Churchill’s Leopards

This is a decent example of the Italian brand of war movies which, although they never quite reached the artistic heights or levels of influence which their peplums, giallos or Spaghetti Westerns had, frequently offer an offbeat, mildly diverting perspective on familiar historical events. This one here stars Richard Harrison (as an English agent posing as his dead German officer twin brother!) and Klaus Kinski as a sadistic SS official; the fetching female parts (on both sides of the fence, naturally) are personified by Pilar Velazquez and Helga Line’, while Giacomo Rossi Stuart and Antonio Casas have key roles to play within the Resistance lines. There are no overwhelmingly spectacular action set-pieces or jaw-droppingly clever plot twists to speak of, but I found this to be an unassuming and adequately handled time-passer which, unlike some of its Italian war film contemporaries, does not heavily feature Hollywood has-beens in an attempt to pass for one of their productions and is, in any case, mercifully short.