The Secret War Of Harry Frigg (1968)

Set in WWII Italy, a lazy private (Paul Newman) is constantly escaping from army stockades before he eventually gets caught and sent back to the guardhouse. With his talent for escaping, the Army decides to use his particular talent to help five Allied generals escape from an Italian villa where they are being held as POWs. So they temporarily promote him to General and let him get caught by the Italian military and sent to the very same Italian villa. Directed by Jack Smight (HARPER), I'm not a fan of war comedies (is war ever funny?) in general and this tepid comedy plays out like a TV sitcom. It's not as bad as HOGAN'S HEROES (what could be?) and the Nazis are not portrayed as comic buffoons, they're real Nazis. This may be Paul Newman's worst performance. Let's face it, comedy is not his forte. This is the kind of role that a James Garner could do effortlessly. Here, you can't help but be conscious of Newman trying hard to be funny. But even Garner couldn't make this a better movie, just more tolerable. This being a Universal film, "Italy" is the Universal backlot with a Southern California villa standing in for the Italian villa. With the lovely Sylva Koscina, James Gregory, John Williams, Andrew Duggan, Tom Bosley, Charles Gray, Buck Henry and Vito Scotti.