SPOILER: While this movie has some good action and acting it has some definitely illogical writing of the script.
The Germans have sent an agent who speaks flawless English into the American lines in order to get him close to an Italian Resistance leader who is being processed out of a jail in a town that they lost to the Americans.
The first point is: Why does it take the Americans in the town so long to release him? The makeshift squad the German infiltrates is at least two days on the road to the town. Was the town captured by Bureaucrats or Soldiers?
Going back to the makeshift squad the German Agent is supposedly a Captain and a highly trained agent. Yet he makes some of the most illogical decisions that a spy could make.
First, when the squad captures a German sniper and takes him prisoner, the spy waits until night and then kills the American soldier guarding the prisoner and releases the German after giving him instructions in German.
Why? He is assuming that the German sniper will NOT be re-captured by ANOTHER group of Americans and spill his guts that there is a fellow German posing as an American in another squad. This serves NO purpose.
If he was concerned that the prisoner would slow the squad down, the logical course of action would be to kill BOTH the guard and the prisoner and make it look like the prisoner got the guard and he got the prisoner OR really clever but tricky would have been to to make some kind of noise to distract the guard and knock him out when his head was turned THEN untie the prisoner while briefing him and while the German is relaxed Kill HIM. He could then say that he couldn't sleep/heard something, found the prisoner loose and trying to kill the American and so he had to kill the German to save his "buddy". This would have not only got rid of the prisoner complication but would have made him a hero in the eyes of the squad.
Next, he is spotted by another American near a water trough and when that American wanders over he finds the German batteries the infiltrator dumped.
Why would he dump the batteries in the open instead of dropping them in some corner of the house or out of sight on the grounds? It has already been established that the Germans have occupied the house previously.
While policing up after yourself is a good idea it would rarely be followed in the combat zone especially since everyone in the area KNEW the Germans had been in the house. Finding ANYTHING with German markings would have been a non-issue for everyone. NOT finding anything would have been the surprise. There was NO reason for this killing and it IMMEDIATELY raised suspicions. Either that there was a psychopath in the squad or a german agent - traitor or spy. No logic to it.
Between the 1st killing and the 2nd, the infiltrator made his stupidest blunder and one the Germans would have executed him for if they knew. He goes to the (maybe) pro-german italian woman at night, and speaking German, apparently sleeps with or maybe rapes her. He then compounds this uncontorollable urge to get laid by letting the woman live!!! She was a FAR greater danger to him than the American as she would have KNOWN at the very least he spoke impeccable German!!!
He risked the mission for his self-gratification and if his superiors had known they would have killed him on the spot.
So now what is left of the squad is suspicious of one another and they proceed cautiously to the town that the German was ordered to. Here the Italian Resistance leader is JUST being released. The infiltrator follows him out of town towards what he figures is German lines. He does not notice that the rest of the squad is following HIM. The Lt. Sees him with a gun on the Italian and rather than let anybody shoot the guy, he makes some idiotic pronouncement about fair trial and nobody makes a move until the Italian is in hand-to-hand combat with the German. They arrive in time to keep either from being killed but then the German makes a break for it and AGAIN the Lt orders the men to hold their fire. His reason? The German is heading towards what somehow they all know are German lines in an American uniform. The Lt apparently discounts the possibility that the Germans may take an unarmed American soldier prisoner to gain intelligence about the town's defenses. Luckily for the rather dim-witted Lt, the Germans are just as dim-witted and kill him before he can surrender to them.
Like I say, the acting wasn't bad...but whoever wrote the script left holes in it you could have driven an Armor..or Panzer..Division through.
The Germans have sent an agent who speaks flawless English into the American lines in order to get him close to an Italian Resistance leader who is being processed out of a jail in a town that they lost to the Americans.
The first point is: Why does it take the Americans in the town so long to release him? The makeshift squad the German infiltrates is at least two days on the road to the town. Was the town captured by Bureaucrats or Soldiers?
Going back to the makeshift squad the German Agent is supposedly a Captain and a highly trained agent. Yet he makes some of the most illogical decisions that a spy could make.
First, when the squad captures a German sniper and takes him prisoner, the spy waits until night and then kills the American soldier guarding the prisoner and releases the German after giving him instructions in German.
Why? He is assuming that the German sniper will NOT be re-captured by ANOTHER group of Americans and spill his guts that there is a fellow German posing as an American in another squad. This serves NO purpose.
If he was concerned that the prisoner would slow the squad down, the logical course of action would be to kill BOTH the guard and the prisoner and make it look like the prisoner got the guard and he got the prisoner OR really clever but tricky would have been to to make some kind of noise to distract the guard and knock him out when his head was turned THEN untie the prisoner while briefing him and while the German is relaxed Kill HIM. He could then say that he couldn't sleep/heard something, found the prisoner loose and trying to kill the American and so he had to kill the German to save his "buddy". This would have not only got rid of the prisoner complication but would have made him a hero in the eyes of the squad.
Next, he is spotted by another American near a water trough and when that American wanders over he finds the German batteries the infiltrator dumped.
Why would he dump the batteries in the open instead of dropping them in some corner of the house or out of sight on the grounds? It has already been established that the Germans have occupied the house previously.
While policing up after yourself is a good idea it would rarely be followed in the combat zone especially since everyone in the area KNEW the Germans had been in the house. Finding ANYTHING with German markings would have been a non-issue for everyone. NOT finding anything would have been the surprise. There was NO reason for this killing and it IMMEDIATELY raised suspicions. Either that there was a psychopath in the squad or a german agent - traitor or spy. No logic to it.
Between the 1st killing and the 2nd, the infiltrator made his stupidest blunder and one the Germans would have executed him for if they knew. He goes to the (maybe) pro-german italian woman at night, and speaking German, apparently sleeps with or maybe rapes her. He then compounds this uncontorollable urge to get laid by letting the woman live!!! She was a FAR greater danger to him than the American as she would have KNOWN at the very least he spoke impeccable German!!!
He risked the mission for his self-gratification and if his superiors had known they would have killed him on the spot.
So now what is left of the squad is suspicious of one another and they proceed cautiously to the town that the German was ordered to. Here the Italian Resistance leader is JUST being released. The infiltrator follows him out of town towards what he figures is German lines. He does not notice that the rest of the squad is following HIM. The Lt. Sees him with a gun on the Italian and rather than let anybody shoot the guy, he makes some idiotic pronouncement about fair trial and nobody makes a move until the Italian is in hand-to-hand combat with the German. They arrive in time to keep either from being killed but then the German makes a break for it and AGAIN the Lt orders the men to hold their fire. His reason? The German is heading towards what somehow they all know are German lines in an American uniform. The Lt apparently discounts the possibility that the Germans may take an unarmed American soldier prisoner to gain intelligence about the town's defenses. Luckily for the rather dim-witted Lt, the Germans are just as dim-witted and kill him before he can surrender to them.
Like I say, the acting wasn't bad...but whoever wrote the script left holes in it you could have driven an Armor..or Panzer..Division through.