From Hell to Victory (1979)

Directed by: Umberto Lenzi | 100 minutes | war | Actors: George Peppard, George Hamilton, Horst Bucholz, Anny Duperey, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Sam Wanamaker, Ray Loverock, Geortes Claisse, May Heatherly, Howard Vernon, Ritza Brown, Franco Fantasia, Andre Lawrence, Lambert Wilson

What is the difference between a good and bad war movie? Basic ingredients for an entertaining film about war are tension building and believable characters. Both are lacking in ‘From Hell to Victory’.

Six friends meet in one of those typical Parisian bistros – you know: red and white checkered tablecloths, accordion music and lots of wine – on August 24, 1939. World War II is looming and they don’t know what awaits them. Therefore, they make the promise to meet here every year on this date. What binds these five men and a woman or what they know each other is unclear. They are different in several respects: nationality, age and stage of life.

After that summer day everyone goes their own way and ‘From Hell to Victory’ shows in short fragments what everyone will experience in the next five years. One becomes a Nazi officer, the other works in the French resistance. He saves her life when she threatens to be arrested with a gun in her handbag, she prevents him from being killed in an attack on the Nazi office. The other works for the American intelligence service and accidentally meets his old comrade who is now a pilot for the British RAF.

And so ‘From Hell To Victory’ ripples on. You never fear for the lives of the six friends. Not that they all make it to the end of the film, but oh well… c’est la vie. In short, the film has too little body to evoke any involvement or compassion in the viewer. It does not reflect the horrors of the Second World War. The six friends are all tough people who know no doubt or fear and try to make it to the end of the film so whistling. And once back together in the this time not so picturesque bistro they don’t know much to say except “Let’s get drunk”. Good summary after five years of World War I.