Illustration : Unknown

Death Zone
 

Juan Antonio Bardem | France, Italy | 1969

Set at the very end of the Second World War (as signified by the film's original title: The Last Day of the War), this rather tepid war film from director Juan Antonio Bardem (The Corruption of Chris Miller) bounces between light heartedness and grim seriousness with wanton abandon. Leading man George Maharis (who plays Sgt. Chips Slater) unfortunately hasn’t sufficient charisma to carry the weight of the film, leaving the viewer unfocussed and distracted.

A happy-go-lucky American patrol is charged with finding Martin Truppe (Tomás Blanco), a German scientist who wants to surrender himself to the USA. Making things dangerous for both parties is a rival Nazi brigade, led by the determined SS Major Skorch (sketched to perfection by Gérard Herter — an actor who seemed to spend most of his career playing Nazis); Skorch considers Truppe a traitor and wants his final act of the War to be the annihilation of Truppe.

The Americans manage to enlist the help of Truppe’s estranged daughter Elena (Maria Perschy; Exorcismo), but Skorch and his group are always one step ahead in the search (strangely, the Germans speak English to each other, but switch to German at other key points in the film…). After several deadly skirmishes, both groups — now somewhat depleted in numbers — end up in Tyrol in Austria for one final confrontation in the search for Truppe. This bizarre final act features a party-destroyed concentration camp (possibly representing Innsbruck-Reichenau, complete with period stock footage), a gigantic hillside pipeline with sidecar attachment, and a stone church where Skorch meets his death at the hands of the liberated camp detainees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pre-cert era ushered in two releases of this film: the first was from HVM, graced with a rather lack-lustre design in a large fragile cardboard box packaging; the second coming in May 1983 from Video Unlimited featuring a sleeve with burning tank enhanced with eye-catching typographical title design.

TVV Films’ re-title of Death Zone — using exactly the same layout style as Global Sales Ltd’s Viz label (other than the differing logo) sells the film as a Rambo/Post-Apocalypse cross over; the ubiquitous ‘Nam veteran is portrayed looking moody whilst clutching a gigantic futuristic super weapon! The stills on the back are naturally from a totally different film to complete the misleading package design. 

The ‘18’ certificates on the sleeve were most probably added by the distributor, as there appears to be no record of this ever having been officially submitted to the BBFC (which even in the censorious 1980s would never have awarded such a high rating).

 

aka : Último Día De La Guerra, El; Last Day of the War, The; Ordine Delle SS: Eliminate Borman!

cast : George Maharis, Maria Perschy, James Philbrook, Gérard Herter, Gustavo Rojo, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, John Clark, Gérard Tichy, Sancho Gracia, Tomás Blanco, Rubén Rojo, Ralph Brown, Carl Rapp