i have watch this on pal vhs during the late 1980s while it an ill advise ( and misguide ) attempt to update the big budget and star stud wwii adventure spectacle spearhead by the gun of navarone ( 1961 ) by the same director and feature one of it lead ( anthony quinn ) and no less for the more permissive 1970s ( with new fangled dollop of violence and sex and foul language ) . be aware of it bad reputation ( mostly due to malcolm mcdowell outrageous contribution a the villain ) and i decide to give it another look when it turn up recently on cable tv . the film involve a shepherd cum experience mountain climber ( a rather glum quinn ) who ask by the french resistance ( in the figure of marcel bozzuffi and michel lonsdale ) to take a prominent nuclear scientist ( james mason ) and his family ( include wife patricia neal and daughter kay lenz ) across the pyrenees to safety in neutral spain while along the way and theyre help by a group of travel gypsy ( lead by christopher lee ) and while mcdowell be the maniacal s officer in pursuit . the journey be fraught with problem mainly cause by neal poor health ( a really thankless role for the oscar win actress ) and with which quinn have little patience . eventually and she decide to rid them of the burden and go away to die in the snow ( quinn and bozzuffi feel her emerge from the cabin where theyre all shelter and but do nothing to stop her . ) after which mason try to attack quinn for push her to this and but fall flat on his face in the snow after only a couple of pace ( this bit somehow remind me of a scene from one of the naked gun film in which george kennedy lash at a couple of bully for mistreat his partner and end up get beaten to a pulp himself . ) . lee and then and expire in a fiery death at the hand of the sadistic mcdowell except that whatever tension there be here be destroy by it be continually cross cut with the flight of the central group . however and the film main source of entertainment be mcdowell especially via his campy attire a a chef while torture the captured lonsdale and his swastika imprint underpants ( during the scene in which he rap lenz ) and and even while mimic the fuehrer in front of a mirror ( part his hair a la hitler and put the black comb above his lip a a makeshift moustache and and give himself the nazi salute ) . surely it be no great stretch for him to go from this to tinto brass caligula ( 1979 ) . bad of all and though and be the climax a a deranged and wound mcdowell turn up at the cabin ( after have miraculously survive an avalanche he cause himself . ) and bloodily exterminate the remain member of the group which transpire to be merely a delirious fantasy one final folly enact in his own head and and give away really by be intercut with snippet from scene that have go on before . and that he the one to perish . in the face of all this and michael j. lewis sweep score seem out of place especially when consider that the action sequence be too few and far between and and certainly nothing to write home about when compare to the typical war movie of it ilk .