Escape to Athena
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Escape to Athena |
| Original title | Escape to Athena |
 | |
| Country of production |
United Kingdom of Switzerland |
| original language |
English German Greek |
| Publishing year | 1979 |
| length | 107 minutes (abridged version) 115 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | George P. Cosmatos |
| script |
Edward Anhalt George P. Cosmatos Richard Lochte |
| production |
Erwin C. Dietrich David Niven Jr. Jack Wiener Lew Grade |
| music |
Lalo Schifrin theme song Keep Tomorrow For Me sung by Heatwave |
| camera | Gilbert Taylor |
| cut | Ralph Kemplen |
| occupation | |
| |
Escape to Athena , also known as "Heroes Without Mercy" and originally as Escape to Athena , is a British war film from 1979 by George P. Cosmatos . The two British actors Roger Moore and David Niven can be seen in the lead roles . The film opened in German cinemas on February 27, 1981.
action
The action takes place somewhere on the Greek islands in 1944. The British archeology professor Blake, the American Nat and the Italian Rotelli are brought to the prison camp by the Wehrmacht and the SS after an unsuccessful attempt to escape during a search operation. They are punished by the camp commandant Hecht, but SS Major Volkmann regards this as too mild. At the same time, two new prisoners, Dottie Del Mar and her cabaret colleague Charlie, are brought to Hecht's camp. Dottie immediately awakens the passion of Hecht, who lets her billet royally. Meanwhile, Charlie makes the acquaintance of Blake and his comrades who plan to take over the camp and, with the help of the resistance led by Zeno, take the submarine harbor. Charlie is reluctant to join the company. While he and Dottie distract the officers with a show, Blake and his helpers overwhelm the guards of the camp or incapacitate the soldiers with a laxative.
Zeno, the leader of the Greek resistance , hides in a brothel run by his girlfriend Eleana. He awaits the Allied invasion to strike. When the Allies change their plans, Zeno begins an action to liberate his island alone with the help of Professor Blake. After Blake takes over the camp, Zeno confronts Major Hecht with the decision to be for or against him. Hecht joins the resistance and reports to SS Major Volkmann in the village that everything is fine. Zeno's goal, however, is a completely different one: the island's monastery . There the monks were locked up by the Germans and their building was converted into a transmitter. After they have eliminated Volkmann and his SS troops, Zeno goes upstairs with Rotelli, Charlie and Nat. You must find out that the Germans secured the monastery with electric wire netting. Meanwhile, Hecht and Blake take over the submarine camp, where Hecht engages in a fight with the combat divers of the Navy.
But it gets even worse at the monastery. After Zeno and his men have switched off the guards and the radio station, a futuristically clad commando is alerted, which is tasked with defending the island with a V2 rocket . You can take the command off without damaging the missile and try to find the monastery treasure, golden icon plates, that Rotelli and Charlie are after. Meanwhile, Zeno realizes that the Germans have initiated the self-destruction of the monastery and orders Nat to free the monks. At the last second they escape and find that the gold is gone. As the residents celebrate their liberation, the monks Blake, Charlie and Rotelli tell that the treasures have been stored in the brothel all the time, whereupon Hecht, Charlie and Dottie decide to set up an art trading company in Switzerland after the war. At the end credits of the film there is a transition to the present in which you can see that the former brothel has now become a museum for Byzantine art, in which the icon plates from the monastery are exhibited.
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Major Otto Hecht | Roger Moore | Niels Clausnitzer |
| Zeno | Telly Savalas | Edgar Ott |
| Professor Blake | David Niven | Herbert Stass |
| Nat Judson | Richard Roundtree | Manfred Lehmann |
| Charlie | Elliott Gould | Joachim Kemmer |
| Rotelli | Sonny Bono | Uwe Paulsen |
| Dottie | Stefanie Powers | Uta Hallant |
| Eleana | Claudia Cardinale | Marianne Lutz |
| Sergeant man | Michael Sheard | Gerd Duwner |
| SS Major Volkmann | Anthony Valentine | Wolfgang Pampel |
Reviews
The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was "adventurous and colorful" and "just as ridiculous as it is questionable". His “fairytale improbabilities” would “often involuntarily be funny”.
Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times (June 8, 1979) that director George P. Cosmatos had no sense of humor. The action scenes would look silly.
Remarks
- The film was shot in Rhodes .
- The song Keep Tomorrow For Me was written by Barry Blue and Rod Temperton and performed by Heatwave . The Greek music sounds come from Christodoulos Halaris .
- In Germany, the film was cut by a few scenes that show situations such as two executions, a V2 film screening and conversations between Moore and Gould or Niven. Smaller cuts were made in the case of brutal acts or satirical allusions to National Socialism.
- You can hear some shellac records, the music of which was composed by Peter Kreuder , for example: “When the sun goes down behind the roofs” or “It can be between today and tomorrow.” The songs are sung by Greta Keller , who played during the Second World War in the United States emigrated because it despised the Nazis.
Web links
- Escape to Athena in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Escape to Athena at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Escape to Athena. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Escape to Athena (1979) Film: Toy Commandos: A War Movie Description of the film (English) ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Concorde DVD long version from 2007
