User Reviews

WARRIORS FIVE "La Guerra Contiua" 1962

This one is a real bottom of the barrel cheapie,it is set in Italy just after the Italian surrender to the Allies. Jack Palance is the headliner with support from Folco Lulli, Serge Reggiani, Venantino Ventitina, Franco Balducci and the beautiful, Giovanna Ralli.

Palance is an American paratrooper whose squad had been dropped behind the German lines to blow up a bridge. The squad, with the exception of Palance had the bad luck to land in a German minefield.

At the same time, five Italian military prisoners have escaped from their jailers. They hope to grab a train heading south. Then they want to cross over to the American side and get away from the war. They hook up with "working girl" Giovanna Ralli along the way. Their train ride is cut short after the Germans stop the train. They are looking for men who killed several Germans.

A bit of run and hide is needed for the group to escape from the clutches of the Germans. They meet up with Palance and are asked to help him complete his mission. The group soon agree, but they first need to retrieve the sabotage supplies from the minefield. This they do.

Now it is a rumble with the Germans to place the explosives etc. Then the group is roped in by a bunch of Italian villagers who need their help. It seems that the Germans have taken hostages and are planning on killing the lot the next morning.

Of course our brave band of men charge right in. There is a quick and bloody battle with several of the group being killed. They do however manage to free the hostages.

This is not a good film. The 83 minute runtime seems much longer with far too much dead time. The story takes forever to get to any sort of action. If it was not for the lovely Miss Ralli posing in various stages of undress, I would have stopped watching. Palance just goes through the motions here and looks bored with the whole thing.

The Italian film was made in 1960, but not released till 1962 when the American studio American-international purchased the film. They dubbed the film into English and put it out on the drive-in circuit.

Jack Palance plays a lone American Paratrooper in director Leopoldo Savona's low-budget, black & white, Italian-produced World War II thriller "Warriors Five" who recruits a team of Italian civilians to blow up a bridge. Earlier, when Jack's men were dropped into country to carry out their mission, they drifted down accidentally into a minefield and died. The story takes place about the same time that the Italians deposed Mussolini and withdrew from their alliance with Hitler. Several former Italian soldiers imprisoned by Mussolini's regime are released from confinement. They catch a train and encounter a beautiful but penniless prostitute, Italia (Giovanna Ralli of "The Mercenary") along the way. She falls in love with one of them, Alberto (Venantino Venantini of "Cannibal Ferox"), and they hang together until the grand finale. Meantime, and the German Army is still operating in Italy, and they are searching for the people who have killed three of their men in a vineyard. The refugees from the train that stopped for them to pick grapes killed the three young German soldiers, and soon afterward a horde of Germans armed to the teeth show up. Later, the Germans catch up to the train load of refugees at the next railroad depot. Our quintet of civilians and Italia elude them, and stumble onto a Jack who is foraging for himself in the middle of the wilderness. His men and he were sent to blow up a bridge (nothing substantial), but it was part of an operation to assist the American troops landing at Salerno. The five help Jack and they kill two Germans. Later, our heroes learn that the Germans have occupied a nearby village and has issued an ultimatum. Either the villagers turn over the murderers of their troops or they will execute some less fortunate villagers. Jack and his make-shift commandos attack the village and some of them die as they engage the enemy. Of course, the treacherous Germans have already hanged the villagers. The villagers route the Germans and Jack is wounded in the leg. He organizes them and at fade out they agree to relocate into the hills because otherwise the Germans will be swift and merciless in their retribution. Clocking in at a meager 81 minutes, "Warriors Five" is best known under its Italian title "La Guerra continua." Actually, this wartime thriller was released in 1960, and American International Pictures picked it up and re-released in America in 1962. Anybody who know anything about Italian World War II actioneers will know that Rock Hudson later starred in a combat epic "Hornet's Nest" (1970) that contained a similar premise. Hudson's paratroopers were massacred at their landing zone, but he escaped and set out to destroy a dam with the help of teenagers who were out to avenge the murder of their parents (indeed their entire village) as the hands of trigger-happy Nazis. Most of the fireworks in "Warriors Five" occurs near the end of the picture as the released prisoners decide to help their own in their assault on the village. Surprisingly, nobody entitled this little combat saga "The Magnificent Five." World War II completists will enjoy this more than anybody looking for a potboiler to fill their time. There is something spooky about the minefield where the ill-fated American paratroopers perish. You can see their deployed silk chutes still billowing in the breeze when the civilians find Palance.