When Heroes Die (1970) User Reviews (5)

Mediocre and forgettable Paella/Macaroni Combat co-produced by Spain/Italy with mostly Spanish cast and loads of action

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 14 June 2020]

A middling wartime movie with thrills , double agents, resistance fighters , crosses , double crossing , twists and turns . "Suicide Mission" concerns a squad whose assignment comes to a crashing end and resulting in an average war movie as beyond the twisting storyline it doesn't have a lot else going for it. As a bunch of American commandos (Craig Hill, Enrique Avila, Charles Quiney, Aldo Sambrell , Manuel Zarzo) are sent on a priority mission to sneak into enemy territory and abduct General Rommel . But their mission goes wrong when they are captured by the Nazis who after torturing them get details of their cunning kidnap plot . Then Himmler has a meeting with Canaris and Rommel (Piero Lulli) himself , and subsequently Himmler has a cunning scheme of their own : to switch the squadron for some of their own commando , by replacing the American soldiers with German soldiers and send them back into the allied territory with a soldier (Piero Lulli) who is the spitting image of General Rommel so that he can murder President Eisenhower.

This Chorizo/Spaghetti combat film is filled with feats , suspense , battles , excitement , thrills and turns . The synopsis sounds plain and simple enough , but it turns out more and more complex and complicated with a lot of plot twists . So along the way there are intriguing happenings , surprises , betrayals , as well as various red herrings which intentionally complicate the action . The noisy action is uniformly badly-made , especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes in which the motley , wayward group is really besieged by two small tanks , including some briefly spectacular shootouts and bombing . There are also a number of unaccuracies and goofs , as the troopers are badly armed and lousily uniformed , as well as inappropriate tanks . The fights scenes are actually very similar to a gundown on the streets of the traditional Western town between the good guys and bad guys . Nevertheless , there is poor action and interpretation feels static , at times . And in many ways it is a good thing that the storyline keeps on twisting and turning as without that it would be just a so-so war movie . This is not a great movie by it has some interesting and thrilling moments and it occasionally feels like an amateur picture . In addition , the twisting nature of the plot where you can't take anything for what it is makes it strangely agreeable . But at the same time, there is still something about it which is riveting and it is the convoluted storyline as you can never take for granted what we are seeing is as it appears. This moving film belongs to a peculiar genre who developed during the 60s and early 70s calle Macaroni Combate , this one being co-produced by Italy/Spain packing uni-dimensional characters , frantic thrills , perilous adventures , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action , violence with reminiscent of Spaghetti Western . In fact this ¨When heroes die¨ gets to keep your full attention particularly during the final minutes thanks to its explosive action . An ordinary acting without very recognizable top-notch stars , only Craig Hill , a B- American actor who married Spanish Teresa Gimpera and lived in Spain , since then performing several Italian/Spanish films . As he moved to Spain/Italy during the 60's to star in spaghetti westerns , adventure , and thrillers . Here Craig Hill is the brave leader of the motley pack together to carry out the hard mission , and he gives a so-so acting . Along with a lot of familiar faces , mainly Spanish , who played a lot of Spaghetti/Paella Western , Warlike or other subgenres s, uch as : Aldo Sambrell , Manuel Zarzo , Enrique Ávila , Carlos Quiney , Charly Bravo , Carlos Quiney and the always baddie Piero Lulli as a fake Rommel . And two Eurotrash gorgeous babes : Annabella Incontrera and Maria Silva.

It packs a moving and thrilling musical score by prolific Nino Fidenco . As well as atmospheric cinematography by Emanuele Di Cola . Shot on location in Murcia roundabouts, Murcia, and Palacio de Romanones, Hoyo de Manzanares, Madrid, Spain. This little European war movie "Suicide Mission" which is also known as "When Heroes Die" was reguarly directed by Jose Luis Merino . He firstly directed comedy and musical , such as : Aquellos tiempos del cuplé , El vagabundo y la estrella , Alféreces provisionales , Europa canta . Then he had a solid run in second-class style , making several Italian/Spanish low-budget, cult WWII , Spaghetti and adventure films in the 1960's and 70s . Merino was a skill and successfully craftsman . José Luis Merino often used same actors , such as Stelvio Rossi , Peter Lee Lawrence , George Hilton and Charles Quiney . He has written/directed numerous films of all kinds of genres such as Terror : Ivanna , The hanging woman ; Euro-spy : Colpo Sensazionale al Servicio Del Sifar ; Chorizo/Spaghetti Western : More Dollars for the MacGregors , Frontera Sur , Réquiem for the gringo , Gatling gun , Seven ride to death ; Wartime : Last Panzer battle , Hell commandos , A Bullet for Rommel , When heroes die ; Musical : Europa Canta , Aquellos Tiempos Del Cuple , and his most successful films are the fresh and diverting adventures : Tarzan and King Salomon's mines , Robin Hood , Rebelion De Bucaneros , El Zorro knight of Justice , El Zorro De Monterrey , and Last adventure of Zorro . Rating . 4.5/10 . So-so but passable and mediocre Paella/Spaghetti warfare movie

Some potential, but it's quickly wasted as this becomes routine

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 13 February 2015]

A unique Spanish/Italian war thriller, directed by Jose Luis Merino, the guy behind DUEL IN THE ECLIPSE and KILLERS OF THE CASTLE OF BLOOD. I have the feeling that the director was more at home in the spaghetti western and horror genres, because despite the originality of the storyline this is very much par for the course, a Euro-war film that's very typical by genre standards.

The story has a faint whiff of THE DIRTY DOZEN about it as a group of Allied soldiers are sent behind enemy lines on an important mission. They're captured at the outset, and then things become complex, with their identities taken over by German soldiers who plan their own mission behind enemy lines. What it all boils down to is not a lot, but at least the slim storyline is punctuated by some well-handled action sequences with a lot of shooting and shouting.

Sadly, the various problems with the production gradually stack up and take their roll. The majority of the cast are definitely going through the motions, from the dull lead Craig Hill to the pretty-but-uninteresting actresses. The editing is pretty choppy, with characters suddenly jumping from one location to the next, and the viewer must also digest the shoehorned-in stock footage which doesn't even some close to matching with the newly-filmed material. WHEN HEROES DIE isn't actually the worst I've seen, but it had so much potential I can't be anything but disappointed in it.

Convoluted plot-line but ultimately a standard Euro war flick

[Red-Barracuda · 5/10 · 13 November 2016]

During World War II a group of American soldiers carrying out a deadly mission behind German lines are captured. The German high command - Heinrich Himmler no less - decide to replace them with their own special forces men who adopt their identities, while using a Rommel lookalike to pretend he is the captured General, who will in turn assassinate General Eisenhower. Somehow.

You may have noticed that the plot synopsis above barely makes any sense. It is indeed a truly biscuit-taking bit of screen-writing. But in fairness to it, it does allow for a plot-line that is a bit different to what we usually get. This is a Euro war movie which is mainly of Spanish origin. Like many of its Italian brethren it shows the influence of the American hit The Dirty Dozen (1967), what with its motley crew of soldiers cobbled together to take on an impossibly dangerous mission in which you know most of them are going to die. This one I guess is a little unusual though in that it is the Germans who we are cheering on. It sort of starts out pretty well in all honesty but it does get a little bogged down in tedium once we enter its second half. It becomes a more undistinctive action movie and it does cop out a little at the end also. In the final analysis, there are some original elements to this one but it pans out as a pretty mediocre movie.

Italian War Movie with Craig HILL

[ZeddaZogenau · 5/10 · 31 December 2023]

It all starts with nasty torture. An American commando (including Craig HILL) was tasked with kidnapping the desert fox Rommel (Piero LULLI), but was exposed by the Nazi henchmen. But now they come up with the strange idea of copying the entire company and injecting a Rommel doppelganger as a potential murderer of General Eisenhower. Such an undertaking is of course not entirely uncomplicated, especially since it is not clear who is friend or enemy among the Americans (Manuel ZARZO, Annabella INCONTRERA)...

There are an unusually large number of developments to marvel at in this Spanish-Italian co-production. Nazi greats like Himmler (Vicente ROCA) and Canaris (Rafael CORES) are interpreted by Spanish actors, which is very interesting. If the MacaroniKOMBAT flick develops into a love drama between HILL and INCONTRERA, that's one turn of the tension screw too many.

Interesting attempt that doesn't quite work!

Tightly Woven Euro War Thriller

[Steve_Nyland · 7/10 · 11 October 2007]

I'll say this much about Jose Luis Merino's WHEN HEROES DIE: It diverted my attention and absorbed me for about an hour or so. It's also one of those films that brings up the question that even if the first seventy minutes or so are dynamite, if your whole film unravels in the last three or four minutes, did you blow it? Most of these Euro War movies made by the Italians & Spaniards between 1967 and 1970 or so are merely Spaghetti Westerns with guys driving tanks instead of stage coaches. There aren't that many of them, and most are pretty much the same. This one is different, if only because it tries to push some different buttons while relying on the tried & true formula of a commando squad made up of lovable misfits trapped behind enemy lines glommed onto from THE DIRTY DOZEN. Instead of trying to get behind German lines to impregnate some impregnable fortress, this movie works backwards through a series of deliciously evil twists & turns that are spellbinding ... until the last few minutes.

The plot works like this: A group of allied commandos from an unseen mission have been captured, and their objective was to kidnap General Rommel (played with gusto by Spaghetti Western demigod Piero Lulli). Simply put, the commando team is tortured (mostly off-camera) and after revealing the nature of their assignment, the Nazi high command under the orders of Himmler himself decides to turn the table on the allies using a double of Rommel (Lulli again) and doubles of the commando squad (led by fellow Spaghetti Western demigods Craig Hill, Aldo Sanbrell, Charly Bravo and Euro Horror favorite Charles Quiney). The doubles are psychologically conditioned to become the people they are impersonating, with the objective being to fight their way back to allied lines and "escape" with the fake Rommel, who has been pre-programmed to assassinate Dwight Eisenhower, causing the Normandy invasion to fail. Or, something like that.

Quite honestly I very happily got lost in the labyrinth of details that lead up to the turning point in the film where the squad is to be extracted by spy plane; There are so many twist and turns, hidden loyalties & secret agendas, that it's somewhat difficult to keep up with just who's who. But meanwhile these ambiguous duality riddled characters are actually fighting both the Germans and the French resistance while disguised as American GI's and dragging poor Piero Lulli across the countryside as their prisoner ... even though he's one of them. Along the way the movie takes the time to write in two utterly gorgeous Euro Genre film babes, María Silva and the breathtaking Annabella Incontrera, and not only gives them a chance to engage in mild erotics but lets them shoot people with machine guns while showing some thigh. What a war!

Then there are the surrealist touches, starting with a totally bizarre series of dream sequences that depict in fish eye lensed psychedelia the medical horrors that the team members had to undergo during their transformation from loyal SS Waffentroops into misfit Yankee commandos. This blending of horror elements with action is actually quite common in the Spaghetti Western idiom but this is the first example of it I've seen in a Euro War film: some of it is actually quite harrowing to the brain. The other totally surreal touch will probably be read as a gaffe by most viewers when a brigade of tanks from a different movie attack the partisan stronghold where the film meets up with the girls. The tanks are rolling across a desert landscape (probably Morocco and looking like borrowed footage from BATTLE OF AL ALAMEIN or BATTLE IN THE DESERT) who's cannon blasts blows up stuff on the Spanish farm set standing in for France. It's both silly and downright surreal at the same time, especially considering how well the cause/effect relationships are edited together.

In any event the story continues to convolute and twist and turn and remain just on the near side of unfathomable, up until a groaner of a surprise ending that is surprising all right, but somewhat of a cop out. The copy of the film I found on Greek video runs only 78 minutes, of which I'd say about 73 minutes or so are really, really good. That last five minutes though ... You can let all the air out of a balloon with the smallest pin prick, and the question remains does letting it all unravel in the final moments snuff the whole film? I'm willing to extend this one the benefit of the doubt, because while it does play into most of the usual Euro War clichés it nonetheless defies formula for most of the runtime, mostly because of how the usual plot has been subverted; Like with Umberto Lenzi's superior DESERT COMMANDOS from 1967 -- one of the best examples of the classic era Euro War thrillers -- the audience finds themselves rooting for the commando team to succeed, and the implied success of their mission would be a dead Eisenhower and a failed Normandy invasion. They are Germans fighting Germans, under orders from other Germans, and if they succeed the war is lost. Hello?? That's so weird it works!

The film also gives director Jose Luis Merino a chance to wallow in some of the cloistered, dank, atmospheric catacombs & dilapidated locations that would become a staple of his Euro Horror classics, and this may indeed have worked with his Spaghetti Western REQUIEM FOR A GRINGO as a dry-run for the visual iconography he wanted to see. Combined with a moody, languid music score by Nico Fidenco, this is one of the more unique examples of the Euro War potboiler, certainly more carefully written than many, and more visually compelling than most. Too bad about the final few minutes, though.

7/10; Whoever was playing Himmler deserved an Oscar.