Copyright 1968 by P.E.C./C.C.I. (Rome) and C.C.C. (Berlin). Dubbed English-language version released in the U.K. and Australia through 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. Not released in the U.S.A. Released in the U.K. in April 1972 in a version cut to 8,000 feet or 89 minutes. The Australian version was 20 minutes longer at 10,688 feet. IMDb tells us there is also an 82-minutes version entitled "Sullivan's Marauders".
NOTES: I believe this was Fox's final "official" CinemaScope release in Australia. I know the process was labeled Cromoscope in the U.K., but in Australia Fox billed it as CinemaScope and advertised it as such. Unfortunately the 119-minute Australian version is no longer available. The following review is based on the British print.
VIEWERS' GUIDE: The 119-minute version is not suitable for children. The 89-minute version is most strictly adults only.
COMMENT: "Commandos" suffers from a director who insists on getting far too close to the action. True, this approach is moderately effective in the action sequences where the spectacularly staged battles are observed at such disconcertingly close range they are difficult to take in — but they are also of course uncomfortably real. Unfortunately this elephantine television handling is downright disastrous in the dialogue scenes in which the clumsily atrocious dubbing hurts the eye as well as the ear. At least Van Cleef and Kelly mouth their own lines, but the problem is compounded by verbosity. Yet despite all the talk, the plot is a little difficult to follow — what is the purpose of the mission, for instance? — and the characters remain stubbornly superficial. And in the print under review, Miss Tolo unaccountably simply disappears.
NOTES: I believe this was Fox's final "official" CinemaScope release in Australia. I know the process was labeled Cromoscope in the U.K., but in Australia Fox billed it as CinemaScope and advertised it as such. Unfortunately the 119-minute Australian version is no longer available. The following review is based on the British print.
VIEWERS' GUIDE: The 119-minute version is not suitable for children. The 89-minute version is most strictly adults only.
COMMENT: "Commandos" suffers from a director who insists on getting far too close to the action. True, this approach is moderately effective in the action sequences where the spectacularly staged battles are observed at such disconcertingly close range they are difficult to take in — but they are also of course uncomfortably real. Unfortunately this elephantine television handling is downright disastrous in the dialogue scenes in which the clumsily atrocious dubbing hurts the eye as well as the ear. At least Van Cleef and Kelly mouth their own lines, but the problem is compounded by verbosity. Yet despite all the talk, the plot is a little difficult to follow — what is the purpose of the mission, for instance? — and the characters remain stubbornly superficial. And in the print under review, Miss Tolo unaccountably simply disappears.