Desert Commandos

1967 film

Ken Clark
Horst Frank
Jeanne Valérie
Carlo Hintermann
Howard Ross
Fabienne Dali
Franco Fantasia
Gianni Rizzo

CinematographyCarlo Carlini^[1]Edited byEugenio Alabiso^[1]Music byAngelo Francesco Lavagnino^[1]

Production
companies

PEA
Constantin Film
Films Ege^[1]

Distributed byPEA
Constantin Film

Release dates

1 December 1967 (Italy)

15 March 1968 (1968-03-15) (West Germany)

Running time

96 minutes^[1]Countries

Italy
France
West Germany^[1]

LanguageItalian

Desert Commandos (Italian: Attentato ai tre grandi) is a 1967 French/Italian/West German international co-production war film set during World War II in Morocco where it was filmed. The Italian title (Attack on the Big Three) refers to a German commando group with a mission to assassinate Churchill, Roosevelt and de Gaulle at the Casablanca Conference.

The film is a character-based drama that focuses on the German soldiers' various drives and conflicts during encounters with Tuareg nomads, and French and American soldiers.

Plot

The grief-stricken Captain Fritz Schoeller has assisted his terminally ill wife with her wishes for euthanasia. A party of men whisk him from his wife's funeral, not for arrest, but to be briefed on a special mission he will lead. The Captain, Lt. Roland Wolf, Sgt. Erich Huber, Corporal Hans Ludwig and Private Willy Mainz are all skilled in commando tactics and have excellent English language skills. They are dressed in British Commando uniforms and parachuted into Morocco where Faddja Hassen, an Arab woman will guide them to Casablanca where they will assassinate Allied leaders.