Review: The Secret Invasion

British Major Stewart Granger recruits a bunch of criminals for a dangerous assignment to rescue an Italian General currently imprisoned by the Nazis in occupied Yugoslavia. Raf Vallone plays the brains of the bunch, Mickey Rooney is a pugnacious IRA explosives expert, Henry Silva a cold-blooded assassin, Edd Byrnes an expert forger whilst William Campbell is essentially a huckster and thief. They will each have full pardons on completion of the mission should any survive.

 

Director Roger Corman (“Little Shop of Horrors”, “The Tomb of Ligeia”, “Masque of the Red Death”) and screenwriter R. Wright Campbell (“Masque of the Red Death”, “Hells Angels on Wheels”) give us a pretty solid 1964 B-movie blend of “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Guns of Navarone” here. As you’d expect from the very economic Roger Corman (mostly known as a prolific, penny-pinching producer – brother Gene has that duty here), the film gets off and running fairly quick after the literally explosive opening credits, and to be fair this one came out several years before “The Dirty Dozen” (which is greatly the better film, don’t get me wrong). In fact, the basic premise is a rework of one of Corman’s earliest directorial efforts “Five Guns West”, and it’s an irresistible ‘guy movie’ premise at that.

 

Corman and cinematographer Arthur E Arling (“The Yearling”, “Pillow Talk”, “Strait-Jacket”) do a fairly decent job of making this look close-ish to A-budget despite costing about half a million bucks. The location shooting in Yugoslavia is especially terrific. It may not be the equal of “The Dirty Dozen”, but for me it moved at a better clip than “The Guns of Navarone” and “Where Eagles Dare”. It’s pretty enjoyable ‘guy movie’ war-action stuff, with a rather interesting and eclectic cast. Corman apparently had his worst-ever experience in dealing with an actor with Stewart Granger. Granger (from everything I’ve read) seems to come across a little bitter and grumpy, so I can imagine how he might’ve acted on set being in a B-movie and no longer the great big headline star anymore. The funny thing? None of the discontent is evident on screen as Granger is absolutely in rock-solid form here as the leader of the ragtag group. Mickey Rooney seems to equate Irish with saying ‘lad’ in every sentence, but otherwise gives a lively, completely unsubtle performance. He’s jolly good fun. If you love ‘The Mick’, you’ll love him here as the resident explosives expert. I mean, you wouldn’t want the diminutive (if pugnacious) Rooney on your side in close quarters battle, would you? Raf Vallone is a sturdy presence as perhaps the most likeable of the unit. Edd Byrnes is essentially your Audie Murphy/Bobby Darin type here for the youth demo, but he’s actually quite good nonetheless (Darin was indeed originally meant for the part. Personally I think Byrnes is better than singer Darin would’ve been). Aside from Granger and Rooney, the standout for me is a well-cast Henry Silva as a supposedly dead-eyed assassin whose ice slowly starts to melt. When it’s his wont, Silva could be really effective on screen and that he is here in a grim performance playing a man whose profession is a very grim one. Rounding out the group of mercenaries is William Campbell, who looks like Tony Curtis crossed with Liberace, doesn’t get as much of a role here as the rest but is probably the most convincing of the lot as far as playing a supposed criminal goes (despite his criminal expertise being basically a mixture of ‘Hannibal’ and ‘Face’ from “The A-Team”). There’s also a solid performance by Helmo Kindermann as the German senior officer. Director Corman handles the action really well, something that wasn’t the case with his rather dull and enervated “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”. The climax is especially exciting.

 

Although this isn’t Roger Corman’s best film as director, this WWII action flick is very underrated and deserving of a bigger audience. A good yarn solidly told, and you certainly wouldn’t guess at its director. It’s nowhere near Corman’s cheapest film, but still considerably more low-budget than these kinds of things normally are. So it’s quite impressively done under those circumstances, actually.

 

Rating: B-