In Familiar Territory
Col. Charles Waslow-Carton (Tony Franciosa) and Lt. Col. Philip Braden (Guy Stockwell) are picked for a dangerous mission which requires them to pose as prisoners of war in order to get behind enemy lines. Once there they must liaise with Denise Marchois (Anjanette Comer), a secret agent who before the war married a German Baron (Paul Hubschmid) in order to provide herself with security whilst she carried on spying. Together the three must work together to destroy a new type of torpedo which the enemy have been working on in a secret location in France. But for Denise she finds her feelings for the Baron beginning to conflict things.
Why do I have a feeling whilst I watch "In Enemy Country" that this was a movie made to utilise a redundant set from another prisoner of war movie rather than because a studio had any great belief in either the storyline or its stars. It's not that it is cheap looking, although having said that some of the effects clearly are, but the whole thing feels like it has been produced on a factory line, be it the storyline which sees spies masquerading as prisoners of war to scenes of action and drama such as when the prisoner of war camp is bombed and the men have to dodge flames and explosions to escape.
The thing is that so much focus is placed on these hero soldiers risking their necks to destroy a torpedo that the underlying storyline of Denise having been undercover for years, felt betrayed by Waslow-Carton and having fallen in love with the Baron who she married ends up underplayed. It is in truth the most interesting aspect of "In Enemy Country" and could have made for a much more interesting movie than the one which ended up being made.
What this all boils down to is that if all you want is a war movie featuring some standard war time daring do than "In Enemy Country" might entertain. But if you watch hoping for anything more than just standard action and heroics you are going to end up disappointed.
