The Secret Invasion
by Roger Corman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Edd Byrnes, Henry Silva, Mickey Rooney, Raf Vallone, Stewart GrangerDirector: Roger Corman
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; German (Original Language); Italian (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: United Artists
Movie Reviews of The Secret Invasion
Movie Review: Roger Corman's The Dirty Half Dozen
Summary: 4 Stars
Three years before The Dirty Dozen was released, director Roger Corman made this movie, The Secret Invasion, dealing with a similar subject although with a much smaller budget. In Cairo in 1943, five men are brought together by British Major Richard Mace, each of them specialists in their field. The catch you ask? They're all convicts with sentences ranging from a few years to immediate execution. Mace has brought them together to help the Allied invasion of Italy by making the situation in the Balkans easier to handle. Mace and his convict commandos will attempt to free an Italian general from a German fortress who is suspected of contacting Allied agents. They hope to break him free and tell his Italian soldiers to fight against, not with, the Germans. For a low-budget movie, this one packs a wallop with plenty of action. The build-up can be a little slow, but the last 40 minutes are non-stop action including a running battle up a hill with Germans in hot pursuit. This movie has finally got a DVD release, so take advantage, it's a lot of fun from beginning to end.
Part of the movie's enjoyment comes from the cast who all seem to be having a blast making the movie. Much of the cast is character actors finally given a chance to spread their wings with a meatier role. Stewart Granger plays Major Mace, the one officer in the group who has an alterior motive on this mission. Raf Vallone is the real star here as Roberto Rocca, the Mafioso who planned crimes for the mob and will organize the rescue operation. Mickey Rooney seems to be enjoying himself the most as Terrence Scanlon, a feisty Irishman who fought with the IRA as an explosives expert. Edd Byrnes plays Simon Fell, the forger who's not convinced he should tag along at all. Henry Silva is very good in the role of Durrell, a paid assassin with some personal issues we see as the mission progresses. The last of the convicts is William Campbell as Jean Saval, a master of disguise and an impersonator who doesn't trust anybody. The rest of the cast includes Helmo Kindermann as a German commandant, Spela Rozin as Mila, a partisan woman who bonds with Silva, and Peter Coe as Marko, the resistance leader.
The recently released DVD unfortunately has no special features, not even a trailer. But when it comes to fans of the action movie, the important thing is the actual movie and it looks perfect here in a widescreen presentation. The locations in Yugoslavia benefit the most, and all the colors look pretty good. You'd never know this movie was released almost 45 years ago. So for an exciting WWII movie with a strong cast who all seem to be having a good time, check out Roger Corman's The Secret Invasion!
Summary of The Secret Invasion
Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/13/2008 Run time: 95 minutes Rating: NrRoger Corman's 1964 The Secret Invasion is a variation on the theme of misfits pooling dark skills to help defeat the Nazi menace in World War II. A fun drama with many of Corman's shoestring-budget trademarks (stock film footage, creative if not always careful use of lighting to match shots), The Secret Invasion stars a number of familiar faces with eclectic star power. Stewart Granger plays a British officer who builds a team out of a handful of skilled criminals freed from various prisons, with the purpose of sending them on a dangerous, undercover mission. (The Secret Invasion was released three years before the similar-sounding The Dirty Dozen.) Among his shady underlings is an expert forger (Edd Byrnes, never a hair out of place), a demolitions expert (Mickey Rooney in a somewhat annoying, too-sprightly performance as an Irish kook), a moody assassin (Henry Silva), an ace impersonator (William Campbell, brother of the film's writer, R. Wright Campbell), and the story's most charismatic figure, a renaissance genius who quickly becomes the team's chief strategist (Raf Vallone).
The group's intent is to rescue an Italian general from the Germans in a very charming, coastal town. The effort forces the reluctant good guys to sustain much brutality from the enemy, and watching while psychological pressures turn some of their more self-centered members into heroes while more damaged participants become doomstruck zombies. Corman juggles the particulars of an extended, chaotic fight scene in the film's final minutes, demonstrating his prowess with no-fuss action shooting and cutting. But it's the film's air of tragedy and irony that ultimately lingers, wiping away any self-congratulatory cleverness from the impossible-mission plot. --Tom Keogh
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