Moving war film set during WWII , dealing with a commando is assigned a dangerous mission on an island of Pacific already inhabited by stranded Japanese forces . June 1942 , all territories of Holland and England , from India , Maynar or Burma , Borneo , New Guinea , Salomen islands ..to Philippines have been occupied by the Japanese . November 1945 Australian forces carry out the first offensive . Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson and his troops invade Bismark archipelago in the South Pacific , taking Tabaul . A island located in North Bougainville between Bismark archipelago and Philippines , there a troop of Marines led by an officer battle Japanese forces . The small American battalion is commanded by daredevil captain Stern (Richard Harrison) who rules over soldiers called Langousta (Carlo Gaddi, usually in baddie roles) , Bronx (Dan Harrison or Bruno Piergentili who starred some pasta Westerns) , Missouri (Goffredo Unger , usual master of arms) , Castle (Vittorio Richelmy) along with a war correspondent (Alain Gerard , the tale is seen through the eyes of this journalist by voice-in-off) , among others (very secondary role by Mario Bianchi , director'son , and future filmmaker of Spaghetti , thrillers and erotic movies) . At the beginning the Marines are successfully in wiping out Japanese led by Major Koshiro (George Wang) . But they are spotted and descended upon by enemies forces . They must go to the other side of the Pacific island , killing Japanenese , suffering exhaustion , risked encounters , swift attacks , quicksands and other elements until they are rescued . The platoon meets a nurse (Pamela Tudor) from Swedish Red Cross whose hubby died two years ago in a medic mission . The group must try to survive enemy that undergo a chase and a mini-war , as they fight all by themselves and finally find how wrong his misconceptions are .
This is a flag-waver wartime movie with a typical crew of Marines battling the 'yellow menace' on a Pacific atoll . The film packs warlike action , thrills , drama , shootouts , and results to be quite entertaining . A cool cast , nice direction , though sometimes mediocre , from Montero with riveting climax and enhanced by energetic score by Franco Salina make this a must for Italian warlike fans . The story is seen through the eyes a war reporter and contains a brief studio character seeking human frailty beneath surface heroism . The picture turns out to be passable and in enough budget for standards of the B-Italian war series . Acceptable Richard Harrison as two-fisted sergeant , in one of his best roles and no thanks to mediocre script . Strong and robust Richard Harrison was a magnificent muscle-man . He was one along with Ed Fury, Brad Harris , Kirk Morris , Reg Park , Mark Forest , among others , whom to seek fortune acting absurdly muscle mythological figures , but anybody topped Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott in popularity . Harrison played in Hollywood some minor roles as ¨Kronos ¨ and ¨South Pacific¨ , while shooting another inferior character in ¨Master of world (1961)¨ produced by American International , he met producer James H. Nicholson's daughter and married her within six months . Frustrated at not being able to secure meatier roles in America , Harrison jumped at the chance when offered the first character in 1961 ,¨The Invincible Gladiator¨ , which was filming in Europe along with his greatest success ¨The seven Spartans¨. He wound up settling in Italy for the next two decades. His lead role, of course, immediately typed him as another Herculean type and, to avoid being penned in too much as a muscle man , he sought characters in routine spaghetti westerns as ¨Texas the red¨ , ¨Gringo¨, ¨Reverendo Colt¨ , ¨Joe Dakota¨ , even the main role from ¨For a fistful of dollars¨ was offered to Richard Harrison , but he turned down and explaining : Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing Fistful of Dollars, and recommending Clint Eastwood for the part . He also starred another Wartime film : ¨Leopards of Churchill¨ and spy intrigue as ¨Master stroke¨ and ¨077 challenge to the killer's¨ . Once Italy closed down film production after the muscular craze had died down, he, like others, found himself unemployed. He did manage to scrape up work in Hong Kong , but a large portion of them were bottom-of-the-barrel Ninja movies .
Director Roberto B. Montero's skill with the thrills overcomes the artificiality of the story . Montero directed all kind of genres such as Eurospy : ¨Agent Z55 , atomic secret¨, ¨Mission Hong Kong¨ ; Adventure : ¨Thaurus , son of Athila¨, ¨Robin Hood¨ ; ¨Poliziottesco or Crime thriller : ¨Eye of spider¨, ¨An alibi per Morire¨ ; Mondo sexy documentary : ¨Sexy Follie¨ , ¨Africa sexy¨, ¨A fool's war¨, ¨Sexy nude¨ ,¨Mondo Infame¨ ; Historical/erotic : ¨Lucrecia Borgia¨, ¨The hot nights of Calígula¨ ; Gialli : "The Slasher ...is the Sex Maniac!" ; Western all'Italiana : ¨Oklahoma John¨ , ¨Durango is coming , pay or die¨ , ¨Thunder over El Paso¨, ¨Two sides of the dollar¨ ; and Wartime : ¨Rangers attack at hour x¨, ¨Damned platoon¨or ¨The battle of the damned¨ and this "36 Ore all'inferno" also titled "36 Hours in Hell" or "Last Combat" .
Others movies concerning the wartime sub-genre about American soldiers battling Japanese on the Pacific islands during the WWII are the followings : ¨Guadalcanal diary¨ (43) by Lewis Seiler with Anthony Quinn and Lloyd Nolan ; the classic ¨Sands of Iwo Jima¨ (1949) by Allan Dawn with John Wayne ; ¨Objective Burma¨ by Raoul Walsh with Errol Flynn ; ¨None but the brave¨, directed and starred by Frank Sinatra; and Between heaven and hell (1956) with Robert Wagner , among them.
This is a flag-waver wartime movie with a typical crew of Marines battling the 'yellow menace' on a Pacific atoll . The film packs warlike action , thrills , drama , shootouts , and results to be quite entertaining . A cool cast , nice direction , though sometimes mediocre , from Montero with riveting climax and enhanced by energetic score by Franco Salina make this a must for Italian warlike fans . The story is seen through the eyes a war reporter and contains a brief studio character seeking human frailty beneath surface heroism . The picture turns out to be passable and in enough budget for standards of the B-Italian war series . Acceptable Richard Harrison as two-fisted sergeant , in one of his best roles and no thanks to mediocre script . Strong and robust Richard Harrison was a magnificent muscle-man . He was one along with Ed Fury, Brad Harris , Kirk Morris , Reg Park , Mark Forest , among others , whom to seek fortune acting absurdly muscle mythological figures , but anybody topped Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott in popularity . Harrison played in Hollywood some minor roles as ¨Kronos ¨ and ¨South Pacific¨ , while shooting another inferior character in ¨Master of world (1961)¨ produced by American International , he met producer James H. Nicholson's daughter and married her within six months . Frustrated at not being able to secure meatier roles in America , Harrison jumped at the chance when offered the first character in 1961 ,¨The Invincible Gladiator¨ , which was filming in Europe along with his greatest success ¨The seven Spartans¨. He wound up settling in Italy for the next two decades. His lead role, of course, immediately typed him as another Herculean type and, to avoid being penned in too much as a muscle man , he sought characters in routine spaghetti westerns as ¨Texas the red¨ , ¨Gringo¨, ¨Reverendo Colt¨ , ¨Joe Dakota¨ , even the main role from ¨For a fistful of dollars¨ was offered to Richard Harrison , but he turned down and explaining : Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing Fistful of Dollars, and recommending Clint Eastwood for the part . He also starred another Wartime film : ¨Leopards of Churchill¨ and spy intrigue as ¨Master stroke¨ and ¨077 challenge to the killer's¨ . Once Italy closed down film production after the muscular craze had died down, he, like others, found himself unemployed. He did manage to scrape up work in Hong Kong , but a large portion of them were bottom-of-the-barrel Ninja movies .
Director Roberto B. Montero's skill with the thrills overcomes the artificiality of the story . Montero directed all kind of genres such as Eurospy : ¨Agent Z55 , atomic secret¨, ¨Mission Hong Kong¨ ; Adventure : ¨Thaurus , son of Athila¨, ¨Robin Hood¨ ; ¨Poliziottesco or Crime thriller : ¨Eye of spider¨, ¨An alibi per Morire¨ ; Mondo sexy documentary : ¨Sexy Follie¨ , ¨Africa sexy¨, ¨A fool's war¨, ¨Sexy nude¨ ,¨Mondo Infame¨ ; Historical/erotic : ¨Lucrecia Borgia¨, ¨The hot nights of Calígula¨ ; Gialli : "The Slasher ...is the Sex Maniac!" ; Western all'Italiana : ¨Oklahoma John¨ , ¨Durango is coming , pay or die¨ , ¨Thunder over El Paso¨, ¨Two sides of the dollar¨ ; and Wartime : ¨Rangers attack at hour x¨, ¨Damned platoon¨or ¨The battle of the damned¨ and this "36 Ore all'inferno" also titled "36 Hours in Hell" or "Last Combat" .
Others movies concerning the wartime sub-genre about American soldiers battling Japanese on the Pacific islands during the WWII are the followings : ¨Guadalcanal diary¨ (43) by Lewis Seiler with Anthony Quinn and Lloyd Nolan ; the classic ¨Sands of Iwo Jima¨ (1949) by Allan Dawn with John Wayne ; ¨Objective Burma¨ by Raoul Walsh with Errol Flynn ; ¨None but the brave¨, directed and starred by Frank Sinatra; and Between heaven and hell (1956) with Robert Wagner , among them.