Starts off on the wrong tone for a war movie. Cheesy acting. Boring movie. 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

RELEASED IN 1968 and directed by Edward Dmytryk & Duilio Coletti, "Anzio" (aka "The Battle of Anzio") chronicles the uneventful Allied amphibious landing at Anzio, Italy, in late January, 1944. While a reconnaissance detail offers evidence that there's no serious enemy opposition in the 30 miles between Anzio and Rome, the commander (Arthur Kennedy) inexplicably decides to dig-in, which provides Field Marshal Kesselring (Wolfgang Preiss) the opportunity to marshal his troops against the invasion. This prolongs their capturing Rome until early June.Winston Churchill was dissatisfied with this, commenting "I had hoped we were hurling a wildcat into the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale." The movie focuses on a war correspondent (Robert Mitchum) who accompanies a small group of Rangers who patrol the Italian countryside and are ambushed at the Battle of Cisterna and try to make it back. The soldiers are played by Earl Holliman, Peter Falk, Reni Santoni, et. al.The movie's based on real events, but you can tell that the writers pandered to the audience in light of some of the contrived dialogues, e.g. General Lesley quoting Churchill at the end (Lesley, of course, representing the real-life General Lucas). Another negative is the incongruent soundtrack and score, most notably the opening song by Jack Jones, "The World is Yours." Yet it could be argued that this lends the movie a unique charm.Some armchair critics complain that the movie should have focused more on The Battle of Anzio, as far as the invading Allies fighting Kesselring's counterattack, but that's here to a point (since all the events fall under the umbrella of that battle) and I think they came up with an innovative way to condense 4.5 months into a fairly compelling two hour flick.THE MOVIE RUNS 117 minutes and was shot entirely in Italy (Naples, Caserta & Rome). WRITERS: H.A.L. Craig (et. al) from Wynford Vaughan-Thomas's book. ADDITIONAL CAST: Robert Ryan has a small role.GRADE: B-

Another potentially great historic war drama sacrificed on the alter of commercial expediency. Don't be fooled by the appearance of Robert Mitchum - The Longest Day this is not. Historically inaccurate. Why on earth did the script writers replace Generals Clarke and Lucas with Generals "Carson" and "Lesley"? Were they worried that they would be sued for portraying the real generals as incompetent?The military tactics were bizarre and very unrealistic. An ambush involving fake straw stacks, and then, rather than opening fire, the Germans tell the Americans to throw down their weapons and surrender. Sounds like a cop movie!Then, of course, there is the obligatory appearance in a 1960s WW2 movie of 60s vintage American M-48 tanks, masquerading (very unsuccessfully) as both American Sherman tanks and German Panthers / Tigers / Panzer IVs.The plot even involved Robert Mitchum as some sort of preachy anti- war type, going on in long diatribes about how war is wrong, sometimes to squad members in the middle of gunfire!Some of the firefight scenes were fairly good though, especially the final one, with the German snipers.Overall though, very disappointing.

I am not a fan of "war" movies, but I found this one to be surprisingly good. Great tension and Robert Mitchum NOT in a "leader" role made the movie for me. He was low key, un macho, showed the emotion in his face and wonderfully under acted. Earl Holliman and Peter Falk displayed typical "60's" acting chops, and of course you could tell who was going to die by the lack of dialogue and/or sympathetic scenes. The tension though is what holds one to the movie. The interplay between the "are they going to make it or not" gets you until the end. I am sure there are other war movies out there with memorable plots and directing, but this is a solid effort. Marvelous!