The Secret Invasion (1964)

Details: By Loron Hays; 21 May 2015

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The Secret Invasion - Blu-ray Review

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Long before the Fast & Furious gang was granted freedom from their past criminal activity for assisting the feds, famed film producer/director Roger Corman introduced audiences to a group of war criminals tasked to defeat a Nazi invasion in Yugoslavia for their own pardon. The Secret Invasion, while never completely firing on all of its cylinders, is certainly entertaining for the audience who appreciates its low-budget shimmy and sheen.

Starring Stewart Granger, Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney, Edd Byrnes, Henry Silva, Spela Rozin and William Campbell, The Secret Invasion is probably more notable today for being the first version of The Dirty Dozen. Again, Corman is ahead of the curve. As written by R. Wright Campbell, the movie concerns a motley group of military-minded convicts enlisted by the Allies for an extremely perilous covert operation behind enemy lines. With only their collective pardons as motivation, the group must rally together in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia in order to rescue an Italian general sympathetic to the Allies.

The quips are quick. The banter is engaging and Rooney, as a demolitions expert and Irish Republican Army member, easily steals the show. Corman gives equal opportunity to each member but Rooney nails his performance, making it both gritty and fun for the audience. Silva is next in line as an audience favorite. He’s a cold-blooded murderer for sure but – when he accidentally smothers a screaming baby who puts a number of lives at risk in a very tense moment ( a scene Alan Alda in M*A*S*H borrowed) – the sympathy earned is enough to forgive every death.

Corman, as is his usual method of operation, works his tail off to create something worthwhile out of nothing. Shot against the medieval fortresses of Lovrijenac and Bokar by veteran cinematographer Arthur E. Arling, the city of Dubrovnik has rarely shined like this on film. All of this effort merges together to make the WWII flick and its familiar clichés work better than they ought to. While the action film is similar in tone to Corman’s own Five Guns West, the taut action keeps this tale of violent espionage from ever truly settling on its B-movie classification.

In spite of its successes with audience and critics, The Secret Invasion was the last time Corman went freelance in order to put a film together. There were issues amongst the cast concerning who had more lines than the other (namely Granger, who couldn’t get over being in a B-movie), issues with military support when the threat of an earthquake diverted their focus from being in the film to providing relief, and other low-budget shenanigans involving Yugoslavian officials and an assistant who insisted on firing a live gun in the air to get the attention of the extras on the shoot. His two bonuses were working with his brother and Arling. Rooney, hilariously enough, later claimed to have written the movie...but he might have been writing while intoxicated at the time.

Hell-raising action and the striking Dalmatian coast lead the violent charge in Corman's The Secret Invasion, now available on blu-ray thanks to the remastering efforts of Kino-Lorber.

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MPAA Rating: Not rated.
Runtime: 95 mins
Director: Roger Corman
Writer: R. Wright Campbell
Cast: Stewart Granger, Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney
Genre: Action | War | Military
Tagline: The Daring Plan; The Staggering Odds!
Memorable Movie Quote: "This mission will be abondoned only when all six of us are dead."
Distributor: United Artists
Official Site:
Release Date: September 16, 1964
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: May 5, 2015
Synopsis: The Nazis imprison an Italian general who was planning to switch sides and turn over his army to the Allied side. Allied headquarters sends a small, somewhat misfit group of soldiers to spring the general from prison and carry out his plans.

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The Secret Invasion - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - May 5, 2015
Screen Formats: 2.35::1
Subtitles: English
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: 25GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)
Region Encoding: A

Kino-Lorber, courtesy of MGM , brings The Secret Invasion to blu-ray and doesn’t drop the ball. Preserving the Panavision 2.35:1 ratio, the 1080p transfer is bold in color and warmly saturated. The coast is a glorious spectacle to behold here. Black levels are resilient and add an extra oomph to the updated picture. Details are golden and expressive and the textures burst forth with depth. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 audio is solid.

Supplements:

Commentary:

None

Special Features:

In a brand new six-minute interview, Corman talks about coming up with the idea in a dentist’s chair, working with his brother, and the Nazi flag that nearly caused an onset riot.