THE RANGERS (1970)
DIRECTOR:
Roberto Bianchi Montero
CAST:
Dale Cummings, Franco Ressel, Carlo Hintermann, Mimmo Palmara, Luciano Catenacci, Federico Boido and Herb Andress.
REVIEW:
One of the slowest and most straightforward Italian war films out there.
An American Ranger is placed in a German POW camp so he can lead prisoners to destroy a Nazi atomic bomb experiment center.
The overlong, boring and very familiar piece stars Dale Cummings (Battle of the Damned) as the Ranger officeR responsible for carrying out the mission. He's wooden and unconvincing throughout. How this guy after got an acting career is beyond my knowledge. Franco Ressel, a familiar western co-star from The Mercenary, has a throwaay role as the Camp Kommandant, who basically shouts orders, gets made fun of by Cummings and makes the Germans look like idiots. Carlo Hintermann (Desert Commando) rounds out the leads by playing a stiff British officer, who's character seems to change back and forth in every scene. Luciano Catenacci (Battle Force) has a throwaway part as one of the prisoners, as do Federico Boido (The War Devils) and Mimmo Palmara (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Watch for Herb Andress (Battle of the Damned) as a Gestapo officer in the last act.
The action scenes are scant and boring, involving a few Germans gunned down by a couple of Americans and little else. This film is all about planning an operation which only comes to bear in the final few moments of the film, and you'd think with so much fuss leading up to an action sequence the director would at least make it a little exciting. But it's not, it's one of the stupidest and more boring "action" scenes ever captured on film. The cinematography is okay, with an over-emphasis on medium shots. The movie is set in what looks like France and not the Italian countryside. There's one area where I can't criticize the film; unlike most Italian war movies, it's set in France and actually DOES look ilike France. The musical score is by Elsio Mancuso, and mixes an inappropriate piece of his Five for Hell score with a slapdash main theme which was lifted INTACT for Heroes in Hell a few years later.
The movie is dull, too straightforward and lacking any action or strong characters. It's slightly entertaining but near the bottom of the barrel, for sure.
SGT. SLAUGHTER'S RATING:
2 Bullets
