Year of Release: 1979Country of Origin: UK
Director: George P. Cosmatos
Cast: Roger Moore, Telly Savalas, David Niven, Claudia Cardinale
Plot outline: During the World War II, the prisoners of a German camp in a greek island are trying to escape. They don't want only their freedom, but they also seek for an ineffable treasure hidden in a monastery at the top of the island's mountain (IMDb).
This movie can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a comedy or an action/adventure, and in the end it largely fails to deliver on either front. Roger Moore is hopelessly miscast as the antiques-loving German (or rather Austrian) POW camp commandant, and a number of the other characters such as Sonny Bono's Italian chef, Michael Sheard's oafish German sergeant and Telly Savalas' Greek resistance leader are extremely caricature-ish. Even Richard Rowntree's POW character comes across merely as Shaft in a GI uniform (coming out with expressions like "he's one cool cat"). The character Charlie (played by Elliot Gould) is a civilian USO entertainer whose plane was shot down over the Mediterranean, with him and his female colleague (played by Stefanie Powers) being captured and placed in the POW camp. However, when these two are introduced early on, we see them looking like a pair of well-heeled American holidaymakers. Both are immaculately groomed and dressed, and they certainly don't look like two people who have just been fished out of the Mediterranean after their plane has been shot out of the sky - the woman is even lugging all her suitcases behind her!!! The action scenes later on were also fairly predictable and boring. The movie is not a classic in any way, shape or form. It oozes mediocrity in all areas. On the plus side, the Greek islands location is wonderful and the camera work is on the whole pretty good. And the beautiful Claudia Cardinale graces any movie that she's in. (SR)
My judgement: *1/2 out of 4 stars
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