Reviews & Ratings for
Eagles Over London More at IMDbPro »La battaglia d'Inghilterra (original title)

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9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Great Suspense, Energy and Pizzaz, 7 November 2002

Author: SgtSlaughter from St. Davids, Pennsylvania, USA

Here we have, yes, another Italian war movie from the early 1970s. This one features a half-decent international cast and a slew of decent action sequences.

As the British evacuate Dunkirk, several German saboteurs infiltrate their forces. They kill a squad of English troops and take their ID tags. Frederick Stafford, the platoon leader, finds the dead men and realizes their IDs are missing. Upon returning to England, he heads efforts to locate the saboteurs before they can blow up radar installations along the coast.

The film boasts a good international cast: Frederick Stafford, though dubbed, is pretty good as the Hungarian-English Captain. Van Johnson does a corny bit as an English Air Marshall and even participates in a few aerial battles. Francisco Rabal is very good as the German officer who befriends Stafford; Stafford realizes who he REALLY is and must face him during the bone-shattering climax. Hottie Ida Galli turns in a good performance as Stafford's girlfriend. I must also note the presence of Luigi Pistilli as the German group leader. The man was marvelous in the Leone westerns and is very good here as well.

The battle sequences range from superb to incredibly corny. The dogfights involve live action, miniatures, and poorly edited black and white stock footage. The ground combat scenes are often confusing -- but exciting -- since the British and German infiltrators wear the same uniforms. Great cinematography -- this appears to be filmed on location in England is is done well. The music score is typical adventure type stuff but does the job. Much of the combat footage found itself recycled in Umberto Lenzi's FROM HELL TO VICTORY in 1979.

Overall, for a good cast and great direction by Enzo Castellari, I give it a 7/10.

7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
EAGLES OVER London (Enzo G. Castellari, 1969) **1/2, 7 October 2006

Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

This is a surprisingly elaborate war film which tackles the same events as the big-budgeted BATTLE OF Britain (1969), but from an entirely different perspective - the infiltration of German spies into London prior to the Luftwaffe's aerial attack in order to destroy the RAF's infallible radar system, and British Captain Frederick Stafford's efforts to root them out in time.

While the generally slick presentation belies the modest funds that were obviously available, the overall achievement is still hurt by too much concession to elements particular to lowbrow film-making and especially some grating comic relief (culminating in a brawl between British and French soldiers) provided by Renzo Palmer - but there's also a baffling over-emphasis on the heroics of a French air ace (who's not even a major character!), as well as obviously choreographed stuntwork...not to mention the fact that every revelation in unmasking the Nazi plot is left to the ingenuity of one man, which makes one wonder just what would have become of Great Britain if Stafford hadn't been there!! Besides, even if I was watching the film in Italian, the fact that none of the cast is British or German is inescapable - which certainly doesn't award it any marks for authenticity!

Castellari's often flashy direction doesn't work either: shooting from odd angles (through a bullet hole in a helmet, through a pair of clasped hands or through a loudspeaker!) and utilizing distracting editorial techniques, such as his playful use of the split-screen - which is partially lost anyway, given that the aspect ratio on the print I watched has been changed from the original 2.35:1 to 1.85:1! The action-packed film (with a couple of romances thrown in for good measure) is enjoyable in itself but, even if flawed, BATTLE OF Britain is clearly superior (the familiar Euro-Cult faces here are no match for the roster of Britsh stars which populate that film!) - though they did engage the services of Bunuel regular Francisco Rabal (as a conscientious German) and American Van Johnson(!) as the British RAF officer in charge of the country's defense (who, in the final decisive action, takes to the skies himself to repel the invading Nazi forces).

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A spaghetti War Film thats better than most!!, 20 November 2000
Author: Warfilmman (paul@polarbear-enterprises.co.uk) from Colchester, England

Here's an oddity - an Italian made war film that is actually quite good. Okay the dubbing is bad, and the locations are a bit "mediterranean" particularly Dover and Dunkirk, but all in all a well made war film. Its the story of a group of German commandos who intermix with returning British troops from Dunkirk, and wearing British uniforms attempt to destroy the radar installations around the coast and therefore aid the imminant German invasion. A British Captain played by Frederick Stafford attempts to track down the Germans aided by Van Johnson as a British Air Marshal - an odd bit of casting, but I'm sure the aging Van welcomed the money.

This comes up for sale on video every now and then, and I recommend it to war film buffs.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Nice warfare movie packs thrills , spectacular scenes and historical deeds, 22 January 2011

Author: ma-cortes

WWII Italian/Spanish epic , this time about British airmen who prevented threatened Nazi invasion. Action,suspense and entertainment with an unit of Nazis (Francisco Rabal , Luigi Pistilli , among others) infiltrated on England . It commences at Dunkirk when a German band infiltrates British lines and unites the evacuation to Great Britain for the aim of conducting covert missions . As the Battle of Britain starts the Germans focus on attempting the sabotage new Allied Radar installations .A British Captain (Frederick Stafford ) tries to track down the Germans aided by a sergeant (Renzo Palmer) and under direct orders of a British Air Marshal (Van Johnson). It is 1940, and the diabolical mind of Adolf Hitler is planning to bomb England into submission to his warped dreams of a 'Fortress Europe'. Standing between Britain's freedom and Hitler's terrifying plans is the R.A.F - dedicated pilots who took to the skies in the face of overwhelming odds. The German Luftwaffe's planes outnumber the R.A.F's by more than 2 to 1 - 650 planes of the R.A.F. vs. 2,500 of the Luftwaffe! These odds , however, do not deplete the determination of the R.A.F. to stop Hitler, and as the Luftwaffe launches wave after wave of Heinkel 111 bombers against British cities, the R.A.F. responds, under the political leadership of Winton Churchill . Squadron Leaders lead the newest pilots of the R.A.F. into dogfighting with the Luftwaffe's experienced veterans, with the aim of driving Hitler's forces away from Dover's white cliffs for good .

This European co-production between Italy/Spain/France contains noisy action , wartime intrigue, explosions, shootouts, bombing and is quite amusing . But it's also a historical reenactment of the air war in the early days of WWII for control of the skies over Britain as a subject matter that deals with a vital period of world history as the new Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force determine whether or not an invasion can take place . Well-made war-action/thriller/adventure/ Eurotrash film , is a standout in its genre : The Spaghetti-Italian warlike. This exciting movie gets lots of action, spectacular scenes , displays several extras and tanks, in fact, the production wishes thanks the British Ministry of defense and the Army general staff for their collaboration in making this film. Relentless plot twists ,in spite of some flaws ,the warlike action keep you breathless , thanks to suspense and acceptable widescreen aerial sequences , which will suffer on small television. Great aerial photography with nice special effects aerial unit by Emilio Ruiz Del Rio. Fine cinematography by Alejandro Ulloa of ¨Horror Express¨ and atmospheric score by Francesco De Massi. Rough,elegant Francisco Rabal is good as the group leader of the motley pack ,he along with Luigi Pistilli leads the misfit group of Nazis from behind enemy lines . Remainder casting has such a terrific plethora formed by several European actors , as French : Frederick Stafford ,Jacques Berthier ; Spanish : Teresa Gimpera , Luis Davila ,Eduardo Fajardo ; Italian : Luigi Pistilli , Ida Galli and Renzo Palmer , furthermore special appearance by Van Johnson as Air Marshall Taylor. The film takes part from American classic movies referred to Commandos genre ,just like :¨ Dirty dozen¨, ¨Kelly's heroes¨ and ¨Where the eagles dare¨ but especially of ¨ Battle of England¨ by Guy Hamilton . The picture is professionally directed by Enzo Girolami Castellari who made another good war film: ¨Inglorious bastards¨. He had a lot of hit-smash in the action cinema and Spaghetti as ¨Keoma¨ and ¨Go kill and come back¨, in fact the film is an Italian Western developed on the WWII. The pic will appeal to Eurocult fans and Italian-Spaniard production enthusiasts.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
good wartime spy drama, 30 August 2009

Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

Using the chaos of the Dunkirk evacuation as a cover, several German agents take on the identities of English soldiers in order to gain access to England and take out the radar installations. One Captain aware of the ruse has to track the men down and stop them before the Germans can bomb England into surrendering.

Good, if a bit long, spy story set in London. there are several action set pieces that are quite good, though they suffer a great deal in pan and scan because of the use of multiple images. (Oh how this film cries out for a good letterbox edition.) This is the sort of film that grabs you from the first couple of moments and then drags you along at its conclusion. I really liked this and probably should have rated it higher than 6 but I think the viewing experience was really hindered by a lack of widescreen.

Worth searching out, especially if you can find a wide screen copy.

One of the best "spaghetti war movies", 5 May 2012

Author: Jeff (actionrating.com) from United States

See it – Like the many spaghetti westerns that were made during the 70's, there were also a slew of Italian-made WWII movies. The only reason to see this film is that it is possibly the best spaghetti war movie ever made. That being said, this is far from a great movie. It has a fictitious plot (although it takes place during historic events), it is poorly dubbed, and there's no Clint Eastwood. But the action scenes are pretty decent, including exciting opening and ending combat sequences. It's the story of German spies who disguise themselves as British soldiers during the evacuation from Dunkirk in order to destroy radar installations during the Battle of Britain. The only actor you're likely to recognize is Van Johnson, who, although a great actor, is pretty badly miscast in a limited role as a British air marshal. 3 out of 5 action rating

Great spaghetti-war action flick, 29 November 2010

Author: jvetrau from Russia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A really great WWII spy action flick from the Italian spaghetti master Enzo Castellari. Its about German saboteurs trying to infiltrate British radar systems before massive air strike.

The movie starts with an instant action and keeps it up until the very end. A bunch of varied battles between infantry, tanks, aircrafts, commandos etc are done with a quite large scale and without artistic stupidity like it is in Battle of the Bulge. Its also great they've used scale model technique to portray air battles instead of awkward animated background — it looks much more real especially with bombings.

Yep, actors are plastic. But come on, its a spaghetti genre and its great because of cool comic book characters not stunning actor performances! And leading characters are really cool (BTW it seems Mike Myers character in Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" is inspired by Sgt. Mulligan).

What is really stunning here is production designer's work — a lot of well- crafted scenes and interiors. I've liked command center the most — all its equipment is pretty awesome and looks very real. A great variety of cars, tanks, planes, ships and other vehicles is also can be seen here. Its pretty refreshing after the same three cars, two trucks and one tank that is used in most 60s war films.

Although I've liked Castellari's own "Inglorious Bastards" more, this movie is pretty awesome. Just don't try to find great acting here and watch it for non- stop action.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Not favourable, 1 September 2001
Author: jmaclachlan32 from Brisbane Australia

This is the most innacurate depiction of the RAF and the Battle of Britain that anyone could envisage. Look no further than the aircraft in use on the movie. They have Messerschmitt 109s dressed up as spitfires and Spitfires dressed up as Messerschmitts. How stupid could you get.

The idea of Van Johnson as an air Commodore hysterically controlling an air battle above wartime London from the cockpit of a Fighter of indeterminate breed is also to ludicrous to contemplate.

Possibly one of the worst war films ever made

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
An uneven film but on balance, the good far outweighs the bad., 24 September 2011

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

This is an odd case of casting, as the very American actor, Van Johnson, plays a British officer! However, despite this, the film looks very good for an Italian-made WWII film--sort of like a 'spaghetti' war film. For example, the Dunkirk scene was quite nice and had a pretty expansive look--with a relatively large cast and lots of ships. And SOME of the airplanes were done well (such as the fake He-111 cockpits--VERY nice). Unfortunately, the rest of the planes in the film are an odd lot--probably because the original models weren't available to the Italian film company. The German fighters were often American T-6s or even British Spitfires and the Spitfires were sometimes some odd plane (I assume Italian) that looks a bit like it but whose cockpit and undercarriage look more like that of the German Bf-109. To make it even more confusing, the exact same plane was often used interchangeably by BOTH sides in the film. And, at one point a British fighter plane becomes a Lysander observation plane. Clearly the film's attention to these sort of details was pretty poor...at best. And, late in the film the planes are CLEARLY cheap models. It's best to just close your eyes or so get a snack during these scenes because even if you don't care about these details, it still will confuse you.

The plot itself is rather clever. At Dunkirk, a group of Germans who speak English well are chosen to assume the identities of dead British soldiers. Then, when the British army is rescued, these agents can then infiltrate the country and eventually attack the Brit's most important secret weapon--their radar.

The bulk of the film is executed reasonably well (not always great--but not bad) and it's obvious they spend some money on the film. However, there were a few problems. The punching sounds in the fight scenes sounded EXACTLY like the punching sounds from a kung fu film! There also was a scene involving the killing of a German female agent and it was silly and WAY overdone--and completely unnecessary. All together, the film was very uneven but the good still far outweighed the bad. I would really love to see this film re-done--with a tighter script and more consistent special effects.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
The Battle of Britain as envisioned by Italians?, 27 January 2002

Author: bobster66

The story starts off at the Battle of Dunkerque as a German Unit infiltrates British lines and joins the evacuation to England for the purpose of conducting covert operations. As the Battle of Britain commences the Germans focus on disabling the new British Radar stations.

As an old Italian movie it was filmed without sound and voice-overs were added later just like a Spaghetti Western. Filmed as a wide-screen movie the pan and scan job to fit a TV screen is poorly done. But that is not the worst of it. There are several split screen periods in the movie with up to four different pictures at once and to refit for a 4:3 aspect ratio the editors just cut out the edges of the film, essentially cutting some of the multiple views in half. Very sloppy.

The acting and directing is dull if serviceable but the script and editing (not just the editing for TV) is weak. The casting deserves special mention as laughable. I like Van Johnson, but a British Air Marshall? And the very Mediterranean looking Germans are a hoot!

For World War Two history buffs you may enjoy the scenes of the beaches of Dunkerque as I can't recall ever seeing it represented in a movie before. Unfortunately, the scenes of the air battles later in the movie will make you cringe.

This movie may have some curiosity value for those of us who love war movies but others will probably be disappointed. I gave it 4 out of 10.

Bob

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