Eagles Over London (La Battaglia d’Inghilterra) (1969) – Nostalgia Central

This Italian production (originally released as La Battaglia d’Inghilterra) combines a fourth-rate detective story with a fifth-rate war film to produce a sixth-rate waste of time.

During the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, a team of Nazi saboteurs assumes the identities of dead British soldiers, joins the Allied troops being rescued, and is transported across the Channel to England. Their mission – to cripple British air defences.

Though the identities and whereabouts of the German saboteurs are unknown, a team of British soldiers is set up to track them down and abort their mission.

While the Battle of Britain rages overhead, the final confrontation takes place as the German team is about to blow up the RAF Fighter Command control centre.

American actor Van Johnson plays the British Air Marshall with obvious reluctance and without a hint of the expected British accent.

The English captain (Frederick Stafford) who tracks down the German saboteurs sounds Austrian, and everyone else looks and sounds Italian.

Most of the voices are dubbed into English by uninspired, monotoned actors.

With comic effect, the German characters are all monsters. More reptile than human, the Nazi agents do everything but overturn baby carriages on their way to the British radar installations that are directing the Spitfires in their aerial defence of England – although the “Spitfires” in the film are actually Hispano Buchons, a Spanish-built derivative of the Messerschmitt 109.

More baffling still is the fact that Spitfire models are used to portray German Messerschmitt 109s.

In one scene, the German commando leader learns that his sexy female operative’s undercover identity has been discovered by the British and announces she will have to die.

She takes the news calmly and even insists that her lover, another member of the sabotage team, serve as the executioner.

Of course, he obliges (the two are writhing in a passionate kiss when he pulls the trigger).

The boring and confusing (and historically inaccurate) film suffers from amateurish writing, a chaotic storyline, abrupt cuts, washed-out colour and clodddish acting.

Captain Paul Stevens
Frederick Stafford
Air-Marshall George Taylor
Van Johnson
Martin Donovan
Francisco Rabal
Meg
Ida Galli (as Evelyn Stewart)
Major Krueger
Luigi Pistilli
Sgt. Donald Mulligan
Renzo Palmer
Jacques
Luis Dávila
Gaston
Christian Hay
Colonel Smith
Jacques Berthier
Sheila
Teresa Gimpera
British General
Jorge Rigaud

Director
Enzo G. Castellari