Umberto LenziCritiques

Nel 1942 a Berlino, il controspionaggio tedesco, venuto a conoscenza della riunione a Casablanca di Churchill, Roosevelt e De Gaulle, decide di preparare un attentato ai tre uomini politici. Cinque veterani tedeschi sono paracadutati nei pressi della città. Soltanto tre di questi, con l'aiuto di Faddja, una ragazza del luogo, riescono ad arrivare a destinazione, ma ad attenderli c'è l'intero comando alleato in allerta... (fonte: Cinematografo)

German commandos are dropped behind enemy lines in the Sahara Desert tasked with getting to Casablanca in an assassination attempt on allied leaders. (fonte: Imdb)

Collocata a cavallo del 1942-43 con un prologo olimpico nel 1936, l'azione si sposta attraverso vari episodi da Berlino a Los Angeles, da Plymouth a Creta, da West Point a Le Havre, raccontando le peripezie belliche di un gruppo di amici di diverse nazionalità. (fonte: amazon.it)

Durante i Giochi olimpici del 1936 delegati di diversi paesi si incontrano in Germania ed i loro destini si incroceranno di nuovo durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Il tedesco Roland sposa una mezza ebrea e allo scoppio della guerra lui dovrà partire per l'Africa e morire e lei morirà per mano della Gestapo. Il Generale Foster, richiamato in servizio, perderà un figlio, ma riuscirà a vederne salvo un altro. Un professore irlandese torna a fare il corrispondente di guerra e morirà assieme a un giovane cronista che aveva istigato a partire. Un altro tedesco in Francia tenta di aiutare una povera vedova, lei morirà per mano partigiana, lui per mano delle SS. Solo un americano tornerà a casa da moglie e figli. (fonte: Wikipedia)

L'americano Brett, il francese Maurice, l'inglese Dick e il tedesco Jürgen sono amici di vecchia data e tutti innamorati di Fabienne. La guerra li separa. Jürgen e Dick muoiono durante i combattimenti; Brett, Maurice e Fabienne si ritrovano dopo cinque anni di traversie nello stesso posto e alla stessa ora dell'ultimo incontro. (fonte: Mymovies)

1942. Durante la seconda guerra mondiale, i tedeschi tentarono l'uccisione di Churchill che si recava con un aereo in Africa.

I fatti sono realmente accaduti e Lenzi li amministra con autorialità e vigore bellico.

Although it is not the best of his poliziotteschi films, Umberto Lenzi’s “Milano Rovente” (Gang War in Milan) is still a superior and grittily violent crime thriller. The story by Lenzi and Franco Enna sees a Sicilian mob led by Salvatore 'Toto' Cangemi (Antonio Sabato) and his best friend Lino Caruso (Antonio Casagrande) running the prostitution rackets in Milan. When a French outfit, led by the ruthless Roger ("Le Capitaine") Daverty (Phillippe Leroy), moves in and seeks to force Toto to use his prostitutes to sell heroin a brutal gang war erupts between the two mobs. Toto recruits tough Sicilian enforcer Billy Barone (Alessandro Sperli) to assist him, but it turns out that Barone may be playing his own underhand game. “Milano Rovente” is simply but classically plotted and is a story of hubris and shifting alliances against a rag’s to riches background. Lenzi delivers a grubby and amoral tone throughout with all sides in the gang war portrayed as dangerous, violent and self-serving, with the police are almost reduced to irrelevant bystanders. The action is rather subdued compared to many poliziottesch with the emphasis here on “politics” and double-dealing within the mobs. That said there are plenty of gritty situations with a genital torture sequence being a particular painful “highlight”. Although he isn’t as charismatic as some of the other leading poliziotteschi men, Antonio Sabato is still good in the lead role. Philippe Leroy makes for an appropriately sinister villain and Alessandro Sperli steals the show as the no-nonsense Sicilian enforcer. They are all counterpointed by the beautiful Marisa Mell who makes for a great femme fatale subtly running her own quiet game around the violent machinations of the various mob macho men. Overall “Milano Rovente” isn’t the best of Umberto Lenzi’s poliziotteschi films, but this story of violent scumbags versus violent scumbags is still a superior slice grubby street-level Euro crime.

Un gruppo di commando tedesco con la missione di assassinare Churchill, Roosevelt e de Gaulle alla Conferenza di Casablanca. Il film è un dramma basato sui personaggi che si concentra sulle varie unità e conflitti dei soldati tedeschi durante gli incontri con i nomadi Tuareg e soldati francesi e americani.

Il Tedesco Jurgen, il Francese Maurice, l'Inglese Dick e lo Statunitense Brett sono quattro vecchi amici. Ogni anno regolarmente si riuniscono attorno ad un tavolo di un piccolo ma carino ristorante sulla Senna a Parigi, fino all'agosto 1939. Quell'anno, con la guerra ormai imminente, decidono di salutarsi ma di darsi appuntamento al giorno finale del conflitto, quando si ritroveranno dopo aver combattuto per il proprio paese contro vecchi e nuovi amici. Dopo le tragiche peripezie del conflitto, solo in tre si presenteranno a quell'"appuntamento"...

Berlino, 1936: in occasione delle Olimpiadi, in casa del tenente Roland sono ospiti alcuni esponenti delle delegazioni estere: brindano alla pace e si lasciano. Roland poi sposa un'attrice ebrea che finirà nelle mani della Gestapo. Lui andrà a morire in Africa.

“Un Posto Ideale Per Uccidere” translates from Italian as “An Ideal Place to Kill” and it has gone out under that title in some territories, but it is probably best known as either “Dirty Pictures” (UK) or “Oasis of Fear” (USA). This is an unusually restrained giallo, directed by the genre-hopping Umberto Lenzi, who is probably best know for his gut-churning 1981 gore extravaganza “Cannibal Ferox”. The film starts out with happy-go-lucky hippie couple Dick (Ray Lovelock) and Ingrid (Ornella Muti) who are touring Europe and financing their travels with the proceeds of selling pornography and the making their own homemade porno pics. Living a carefree existence they eventually run out of money and when they try to sell some snaps to a prudish petrol station attendant they find themselves being reported to the police. In a panic they make off before filling-up and subsequently find their car running out of petrol near a large, secluded villa. Thinking there is no one home they attempt to siphon petrol from a car in the garage – unfortunately, however, they’re caught by Barbara (Irene Papas) the middle-aged owner of the villa. Although hostile at first Barbara soon warms to the beautiful and charming couple and invites them to stay the night. Tucking into the champagne the three are soon getting down to some kinky games and as the night moves on Barbara transforms into a femme fatale and ends up sleeping with Dick. She wakes early, however, and plants a wad of cash on Dick, roughs herself up and is just about to ‘phone for the police when Dick and Ingrid appear. It begins to dawn on the naive young couple that something isn’t right and that they’ve got themselves into a rather perilous situation. When they discover a dead body in a car-boot in the garage they suddenly realise that are in a very hazardous and dangerous place.

For at least half the movie we’re in carefree hippie travelogue territory following Dick and Ingrid on their fun journey. It isn’t until we get to the end of the party at the villa that the film takes a turn into darker giallo territory. Even then the film stays away from normal giallo conventions – there are no black-gloved killers here; no sudden, gory violent outbursts or strange leaps of narrative logic. Instead we have a very linear and relatively straight-forward thriller, with the mystery built around what may be wrong in the villa and after that is discovered around how the film will end – will the guilty or the innocent take the fall? Umberto Lenzi handles this with great aplomb letting the story unravel at a leisurely pace with a reasonable degree of subtlety. The same subtlety isn’t so evident in his approach to the zoom lens, however, with repeated crash zooms being a key feature of the cinematography. Writers Antonio Altoviti and Lucia Drudi Demby deserve credit for the restraint of their story and making it impossible to guess where the film is going. This approach makes it all the more shocking when the reveal eventually arrives. The cast is excellent, with both Ray Lovelock and Ornella Muti looking and acting perfect as two of the beautiful people. Irene Papas is also perfect as the intriguing and mysterious lady of the house who hides a macabre secret. “Un Posto Ideale Per Uccidere” rocks along to a great happy poppy soundtrack, with some excellent songs from Bruno Lauzi, particularly in the first half when the film is in full swinging sixties, blissed-out, flower power mode. This funky, upbeat score counterpoints painfully with the sad, nihilistic and highly affecting ending of the movie, which is a furious comment on both the death of hippie culture and how the dreams of youth are stolen and destroyed by the angry cynicism of the old.