MartinHafer It's interesting that this film came out in 1964--several years BEFORE "The Dirty Dozen". In other words, the later big-budget film actually was a knock-off of a cheap film--and this must be a first---usually it's the other way around. However, although this also involves a bunch of prisoners having their sentences commuted in order to get them to participate in a suicide mission, it's still a pretty cheap little film and only a shadow of the later film. A very low budget, cheap sets (which look circa 1964 instead of WWII vintage), one-dimensional characters and acting that can't come close to the stellar cast of "The Dirty Dozen" will make it VERY easy to tell the two films apart! Like 1450342 other Roger Corman films, this one is very economically made. This guy has had an AMAZING record for making films that always, or almost always, made money. His one flop ("The Intruder") was actually one of his best films and his crappiest films (like "Wasp Woman") made a bundle! I am sure that this taught him the lesson to make films entertaining but don't try too hard to make great art! The film involves this motley international group sneaking into Yugoslavia to rescue an Italian general from a German prison. That's because the man is an anti-Nazi and they want him to lead his troops into battle against the Germans. This is especially important because the Italian soldiers LOVE this guy and are very loyal to him. Once they do sneak the guy out, the film starts to get pretty silly. For every one of the group that is shot in the escape, 100 Germans dies--and the German soldiers just seem to march en masse to their deaths! And, the last 20 minutes of the film is one scene like this after another after another--with lots of mindless scenes of killing. Oh, and by the way, most of the group are killed and you see them die. What about Mickey Rooney? He just disappeared late in the film--what happened to him?! Overall, rather superficial but not terrible--but also only a shadow of the classic "Dirty Dozen".

Michael O'Keefe Producer/director Roger Corman actually comes up with a very commendable war movie on his typical "B" budget. This is a pared down preview of THE DIRTY DOZEN. Five criminals, all with a special skill, are given the chance at a pardon on the condition they participate in a near suicide mission. British Intelligence smuggle the five into Yugoslavia to make a commando raid on a Nazi headquarters, where an Italian officer is being imprisoned. The British feel rescuing the general will influence him to have his army fight with the Allied forces.Interesting and diverse cast featuring: Stewart Granger, Henry Silva, Raf Vallone, Edd (Kookie) Brynes, Mickey Rooney, Spela Rozin and Peter Coe. Filmed in Yugoslavia and Croatia.

Gunn This film was a big disappointment. It lacked energy, a good cast, involvement and enthusiasm. I blame most of this on the director and an equal amount on the editor. It was chock full of bad cuts and continuity errors, e.g. the key scene where Henry Silva quiets the crying infant. Silva, Raf Vallone and a few others were the only assets to the cast. It was Stewart Granger, Mickey Rooney and above all Edd "Kookie" Byrnes whose acting was really bad. The script was very badly written and formulaic. The film might've worked with better casting, directing, and a better script, but I doubt it very much as this type of story has been told before and with more energy. Its only pluses were a decent score and excellent cinematography. All in all this was a 'bust'!

zardoz-13 When British Major Richard Mace (Stewart Granger of "North to Alaska") with his stiff upper lip meets the five convicts from all parts of the globe who are going to help him carry out his difficult but important mission, he informs them from the start: "You men were not my choice for this mission. Intelligence seems to think that your peculiar talents could be of some value but don't for a moment imagine that serving under me will be easier than the prisons you came from. You've all been offered pardons to undertake this mission. You've given your word to cooperate and I expect you to keep it." Roberto Rocca (Raf Vallone of "Nevada Smith") is the most literate with a college degree in psychology and he becomes the organizer of the bunch. Mickey Rooney of the famous MGM "Andy Hardy" movies is an Irishman named Terry Scanlon; his specialties including picking locks and demolitions unless he can find a good bottle of corn whiskey to distract him. Edd Byrnes of TV's "77 Sunset Strip" is the forger Simon Fell. Tough guy actor Henry Silva of "Ocean's 11" is the cold-blooded assassin John Durrell, a man of few words whose actions speak far more eloquently than his language. Finally, William Campbell is pretty boy Jean Saval who can impersonate anybody. Mace and these men are part of an overall Allied invasion of the southern Europe, principally the Balkans. Their mission is to distract the Nazis from the actual invasion by liberating a high-ranking officer General Quadri (Enzo Fiermonte of "A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die") from a Nazi prison stronghold who can unite the partisans and keep the German Army busy.Producer & director Roger Corman earned a reputation cranking out low budget, drive-in movie creature features, but "The Secret Invasion" represents a drastic departure of his usual nonsense. This above-average World War II epic is bolstered by a strong cast headed by English actor Stewart Granger and scenic locations in both Croatia and Yugoslavia that lend a sense of authenticity to this impossible mission epic. Furthermore, produced as it was in 1964, "The Secret Invasion" beat director Robert Aldritch's superior pardon the convicts for a top secret classified mission "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) by three years. Mind you, "The Secret Invasion" wasn't the top box office draw of 1964 that "The Dirty Dozen" proved it was in 1967, but this offbeat World War II movie is still pretty damned good in and of itself.Our heroes enter the Balkans by way of a fishing boat, rather like Gregory Peck and his companions in "The Guns of Navarone," but things go awry when Simon tries to escape and the others have to dive over the side and swim around behind a Nazi patrol boat to kill the enemy. Once they enter the country, they start to work on a plan, but their plans are short-lived because the Nazis capture a resistance leader and he cracks under torture. Eventually, after a running roof-top gun battle between our heroes and the Nazis, the Germans are able to capture the good guys. As Roberto observes when the Nazis demand their surrender, they had planned all along to get into the prison one way or another. Once they are prisoners, they have to put up with the former commandant's eternal interrogations, but our heroes fool him long enough for Scanlon to pick the lock of their cell with a tool devised from dinner ware while Saval impersonates him. They manage to escape with General Quadri. The first convict to bite the dust is Simon Fell. Scanlon manages to blow up a machine gun nest in a fortified battlement but Major Mace receives a nasty leg wound and opts to lead their pursuers in the wrong direction. When the remainder of the convicts reach the resistance holed up in a monastery, they are surprised to learn that General Quadri is not General Quadri but instead an imposter! Now, how do they get out of this tight spot? "The Secret Invasion" qualifies as one of the few times that director Roger Corman proved that he could make a bigger budget picture. There's nothing really outlandish in R. Wright Campbell's formulaic screenplay. One of the most memorable scenes has one of the convicts smothering an infant to keep it from crying out and alerting the Nazis about their whereabouts. The irony is that the character that smothers the child while its mother stood beside him had no idea what he was doing when he did it.Hardcore World War II movie fanatics shouldn't miss this landmark pardon the convicts spectacle.