IMDb > Escape to Athena (1979)

Escape to Athena (1979) More at IMDbPro »

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Escape to Athena (1979) -- Virgin.net Movies - Trailer (WMP)

Overview

User Rating:
5.4/10   1,315 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 18% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
George P. Cosmatos
Writers:
Edward Anhalt (screenplay)
George P. Cosmatos (story)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Escape to Athena on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
6 June 1979 (USA) more
Genre:
Action | Adventure | Comedy | War more
Tagline:
The patriot, the professor, the comic and the stripper, were fighting for what they believed in. Getting rich!
Plot:
During the World War II, the prisoners of a German camp in a greek island are trying to escape. They don't want only their freedom... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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NewsDesk:
Film Junk Podcast Episode #233: Summer Recap and Fall Preview
 (From FilmJunk. 30 August 2009, 11:19 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
The Reluctant Nazi more (23 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Roger Moore ... Major Otto Hecht

Telly Savalas ... Zeno

David Niven ... Professor Blake

Claudia Cardinale ... Eleana
Stefanie Powers ... Dottie Del Mar

Richard Roundtree ... Nat Judson
Sonny Bono ... Bruno Rotelli

Elliott Gould ... Charlie

Anthony Valentine ... SS Major Volkmann
Siegfried Rauch ... Braun
Michael Sheard ... Sergeant Mann
Richard Wren ... Reistoffer
Philip Locke ... Vogel
Steve Ubels ... Lantz
Paul Picerni
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
125 min | Sweden:119 min | Argentina:120 min
Country:
UK
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
Singapore:PG | Australia:M | Norway:16 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1986) | USA:PG
Filming Locations:
Greece more
Company:
Incorporated Television Company (ITC) more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Last feature of Paul Stassino. more
Goofs:
Anachronisms: Richard Roundtree's character wears the shoulder patch of the US 8th Army, which served only in the Pacific theater in World War II. more
Movie Connections:
Spoofs Stalag 17 (1953) more
Soundtrack:
Keep Tomorrow For Me more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful.
The Reluctant Nazi, 20 February 2008
5/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Roger Moore is the Austrian commandant of a German POW camp located in the Grecian Isles in Escape to Athena. He's got a couple of favorites among the prisoners, an Italian cook in Sonny Bono, an archaeologist in David Niven and a black GI magician in Richard Roundtree. In addition USO entertainers Elliott Gould and Stefanie Powers are shot down in their transport plane and become Moore's prisoners.

Moore really hasn't got his heart in the commandant business. He's an antique dealer in civilian life and he relishes the assignment only because of the location where he's also involved in Adolph Hitler's looting of Greek antiquities of which there are many in that area. Niven and company aid him because if they didn't they'd be in the hands of the SS. STill they want there freedom.

Which they get when they join with resistance leader Telly Savalas and his mistress, bordello madam Claudia Cardinale. It's rumored there's a lot of hidden loot in a monastery on a nearby hill, whatever Moore hasn't taken for his own private stock for after the war. But Savalas is interested in some prototype V2 rockets located there.

Escape to Athena mixes the plot elements of The Guns of Navarone and Topkapi, but they're not stirred too well. The scenery is quite nice and I'm sure the prospect of some paid time in the Aegean Sea might have been a big inducement for all these people signing on for the movie.

As he was involved with Stefanie Powers at the time, William Holden gets a small unbilled cameo in a brief scene with Elliott Gould. As it turns out Moore's Prison Camp is also Stalag XVII. That might have been part of the package for Stefanie to go to Greece.

It was also plain dumb to make Richard Roundtree a black GI. Americans were not involved in that theater, let alone black soldiers. Now if they had made his character be part of the African colonial troops of the British Empire, it would have made more sense. Then again we couldn't have heard Roundtree call a German soldier a 'cool cat'.

The action sequences are done well enough, but the cast here just collected their paychecks and walked through the parts.

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