Sergeant Klems (1971)
"Il sergente Klems" (original title)

A man masquerading as a dead soldier seeks to desert his post and join the enemy in their struggle.

Director:

Sergio Grieco

Writers:

Bruno Di Geronimo, Sergio Grieco,

Stars:

Peter Strauss, Tina Aumont, Pier Paolo Capponi

Cast

Credited cast:
Peter Strauss	...	Sergeant Otto Josef Klems
Tina Aumont
Pier Paolo Capponi
Howard Ross
Massimo Serato
Rossella Como
Dada Gallotti
Franco Ressel
Peter Berling
Luciana Paluzzi
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Giuseppe Castellano

Storyline

A man masquerading as a dead soldier seeks to desert his post and join the enemy in their struggle.

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Plot Keywords:

desertion | foreign legion | muslim

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Taglines:

Do anything to stay alive!

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Genres:

Adventure

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

3 December 1971 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Sergeant Klems

Company Credits

Production Co:

Julia Film

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Klems is renamed "El-Hadj Alemán", which means the German Pilgrim.

User Reviews

Man of Legend

Poor Josef Otto Klems. The man has problems. First seen cowering in a shell crater in 1918, he trades uniforms with a dead soldier (reasons remain unclear due to choppy and abrupt editing) Flash forward to Morocco in the early twenties. Otto Klems still has problems. Posted to some god awful desert hell hole, for one thing, and one of his superiors in the French Foreign Legion has designs on his booty! (the man all but twirls his moustache to signify his evil intent) And if that wasn't enough, the local Arab population isn't happy about the Spanish and the French putting boots on their precious homeland, yadda yadda yadda. During a skirmish Sgt Klems manages to get captured by the locals but rather than get castrated (the usual punishment meted out by the heroic freedom fighters) he gets adopted. Becoming a sort of Lawrence of Arabia figure, he joins the natives in their fight against imperialism. He shows them modern weapons and tries to teach them tactics.

Hard to really judge this film. The version I have seen is chopped apart so bad that major chunks of exposition are missing, making it difficult to tell what is happening at times.The battle scenes pack a punch, however. I am sure the full version is a better film. Peter Strauss looks like Viggo Mortensen. Based on a true story.