- Anzio (film)
Infobox Film
name = Anzio
image_size =
caption =
director =Duilio Coletti Edward Dmytryk
producer =Dino De Laurentiis
writer =Wynford Vaughan-Thomas (book)
Duilio ColettiH. A. L. Craig Frank L. Felitta Giuseppe Mangione
narrator =
starring =Robert Mitchum Peter Falk
music =
cinematography =
editing = Peter Taylor
distributor =
released =July 24 1968 (US)
runtime = 117 minutes
country =Italy
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0062673"Anzio", also known as "Lo Sbarco di Anzio" or "The Battle of Anzio", is a 1968
war film aboutOperation Shingle , the 1944 Allied seaborne assault on the Italian port ofAnzio inWorld War II . The film was adapted from the book "Anzio" byWynford Vaughan-Thomas , who had been theBBC war correspondent at the battle.The film starred
Robert Mitchum ,Peter Falk , and a variety of international film stars. The all-star cast mostly portrayed fictitious characters based on actual participants in the battle. The one exception wasWolfgang Preiss , who playedField Marshall Albert Kesselring . This was a U.S./Italian co-production made in Italy with an Italian film crew; however, none of the major stars were Italian, nor were there any major Italian characters.Plot
After meeting a general, war correspondent Dick Ennis (Robert Mitchum) is assigned to accompany
US Army Rangers for the upcoming attempt to outflank the tough enemy defenses. The amphibious landing is unopposed, but the American general is too cautious, preferring to fortify hisbeachhead before advancing inland. Ennis and a Ranger in ajeep discover there are few Germans present between the beachhead and Rome, but his information is ignored. As a result, the German commander, Kesselring, has time to gather his forces and launch an effective counterattack.Ennis is with the Rangers when they are ambushed at the
Battle of Cisterna . From there, the film departs from being a view of all sides and levels of the campaign to a story of a handful of survivors making their way back through enemy lines. During the film, Ennis seeks an answer to the question of what makes one human being willingly kill another. Corporal Jack Rabinoff (Peter Falk) replies that he loves it, and his lifestyle makes him live more than anyone else. Rabinoff is based on a realFirst Special Service Force soldier Jake Wallenstein, who ran an illegal brothel of Italian prostitutes in a stolen ambulance. [Adelman, Robert H. & Walton, George H. "The Devil's Brigade" revised United States Naval Institute Press 2004] Most of the men, including Rabinoff, are killed. In reality, Rabinoff was killed by shrapnel atPort Cros duringOperation Dragoon , the invasion of Southern France. [p.397 Tomblin, Barbara Brooks "With Utmost Spirit: Allied Naval Operations in the Mediterranean 1942-1945" 2004 University Press of Kentucky] Ennis survives to publicly question the competence of the Allied commander.Cast
*
Robert Mitchum as Dick Ennis, war correspondent (based onErnie Pyle )
*Peter Falk as Corporal Jack Rabinoff (based on Sgt Jake Wallenstein)
*Robert Ryan as General Carson (based onMark Clark )
*Earl Holliman as Platoon Sgt. Abe Stimmler
*Mark Damon as Wally Richardson
*Arthur Kennedy as Major General Jack Lesley (based onJohn P. Lucas )
*Reni Santoni as Pvt. Movie
*Joseph Walsh as Doyle
*Thomas Hunter as Pvt. Andy
*Giancarlo Giannini as Pvt. Cellini
*Wayde Preston as Colonel Hendricks (based onWilliam O. Darby )
*Arthur Franz as General Howard (based onLucian Truscott )
*Anthony Steel as General Marsh
*Patrick Magee as General StarkeyResponse
The "
New York Times " film review of25 July 1968 was generally dismissive, and describes the film as "a very ordinary war movie with an epic title, produced byDino De Laurentiis , the Italian producer ... who thinks big but often produces small". [cite web |url=http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E07E0DA1330E034BC4D51DFB1668383679EDE |title=Anzio (1968) Standard War Fare |author=Vincent Canby |publisher="New York Times " |date=July 25 1968 ] In contrast, "Chicago Sun-Times " criticRoger Ebert had a more favourable opinion of the film, described it as "a good war movie and even an intelligent one". [cite web |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19680627/REVIEWS/806270301/1023 |title=Anzio |author=Roger Ebert |publisher=rogerebert.com |date=June 27 1968 ]Production
Riz Ortolani scored the film with a ballad sung beneath the credits byJack Jones .Luigi Scaccianoce was theproduction designer .Peter Falk thought that the script he read was cliched and wanted off the film. At the last minute Dino DeLaurentiis allowed Falk name above the title billing and the writer of his choice to do his characters dialogue, Falk stayed on the film and wrote his dialogue himself. [Falk, Peter "Just One Thing: Stories of My Live" 2006 DaCapo Press]References
External links
*imdb title | id=0062673 | title=Anzio
*tcmdb title|id=25183|title=Anzio
* Trailer http://youtube.com/watch?v=uRtlxUC1k9A&feature=related
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.