Friday, January 21, 2011

The 5-Man Army

Un esercito di 5 uomini - Italian title
O exercito de cinco homens - Argentinian title
Ejército de cinco - Argentinian title
Exército de 5 Homens - Brazilian title
Præriens blodhunde - Danish title
Viiden miehen armeija - Finnish title
5 hommes armés - French title
Die 5 Gefurchteten - German title
Der Dampfhammer - German title
Dicker, laß die Fetzen fliegen - German title
Die fünf Gefürchteten - German title
Die fünf Gefürchteten une ein Halleluja - German title
Oi pente prodotes - Greek title
O stratos ton pente - Greek title
Személyes hadsereg - Hungarian title
Fem manns armeen - Norwegian title
Pieciu uzbrojonych mezczyzn - Polish title
Os cinco bandoleiros - Portuguese title
Un ejército de cinco hombres - Spanish title
Fem professionella män - Swedish title
5 Kisilik ordu - Turkish title
The 5-Man Army - English title

A 1969 Italian production [Tiger Film (Rome)]
Producer: Italo Zingarelli
Director: Don Taylor, Italo Zingarelli
Story: Dario Argento, Marc Richards
Screenplay: Dario Argento, Marc Richards
Cinematography: Enzo Barboni [Metrocolor, Deltavision]
Music: Ennio Morricone
Running time: 107 minutes

Cast:
Dutchman - Peter Graves (Peter Aurness)
Mesito/Panchito - Bud Spencer (Carlo Pedersoli)
Captain Nicholas Augustus Bennett - James Daly
Luis Dominguez - Nino Castelnuovo (Francesco Castelnuovo)
Samurai - Tetsurô Tanba (Shozaburo Tanba)
Manuel Esteban - Claudio Gora (Emilio Giordana)
Captain Gutierrez - Carlo Alighiero
Maria - Daniel Giordana
Mexican officers - Jack Stuart (Giacomo Rossi Stuart), Antonio Monselesan, Pietro Torrisi
Perla - Annabella Andreoli
Commandant of execution squad - Fortunato Arena
priest - Gigi Bonos (Luigi Bonos)
Alcalde - Dante Cleri
carnival barkers - Marc Lawrence (Max Goldstein), Dan Sturkie (Daniel Sturkie)
train engineer - Marino Masé
poker player - Steffen Zacharias
Mexican spy - Jose Torres
Mexican soldiers - William Conroy, Omero Cappana, Paola Figlia, Franco Pasquetto, Angelo Susani, Franco Ukmar, Giovani Ukmar, Bruno Arie
Mexicans - Gildo Di Marco, Osiride Pevarello
prison guard - Artemio Antonini
observers at Esteban’s execution - Alba Maiolini, Lina Franchi


During the Mexican Revolution a group of rebels convince the "Dutchman" to rob a train carrying $500,000 in gold to help finance their cause. The Dutchman enlists four other men, Mesito, a strong man, Luis Dominguez, an acrobat, Captain Bennett, an explosives specialist and Samurai, a blade specialist, promising to reward each one a thousand dollars. Their first undertaking is to save the rebel leader from being executed.

After thwarting the execution and having caused a riot in the village, the five men are forced to flee, along with all the civilians in order to prevent reprisals. Nevertheless, some soldiers still manage to find them and bring them to the local Mexican Army commandant. They again manage to escape, killing the soldiers and dynamiting the fort's armory but a squad of soldiers manage to pick up their trail. All seems lost when suddenly, in a gorge, dozens of revolutionaries cover the escape of the five men. The few revolutionaries are vastly outnumbered, but this serves to make the five men understand how important the success of their mission is. The train is heavily defended by a cannon, machine guns and a troop of soldiers. The difficult robbery succeeds but the men think the Dutchman will not really give the gold to the revolutionaries but divide it evenly between them. The Dutchman wants to respect the agreement, though, having his personal reasons. In the final showdown, the Five Man Army kill all the soldiers and the Mexicans arrive to celebrate and proclaim the men as heroes.

1 comment:

  1. I was told that MGM had a hand in making this film. Is that true?

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