complete muddle. And if ever there were a less interesting McGuffin\u2026 I\u2019ve not encountered it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole tenor of the movie is – to contemporary eyes (or mine, at any rate) – quite strange. The music, and even a good deal of the action, are more than a little tongue in cheek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s probably somewhat \u2018grindhouse\u2019. I can imagine QT quite liking it. But for me it\u2019s just off on too many notes. The music particularly so. Possibly making for a whole that\u2019s some kind of celluloid analogue of Sven Hassel meets Benny Hill?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I left off after 50 minutes, with 40 minutes to go (had to pick up my wife). I\u2019ll poss\u2019 watch the whole thing, I s\u2019pose? So\u2019s I can tick it off my \u2018list\u2019. But it\u2019s an hour and a half I won\u2019t be getting back. Can\u2019t say I\u2019d recommend this one\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John (Gianni) Garko, as Lt. Glenn Hoffman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PS<\/strong> – Some days later\u2026 Haven\u2019t gone back to finish this turkey. Doubt I ever will. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hmmm\u2026 pretty lame. I like to watch as many WWII movies as I can. This was a bit of a stretch. An Italian \u2018macaroni combat\u2019 movie – the military or WWII equivalent of a \u2018spaghetti western\u2019 – it\u2019s directed by \u2018Frank Kramer\u2019 (real name Gianfranco Parolini), with a mostly Italian cast and crew. All these … <\/p>\n

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