The Wings of War (1969) starring Pierre Richard, Massimo Righi, Umberto Raho, Katia Moguy, Gordon Mitchell, Tino Bianchi, Sarah Ross directed by Gaetano Quartararo Movie Review

The Wings of War (1969)   2/52/52/52/52/5


The Wings of War (aka: Hours X Suicide Patrol) starring Pierre Richard, Massimo Righi, Umberto Raho

Commandos in Cloisters

With the Nazis controlling the Greek island of Zante, a group of American commandos parachute in under darkness and go into hiding until the rest of the American soldiers already on the island are evacuated. The commando's mission is to knock out the enemies radio centre but whilst they wait for the signal masquerade as monks.

In "They Who Dare" Dirk Bogarde lead a group of soldiers on to a Greek island to knock out airstrips, in "The Guns of Navarone" Gregory Peck lead a group of men onto a Greek island to knock out Nazi guns. And then in "The Wings of War" which is also known as "Hours X Suicide Patrol" a group of unfamiliar actors parachute on to a Greek island to knock out a Nazi radio base. Whilst the first two movies had a good cast, good action, good excitement and good direction "The Wings of War" has none of these and ends up a flat, generic war movie directed by an actor who after this never directed again.

In truth the basic storyline is not the issue with "The Wings of War" as the other movies mentioned and many more have proven that a simple story of a commando unit trying to cause chaos for the enemy can be entertaining. The trouble is that this simple story has no depth, no characters to get to know, little what amounts to atmosphere and even less action and frequently uses old stock footage. It makes it come across like a movie made on next to no budget with a director unable to bring the story to life and so just makes the movie in the least imaginative way possible.

What this all boils down to is that whether you call in "The Wings of War or "Hours X Suicide Patrol" this war movie is simply below par. The familiar commando/ mission story is okay but everything else about the movie ends up weak and soggy.


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