Anzio (1968)

In 1944, the Allied forces land unopposed at Anzio – behind the German lines on the west coast of Italy – but instead of pushing inland and north to Rome, their commanding officer, General Lesly (Arthur Kennedy), decides to dig in.

Battle-hardened American war correspondent Dick Ennis (Robert Mitchum) “borrows” a jeep and drives the 30-odd miles to Rome and back accompanied by US Ranger Private Movie (Reni Santoni) and Canadian commando Corporal Rabinoff (Peter Falk).

They encounter no significant German forces, but their report on the absence of the enemy and the clear route to Rome is dismissed as General Lesly is more concerned about having the strength to hold Anzio and decides to dig in and await an expected counter-offensive from the Germans.

This gives the German commander Field Marshal Kesselring (Wolfgang Preiss) time to bring up his big guns and build elaborate defences – the Caesar Line.

A week later, Lesly orders two battalions of Rangers into an assault on Cisterna, a strategic village several miles inland, with Ennis tagging along. The troops are ambushed, with most of them killed or captured.

Ennis and a half-dozen soldiers escape the German trap and spend several days wandering around behind enemy lines before struggling back to Anzio to report on the German defences.

The film skips the two major German attacks which almost drove the Allies back into the sea, the long torturous stalemate and the tremendous troop build-up which eventually enabled the Allies to break out of the seven-by-eleven-mile beachhead four months later.

Missing, too, is any sense of what it was like to live in a hole in the ground for four months under constant observation and bombardment from the Germans on higher ground ringing the beachhead.

Ennis comes to the conclusion – after finally taking up a gun himself – that men fight wars because they enjoy it; it sharpens their senses.

This is undoubtedly true of some men, and Anzio is a whale of a movie which caters to this same taste for adventure and violence.

Robert Mitchum is his usual taciturn self, but the film’s best performance is by Peter Falk as one of the men who gets a kick out of killing. Without them, we couldn’t win wars – but without them, we might not have wars.

Dick Ennis
Robert Mitchum
Cpl. Jack Rabinoff
Peter Falk
General Carson
Robert Ryan
Platoon Sgt. Abe Stimmler
Earl Holliman
Wally Richardson
Mark Damon
Maj. Gen. Jack Lesly
Arthur Kennedy
Pvt. Movie
Reni Santoni
Doyle
Joseph Walsh
Pvt. Andy
Thomas Hunter
Pvt. Cellini
Giancarlo Giannini
Gen. Marsh
Anthony Steel
Gen. Starkey
Patrick Magee
Maj. Gen. Luke Howard
Arthur Franz
Gen. Van MacKensen
Tonio Selwart
Emilia
Elsa Albani
Col. Hendricks
Wayde Preston
Capt. Burns
Venantino Venantini
Anna
Annabella Andreoli
Field Marshal Albert Kesselring
Wolfgang Preiss
Assunta
Marcella Valeri
Pepe
Enzo Turco
Hans
Wolfgang Hillinger
Diana
Stefanella Giovannini

Director
Edward Dmytryk