A frisky troop of American soldiers take over a Sicilian town and turn it upside down, even with the yearly festival going on, and create a separate war all of its own. Fooling both a naive major and a trusting general, the confusion and chaos just increases, leading to the most absurd if international incidents.
Image Hope and Crosby in "The Road to the Front Line", and that's what you've got in this sometimes juvenile anti-war farce that reeks of the zany mind of its director, Blake Edwards, often utilizing sight gags straight out of the "Pink Panther" series. Repetitive gags of soldiers falling into various locations of water dominate this, with leading players James Coburn and Dick Shawn screaming throughout.
Future Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and future Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) are the befuddled officers, Morgan coincidentally named Potts. Future "Hogan's Heroes" general Leon Askin is the head Nazi invading Sicily here, forecasting his future T.V. role. This basically is a big screen "Hogan's Heroes" with a different setting and slightly more adult humor. Still, it's rather pedestrian, although Morgan is very funny. Too bad he never went down Lloyd Bridges territory by appearing in the vast number of "Airplane!" style spoofs later in his career.
Image Hope and Crosby in "The Road to the Front Line", and that's what you've got in this sometimes juvenile anti-war farce that reeks of the zany mind of its director, Blake Edwards, often utilizing sight gags straight out of the "Pink Panther" series. Repetitive gags of soldiers falling into various locations of water dominate this, with leading players James Coburn and Dick Shawn screaming throughout.
Future Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and future Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) are the befuddled officers, Morgan coincidentally named Potts. Future "Hogan's Heroes" general Leon Askin is the head Nazi invading Sicily here, forecasting his future T.V. role. This basically is a big screen "Hogan's Heroes" with a different setting and slightly more adult humor. Still, it's rather pedestrian, although Morgan is very funny. Too bad he never went down Lloyd Bridges territory by appearing in the vast number of "Airplane!" style spoofs later in his career.