The Assisi Underground (1985)

*Get a physical copy of "The Assisi Underground" on Amazon here*
*Watch "The Assisi Underground" on Amazon Prime Video here*
*Get a physical copy of The Assisi Underground: The Priests Who Rescued Jews by Alexander Ramati on Amazon here*
*Get "The Assisi Underground" wall decor on Amazon here*

The story of Italian priests hiding Jews in the Chapel of St. Francis and Cloister of St. Clare should have been given better treatment than this poorly done film.

Slashed by almost an hour from its original release, Padre Rufino (Ben Cross) is asked by Bishop Nicolini (James Mason) to hide some Jews in the monastery and cloister at Assisi. He does, while making friends with thoughtful Nazi Colonel Muller (Maximilian Schell), the town commandant. Jews are almost discovered, the war ends, and everyone gets a little mention about what happened to them at the end of the film.

The film's pace is dull, it is nothing more than Nazi extras asking for identification papers and Cross looking like the cat that ate the canary. I half expected him to wink at the camera every time a Nazi goosestepped into frame. Cross often forgets his Italian accent but Mason's idea of an Italian accent is to add an "uh" syllable at the end of every word, such as "We-uh must-uh help-uh the-uh Jews-uh." Most of his speeches are completely devoid of comprehension, I thought I was listening to gibberish. The Jews here are not portrayed as victims, it's more like they have been inconvenienced by World War II. They do not come across as stoic and bold, but spoiled and complaining. In one embarrassing scene, Rufino, loved by all Jews who meet him, does a magic trick, compliments a painting, and comforts Jews like he is the activities director at an adult day care facility. Schell comes off best as the Nazi officer torn between his obligation to the Third Reich and his upbringing as a Catholic, not enough of his inner turmoil was explored. The film also features a horrendous soundtrack that sounds like bits and pieces of other war films just thrown into the sound mix. There are a couple of battle scenes, one with obvious stock footage, but this is not good.

"The Assisi Underground" was made by the guys at the old Cannon Group studio, and watching this was my first error if you are familiar with their product.

Stats:
(1985) 115 min. (*) out of five stars
-Directed by Alexander Ramati
-Written by Alexander Ramati based on his novel
-Cast: Ben Cross, James Mason, Maximilian Schell, Irene Papas, Edmund Purdom, Karlheinz Hackl, Riccardo Cucciolla, Angelo Infanti, Paolo Malco, Tom Felleghy, Delia Boccardo, Roberto Bisacco, Didi Ramati
(PG)