Gad, this is an awful waste of time. That this mess passed for farce, wit, and sophistication seems incomprehensible. Except for Aldo Ray, none of the actors seems suited for his role. The script lacks even a faint scent of insight. Blake Edwards made worse films—"The Great Race" and "10"come to mind. Mr. Blake never seems to assume responsibility for his lack of depth or his ineptitude. He ought to have retired with this film. Unfortunately, he did not. He made boring movies.I find it almost impossible to comprehend that Philippe de Broca's elegant and tender film "King of Hearts" had release the same year as this mess. The worst aspect of the film is the awful score by Henry Mancini. It has nothing to do with war or anything else for that matter.This picture is simply awful. Avoid it.

In 1943, as American Army troops are invading Italy, an over-eager yet green Commanding Officer is given the choice whether or not to overtake a small Sicilian village; hungry for the invasion, he leads his men into battle, but the cheery, celebrating Italians ultimately make a surrender difficult to manage. Developed and directed by Blake Edwards, this wartime comedy hasn't many jokes, and a great deal of the situations center on Dick Shawn's shrill Captain Cash, leaving stars James Coburn and Aldo Ray with little to do but react. Shawn does well in his role, but the part itself (a sniveling weasel who is temporarily subdued by a broad and some liquor) is tiresome, representing a cookie-cutter approach to the writing. The production is passable, and Edwards and screenwriter William Peter Blatty do make some comments on military procedure which are adept, but they run out of interesting ideas too soon. Edwards' mood is light and his tone is jovial, but there's no comedy in Blatty's script to match up with this. The result is rather like "Hogan's Heroes" without the laugh-track. *1/2 from ****

I like this movie for several reasons. One, is that it was made the year I was born-1966. Most movies from that year are very odd or strange- that was the height of the mod generation. One other good movie from 1966 is Fahrenheit 451. Anyway, My great Uncle is also in the movie. He plays the mayor of the town-Mayor Romano. It is ironic because although his stage name was Jay Novello, in real life his name was Michael Romano! Also Dick Shawn is hilarious and James Coburn is great as well-This was the same time period that he made his James bond spoof movies-in like Flint etc.... Definitely worth seeing again. Not quite on par with Kelly's Hero's-the best war comedy ever, but still close to that.

The Sixties produced a slew of funny war comedies demonstrating that WWII was basically good fun for all concerned, rather than being peopled with the kind of angst-filled, hand-wringing adolescents you see nowadays in movies like Memphis Belle and Saving Private Ryan. Edwards would go on to fantastic success with the Pink Panther series and writer Blatty is notable for his later work, The Exorcist. Edwards draws on a solid cast, including veterans Carroll O'Connor, Harry Morgan and Aldo Ray, without whom no war movie is complete. Italian star Fantoni turns in a meatball performance as Oppo but Dick Shawn steals the show with the best role of his career. Although a little slow in spots, Blake Edwards nonetheless gets where he's going and the result is a fine, though underrated, entry in the genre. The interactions between Shawn and Fantoni are worth the price of admission alone.