Anzio (film)

Anzio US title, also known as Lo sbarco di Anzio original Italian title or The Battle for Anzio UK title, is a 1968 Technicolor war film in Panavision, an Italian and American coproduction, about Operation Shingle, the 1944 Allied seaborne assault on the Italian port of Anzio in World War II. It was adapted from the book Anzio by Wynford VaughanThomas, who had been the BBC war correspondent at the battle.

After meeting a general, war correspondent Dick Ennis Robert Mitchum is assigned to accompany US Army Rangers for the upcoming attempt to outflank the tough enemy defenses. The amphibious landing is unopposed, but the bumbling American general, Jack Lesley Arthur Kennedy is too cautious, preferring to fortify his beachhead before advancing inland. Ennis and a Ranger drive in a jeep through the countryside, discovering there are few Germans between the beachhead and Rome, but his information is ignored. As a result, the German commander, Kesselring Wolfgang Preiss, has time to gather his forces and launch an effective counterattack.Ennis is with the Rangers when they are ambushed at the Battle of Cisterna. From there, the film departs from being a view of all sides and levels of the campaign to a story of a handful of survivors making their way back through enemy lines. The men take shelter in a house occupied by three Italian women. A German patrol arrives at the house, only to be slaughtered by the Americans. Ennis asks what makes one human being willingly kill another. Corporal Jack Rabinoff Peter Falk replies that he loves it, and his lifestyle makes him live more than anyone else. Rabinoff is based on a real 1st Special Service Force soldier Jake Wallenstein, who ran an illegal brothel of Italian prostitutes in a stolen ambulance. Most of the men, including Rabinoff, are killed in a shootout with a group of German snipers. in reality, Wallenstein was killed by shrapnel at Port Cros during Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. Only Ennis, Technical Sergeant Stimmler Earl Holliman and Private Movie Reni Santoni survive, and Ennis publicly questions the competence of the Allied commander. ........

Source: Wikipedia