Search - Battles of WWII - 4 Movies on DVD

You Get What You Pay For

07/11/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I just picked up the Brentwood / BCI Eclipse pack of BATTLES OF WWII today. This 2-disc set is a mixed bag, including: FIVE FOR HELL, THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN, THE BATTLE OF THE LAST PANZER and HITLER'S SS: PORTRAIT IN EVILFirst of all, these movies are all relatively rare to find on videocassette, and it's a wonder they were released on DVD. The quality is below-par, but good enough for a budget DVD release and better than I expected on 2 of the movies, and average for the other two. FIVE FOR HELL stars Gianni Garko and Klaus Kinski. The film is a rather zany look at commandos fighting the Nazis. It is obviously mastered from the LP-mode Video Treasures videocassette released in the late 1980s. There's one minor video glitch that I spotted, and the disc cuts off before the ending music finishes. There is still the problem of some German-language scenes in German with Italian subtitles, rather than English dubbing. However, the colors look pretty good (for a DVD mastered from an LP tape) and the sound is acceptable 2.0 Mono. THE BATTLE OF THE LAST PANZER is an ultra low-budget war movie starring Guy Madison and Stelvio Rossi. Filmed in Spain, the movie follows a German tank back to friendly lines. While the movie is terrible as far as acting, dubbing and props go, the DVD is the best of the bunch. It is a solid transfer (also from a videotape) It's a little soft, but the colors are accurate and the print was in top notch condition. Again, decent 2.0 Mono sound. THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN stars Michael Rennie, George Hilton, Frederick Stafford and Robert Hossein. The film focuses on the important battle from the Italian, German and English points of view. The disc is a pretty bad transfer. It looks equal to the awful Congress videotape, except the entire movie is intact. (The Congress tape cuts 15 minutes of footage). The colors are awful and the print is full of holes, scratches, etc. Stick with the Marengo Films disc. HITLER'S SS looks as bad as EL ALAMEIN. I have seen fine copies of this on TV - especially on Fox Movie Channel.The set only cost me $10.00 Each disc contains two films, so at $2.50 a DVD I think you get a good deal. Nobody else is likely to release these movies on DVD in the near future."

Good war movies,bad transfers

John D. Page | usa | 05/09/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"the movies on this set are all ok time killers,but the transfers are the pits and make it hard to watch. if you can find this one real cheap buy it,otherwise stay away."