Churchill's Leopards (1970)

Occupied France, shortly before D-Day - a German officer is killed and his place taken by Lt. Benson (Richard Harrison) who happened to be the estranged twin of the German. Meanwhile a British commando team parachute into the countryside and meet up with the French resistance - their objective, to blow a dam that will wash away some vital supply roads towards the coast - Lt. Benson is now in command of the soldiers around the dam and is able to get the details required for the raid, but his SS colleague Captain Holtz (Klaus Kinski) is suspicious of Benson...
 

 
Director Maurizio Pradeaux also provides the serviceable but rather uninspired screenplay. A team of commandos sent on an 'impossible mission' has been a staple of the war movie since as far back as the wartime propaganda films themselves and Pradeaux's script brings nothing really new to the table. The idea of the British officer replacing his German twin brother is the only original aspect to the film but seems far too easy - Benson seems to know every minute detail of his brother's life and is able to imitate him exactly - so the potential tension here is lost. Historians would probably welcome the long and violence-free build up, as the British team try to avoid detection while preparing the raid, it is certainly realistic but also quite tiresome - no particular characterisation is built up and there is no real tension of detection at any point. It might perhaps be worth it were the finalé particularly gripping, but even this is a little slow and certainly not unpredictable.

Behind the camera, Pradeaux is just the same, giving the film a perfectly watchable feel, but never doing anything remarkable - a few nice low angle shots are the only thing that break up the otherwide mundane camerawork. The use of stock war footage to open and close seems to be an attempt to slot the film into the middle of the wartime environment but just come across as rather noisy. All of the sets and costumes look plausible and the locations are fittingly French. There is only a little music in the whole film but when it appears it is a standard, fitting, orchestral track.
 

 
Richard Harrison takes the lead role here and certainly looks the part as the military officer while Klaus Kinski is very well cast as the local German SS commander. That most versitile of character actors Giacomo Rossi-Stuart plays a British Major (an odd twist on the usual war films where the British actors played every nationality) while the gorgeous Pilar Velázquez is the love interest.

Churchill's Leopards is a perfectly solid little war film but it is simply unremarkable, there is nothing except the cast to indicate that it is a European production and it could easily pass as one of the many low budget 1950s British war films if it was in black and white. Certainly if you are looking for another Inglorious Bastards then this will disappoint, however if you want a sound Euro-war film and a chance to see Richard Harrison and Klaus Kinski giving their all, then this is worth tracking down.

All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 20th July 2008.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

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