Sette baschi rossi

Sette baschi rossi
Original movie poster
Directed by	Mario Siciliano
Produced by	Mario Siciliano
Written by	Piero Regnoli (novel) August Rieger
Starring	Ivan Rassimov Sieghardt Rupp Kirk Morris Serge Nubret Dale Cummings Pamela Tudor
Music by	Gianni Marchetti
Cinematography	Gino Santini
Release date(s)	1969
Running time	90 m
Country	Italy  Germany

Sette baschi rossi also known as The Red Berets, Seven Red Berets and Congo Hell^[1] is a 1969 Italian West German co-production about a fictional group of mercenaries filmed in Ethiopia^[2] produced and directed by screenwriter Mario Siciliano (often credited as "Marlon Sirko") in his debut as a director. Several of the action set pieces of the film were reused in Siciliano's 1978 Scorticateli vivi/Skin 'em Alive. It was based on the novel Rebellion by Dean Craig AKA Piero Regnoli. Like Dark of the Sun the film also features a train sequence.

Plot

Set during the Simba Rebellion in the Belgian Congo, the film begins with a quote from Martin Luther King, the spearing executions of a group of captured mercenaries and the pack rape of a French female journalist (Pamela Tudor). At Mercenary Central an angry Colonel (Arthur Brauss) rebukes the only survivor of the incident, the German Captain Brandt (Sieghardt Rupp). Brandt has left important documents in the Simba village that contains information on the activities and employers of the mercenaries. The documents must be retrieved within four days. Brandt says he can recover the papers and rescue the captured journalist with a small patrol. The Colonel agrees, but the patrol is to be led by the African-American Captain Loriwood that antagonises Brandt as the Colonel informs Brandt that his record of performance clearly shows he is incapable of leadership.

His Sergeant (Kirk Morris) selects three men; a German (Gino Marturano who also acted as the film's armourer and stunt director), a black African (Wilfred Gurley) and an Irishman (Dale Cummings). As the patrol is unfamiliar with a swamp and desert they have to cross, Captain Loriwood recruits a French gunrunner called Caret (Ivan Rassimov) for the fee of $15,000. Caret is familiar with the area as he has sold weapons to the Simbas. Caret became a weapons salesman after witnessing the torture of his wife who was burned and beaten to death in front of him. He became further alienated when the French government did not want to antagonise the local situation by seeking their prosecution. Loriwood also takes along a mercenary female doctor (Angelica Ott).

Notes

1. ^ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/343742
2. ^ http://rassimov.netfirms.com/IvanRassimov/IvanIV.htm

External links

• Sette baschi rossi at the Internet Movie Database