Escape to Athena

1979

Action / Adventure / Comedy / War

14
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 32% · 3 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 32% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.7/10 10 6407 6.4K

island escape world war ii prisoner of war greece archaeologist

Director

George P. Cosmatos Photo
George P. Cosmatos

Top cast

Claudia Cardinale Photo
Claudia Cardinale as Eleana
Paul Picerni Photo
Paul Picerni as Zeno's Man
Philip Locke Photo
Philip Locke as Vogel
Elliott Gould Photo
Elliott Gould as Charlie Dane
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.07 GB
1280*544
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
24 fps
1 hr 59 min
Seeds 1
1.99 GB
1920*816
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
24 fps
1 hr 59 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ma-cortes 5 / 10

An amiable and silly warlike movie full of action, adventures and humor

This WWII movie takes place on somewhere in Greek islands during 1944 , a misfit prisoners group(a stoic David Niven,a two-fisted Richard Roundtree, among them) are scheming escape from the concentration camp and at the same time the robbing in an Ortodox monastery at the top of the island's mountain. At the bunch appear a distinguished David Niven(whose son David Niven Jr is producer), an Italian cook(Sonny Bono), a member of the Greek Resistance(Telly Savalas), a prostitute( beautiful Claudia Cardinale) and among Nazis are a former Viennese art merchant(likable Roger Moore) and a cruel Nazi(Anthony Valentine).The gentleman Nazi officer Moore is stuck with the outfit of goof-offs as they search for the Greek treasure.Basically an amusing action filled /wartime/and comedy set during WWII. It's a crossover among the rogue soldiers from ¨The Kelly's heroes(Brian G Hutton)¨, the getaway from ¨The great escape(John Sturges)¨ and the humor included in ¨Hogan's heroes¨ taking parts here and there. This wartime picture which is short in realism instead we have far-fetched but moving blow up, shoot'em up, fighting , it should please most adventure-action-comedy buffs.Middling screenplay by the prestigious Edward Anhalt.Some characters aren't credible in 1944 setting , neither the Nais soldiers dressed in black when parade along with the secret German rocket installation.Roger Moore is miscast as an Nazi official and Elliott Gould as a hippie-alike sound embarrassing. Cameo by William Holden as prisoner smoking a cigar in prison camp and he appears uncredited. Luminous and shimmer photography by Gilbert Taylor. Stirring and military musical score by Lalo Schifrin. This improbable motion picture is professionally directed by George Pan Cosmatos. Although the movie has some aspects a little tough to take , this caper film still has its moments.This large-scale and lavishly produced pic attempts a bemusing atmosphere with regular results.
Reviewed by sue-06239 7 / 10

What it for the scenery, including Roger!

The wonderfully handsome Roger Moore was my main reason for sitting down one afternoon, while full of cold and feeling lousy, to watch this star-studded old film.Roger is his gorgeous, charming self playing a benign German camp commandant on an idyllic Greek island in 1944. His scenes with the sadistic SS Officer, who he clearly despises (Anthony Valentine, well cast) are good.Lots of big stars populate this film as a small group of favoured POWs are tasked with uncovering valuable treasures from around the island. Elliott Gould and Stephanie Powers are quite corny and annoying as two vaudeville entertainers who end up in the camp after being shot down.Telly Savalas is a hard man local resistance fighter and David Niven is an urbane POW with a useful expertise in ancient artifacts.Shallow this may be, but were it not for the lovely setting and my long passion for Roger I would probably not have enjoyed this film as much.I'm guessing that this star-studded cast had an absolute ball filming this on the island and I can imagine that a brilliant time was had by all off camera!
Reviewed by

Read more IMDb reviews

3 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment