Mission: Africa

I saw this movie quite recently and was very appalled. Up to then the worst war movie I had seen was BRIDGE TO HELL, which I thought was a piece of trash. Then I saw this movie and almost attacked the videotape with a hammer!

The movie is about five American commandos who must trek across the North African desert, then blow up a German underground facility where a special kind of explosive is under development.

The film's lead role is played by Chuck Alford, who's appeared in a very few films, most of them low-budget trash (the kind of movies shown on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER: 3000). He plays the team leader and goes through his scenes sounding like he's reading off of a cue card. He faces off with a brash Lieutenant (Mike Meter) who's one of the worst actors in history. He, too, goes through his scenes as if reading a cue card. At one point he pauses in mid-sentence, looks at the camera with a disgusted look, then turns back to Alford and finishes his line! The rest of the team-members are actors that weren't even credited on IMDb until recently.

The cinematography is quite poor. The movie was obviously filmed in Nevada and looks nothing like the African desert. At one point several power lines can be seen in the background, too.

Costuming is pretty bad as well. The Americans wear ill-fitting helmets and their uniforms are camouflage suited for war in the Pacific rather than in the desert. The German uniforms consist of ordinary tan shorts and tan shirts. They look nothing like real uniforms. At least the weapons were correct.

The action scenes are quite poorly edited. A German will be standing behind a rock firing at the Americans. He will duck. Then there will be a quite obvious cut (while the extra moves away) followed by several squibs kicking up dirt on the rock. At one point Alford drowns a German soldier. There is a closeup of the "dead" soldier, face down in the water, "bleeding". He obviously is still breathing -- notice the sharp rise and fall of his chest. Also notice that grenades can explode thirty feet from a German vehicle and blow it over on its side but don't harm the Americans when they land only 2-3 feet away! The makeup is pretty poor, too. Blood stains look incredibly corny and laughable.

German vehicles are simply American jeeps painted yellow with Iron Cross decals slapped on the side. Same goes for the halftracks. The German plane seen at the end is clearly a small civilian transport -- it doesn't look at all military -- with an Iron Cross decal stuck to the side.

The music is pretty cheap and sounds like a typical 1960s instrumental.

Charles Nizet, the director, is credited for several other crew roles in the movie. His wife Susan Nizet (or daughter) is also credited for multiple jobs and there is also a Susan Tezin credited once or twice. Some crew member names also match those of the actors! When a movie can't afford separate actors and special effects crew members then you know immediately it's a piece of trash!

The video I saw was low-quality, but the movie was probably shot on low quality film and was undoubtably not well preserved, either.

Worth a look if you enjoy the kind of stuff on MST3K. Otherwise, an insult to all veterans and good moviemakers.