Homesickness, barbed wire and good comrades
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Homesickness, barbed wire and good comrades |
| Original title | Gli italiani sono matti |
| Country of production | Italy , Spain , Germany |
| original language | Italian , English , German |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Duilio Coletti Luis Maria Delgado |
| script | Duilio Coletti Sandro Continenza Ennio De Concini Luis María Delgado Miguel Martín Giuseppe Scoponi Luciano Vincenzoni |
| production | Evaristo Signorini |
| music |
Manuel Parada Nino Rota |
| camera |
Antonio Macasoli Gábor Pogány |
| cut | Teresa Alcocer |
| occupation | |
and José Vivó , Mara Cruz , Sergio Mendizábal , Gerd Martienzen , Sonja Ziemann | |
Homesickness, Barbed Wire and Good Comrades is an Italian-Spanish-German war film comedy from 1957 by Duilio Coletti and Luis Maria Delgado with an international cast led by Victor McLaglen , Folco Lulli and Marianne Koch .
action
North Africa in late summer 1943, the Axis powers' campaign has been lost and the area is under Allied control. The action takes place in a US-run prisoner-of-war camp, in which, separately from each other, mostly Italian soldiers, but also a few of Rommel's men, were detained. Also present: the young Red Cross sister Christina Daubler, who takes care of the injured and wounded. Again and again some of the internees try to escape from the prison camp. When one of the Italians, who had previously stolen an American uniform, is caught doing so, he has to answer to the camp's own military court. In order to save the comrade from a draconian punishment, the other Italian prisoners undertake to build a church outside the camp fences in just two hours. To do this, they gather building materials in a not entirely legal way, without disrupting the normal daily routine in the camp, this was the condition of the camp management.
When September 8, 1943 dawned and General Eisenhower announced on the radio that an armistice had been concluded between the Allies and the Italians under Badoglio, the prisoners hoped that they would soon be released back home. But this hope turns out to be deceptive, the former war ally Germany does not accept the armistice. This circumstance also makes camp life difficult. The Italians in the US prison camp are now trying under the new conditions to make the impossible possible and to win the church-building bet that they entered into with the camp commandant. Without further ado, they gutted and dismantled one or the other accommodation barracks in order to make the body of the house of God from the planks they had won; the tools are organized and manufactured in a no less idiosyncratic way. In order not to be caught by guards or disturbed by unannounced inspections, the twenty-day preparatory work takes place mainly at night. After all, after one setback or another, the building stands with a small bell tower and a bell donated by the Germans. The first ringing of the bell is accompanied by a missile that has been launched to announce that the deadline has expired. But the church is finished and the Italians, unaccustomed to victory, have finally won a fight.
Production notes
Homesickness, Barbed Wire and Good Comrades originated in Italy in 1957 and was premiered on April 5, 1958; the German premiere was on July 18, 1958.
Reviews
Der Spiegel found: “The misleading title hides an exhilarating, but not quite full-length story: (...) For the field-gray coloring, a senseless fringe story with some German prisoners of war was tinkered with, which was led by the Italian director Coletti as listlessly as if the German-Italians were holding Tensions after the Italian surrender - the film plays at this time - still alludes to today. "
"The plot is told gracefully, if not with great skill ..."
The lexicon of international films reads: “The entertainingness of the film falls short of the possibilities of the bizarre story. Not meant as a satire of the times, but as undemanding, burlesque entertainment, which ranges in blunt staging from ostensible soldier comedy to pseudorealistic interludes to musical feelings. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Review in: Der Spiegel from August 6, 1958.
- ↑ Homesickness, barbed wire and good comrades. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 1, 2020 .