Der letzte Haufen der 7. Division (1974)

Der letzte Haufen der 7. Division: Directed by Stole Jankovic. With Rod Taylor, Adam West, Brioni Farrell, Velimir ‘Bata’ Zivojinovic. Partisans in Yugoslavia clash with the Germans that have invaded their homeland in several confrontations until the climactic battle at Hell River.

“As with the Italians, the Yugoslav film industry made quite a few WWII movies, always detailing the struggles of the u0026quot;Partisansu0026quot;. Like THE BATTLE OF NERETVA, this tells of a major German offensive to erradicate the enemy and their struggles against the invaders.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s 1941, and the Partisans are on their own. Marko (Rod Taylor), fresh from an education in America, returns to his homeland and discovers how brutal the Nazis really are. Instead of returning to the States, he stays in Yugoslavia and organizes a resistance movement. On the other side, we have Captain Kohler (Adam West, of all people) who discovers that his childhood sweetheart, Anna (Brioni Farrell aka Xenia Gratsos) is among the Jews heu0026#39;s transporting to the POW camp. Markou0026#39;s men attack the boat, and Anna helps Kohler escape. Sheu0026#39;s taken by the partisans, though, and soon finds herself in love with Marko. The rest of the movie involves partisan encounters with Kohleru0026#39;s troops, culminating at a huge river battle a few months later.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enThis movie boasts a pretty decent international cast. Rod Taylor is pretty good — but way too old — as the vengeful Marko. Adam West makes a pretty good adversary, although his German accent fluctuates and is just as bad as Brandou0026#39;s in THE YOUNG LIONS. Peter Carsten (BATTLE OF THE EAGLES) has a large role as a tough, ruthless German Panzer officer. Branko Plesa, also of BATTLE OF THE EAGLES, appears a few times as a German General. Bata Zivojinovic plays Markou0026#39;s old friend, who leads the partisans but really has little meat to his character. Brioni Farrell is great and beautiful, too.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe combat scenes are all very well done. They involve tanks (more modern, though, but any tank is a good tank), era-accurate fighter planes, extras and a lot of big explosions. The cinematography is wonderful and gives the movie a very bleak look. The musical score often doesnu0026#39;t fit the movie, but I liked it anyway.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, not too high above average, but one of the best Partisan films Iu0026#39;ve seen so far. Worth renting, even buying, for an entertaining 100 minutes. The video from White Knight looks incredibly good, just as good as any MGM release of an older movie, especially considering that it was released in the early 1980s. 6/10 overall.”