In 1943, as American Army troops are invading Italy, an over-eager yet green Commanding Officer is given the choice whether or not to overtake a small Sicilian village; hungry for the invasion, he leads his men into battle, but the cheery, celebrating Italians ultimately make a surrender difficult to manage. Developed and directed by Blake Edwards, this wartime comedy hasn't many jokes, and a great deal of the situations center on Dick Shawn's shrill Captain Cash, leaving stars James Coburn and Aldo Ray with little to do but react. Shawn does well in his role, but the part itself (a sniveling weasel who is temporarily subdued by a broad and some liquor) is tiresome, representing a cookie-cutter approach to the writing. The production is passable, and Edwards and screenwriter William Peter Blatty do make some comments on military procedure which are adept, but they run out of interesting ideas too soon. Edwards' mood is light and his tone is jovial, but there's no comedy in Blatty's script to match up with this. The result is rather like "Hogan's Heroes" without the laugh-track. *1/2 from ****
