Details

Release year: 1973

Storyline

Rome, March 23, 1944: 33 German soldiers are killed by a bomb. Lt. Col. Herbert Kappler is ordered to execute ten times that many Italians.

Top credits

Directors

George P. Cosmatos

Writers

Cast

Richard Burton — Lt. Col. Herbert Kappler
Marcello Mastroianni — Father Pietro Antonelli
Leo McKern — Gen. Kurt Maelzer
John Steiner — Col. Dollmann

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Did you know

• Filmed in the winter of 1972-73, the film had a limited release in the summer of 1975.

• Lt Col Herbert Kappler's second in command was Erich Priepke. He was arrested in South America and extradited to Italy where he was released from trial, due to his age. After public outcry, he was placed under house arrest in Italy until his death. Kappler was imprisoned after the war and, in old age, contracted cancer. He was refused release under medical grounds. His second wife, a nurse, smuggled him out of prison in a suitcase, yet due to his health was very frail. She got him to East Germany where he lived out his remaining days. During his imprisonment in Italy, Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty visited Kappler regularly.

• Some of the uniforms including Richard Burton's do not show the SS insignia. Also the SS units were different to those of the police units.