''Sturmtruppen'' is a 1976

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Salvatore Samperi Salvatore Samperi (26 July 1944 – 4 March 2009) was an Italian film director. His 1973 film '' Malicious'' was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival and his 1979 film ''Ernesto'' was entered into the 29th Berlin In ...

. It is based on the homonymous ''

Sturmtruppen ''Sturmtruppen'' is a successful Italian series of anti-war comic books written and drawn by Bonvi, the artistic pseudonym of Franco Bonvicini. It started as four-frame comic strips back in 1968 and evolved into fully sized collector books by t ...

'' comic books created by

Bonvi Bonvi, pen name of Franco Bonvicini (31 March 1941 – 10 December 1995) was an Italian comic book artist, creator of the comic strips '' Sturmtruppen'' and '' Nick Carter''. Biography Bonvicini was born either in Parma or Modena, in the Emilia R ...

Cast

Renato Pozzetto Renato Pozzetto (born 14 July 1940) is an Italian actor, director, comedian, and singer. Biography Pozzetto was born into a working-class family from Milan and grew up in the town of Gemonio (in the Province of Varese). After graduation, he made ...

as Rookie *

Lino Toffolo Lino Toffolo (31 December 1934 – 16 May 2016) was an Italian actor, singer-songwriter, author, and television presenter. Life and career Born in Murano (Venice), shortly after his debut he moved to Milan where he obtained his first successe ...

as Rookie *

Cochi Ponzoni Aurelio Ponzoni (born 11 March 1941), known professionally as Cochi Ponzoni, is an Italian actor, screenwriter, singer and comedian. Life and career Born Aurelio Ponzoni in Milan, Ponzoni studied at the Italian Liceo classico in Milan, having ...

as General *

Teo Teocoli Antonio "Teo" Teocoli (born 25 February 1945) is an Italian actor, TV conductor, singer and writer appearing in about 30 mostly Italian productions since 1975. Selected filmography * ''Paolo e Francesca'' (1971) * ''The Boss and the Worker ...

as Captain *

Felice Andreasi Felice Andreasi (8 January 1928, in Turin – 25 December 2005, in Cortazzone) was an Italian film, television, and stage actor. He appeared in over 50 films in Italy between 1972 and 2005. Biography He was considered one of the leading stage ...

as Sergeant / The Pope *

Massimo Boldi Massimo Antonio Boldi (born 23 July 1945) is an Italian stand-up comedian and actor. Biography Boldi was born in Luino on 23 July 1945. In 1955 his family moved to Milan, where he joined evening classes and began working as a window-dresser an ...

as Rookie *

Corinne Cléry Corinne Cléry (born 23 March 1950), also known as Corinne Piccolo, is a French actress. She is known for the films ''Moonraker'' (1979), '' The Story of O'' (1975), ''Hitch-Hike'' (1977) and ''Yor, the Hunter from the Future'' (1983). Early l ...

as The Actress, The Wife, The Woman at the Villa *

Jean-Pierre Marielle Jean-Pierre Marielle (12 April 1932 – 24 April 2019) was a French actor. He appeared in more than a hundred films in which he played very diverse roles, from a banal citizen ('' Les Galettes de Pont-Aven''), to a World War II hero (''Les Milles ...

as The Unknown Soldier *

Umberto Smaila Umberto Smaila (born 26 June 1950) is an Italian actor, composer, comedian, television personality, entrepreneur, and musician. Born in Verona to an Istrian family, in the early-1970s Smaila co-founded together with Jerry Calà, Franco Oppini an ...

as The Cook *

as The Prisoner

Production

''Strumtruppen'' is a film based on a comic book series written by

about the conflict in the trenches of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

from the point of view of the German army. The comic series originally appeared in 1968. The idea to adapt Bonvi's scripts to a film came from producers

Ermanno Donati Ermanno Donati was an Italian film producer. Along with Luigi Carpentieri, Donati won the Nastro d'Argento award for Best Producer for the film ''The Day of the Owl''. Selected filmography As producer * ''I Vampiri'' (1957) * '' The Son of the R ...

and

Luigi Carpentieri Luigi Carpentieri (1920-1987) was an Italian assistant director (1940-1949) and film producer (1947-1968). Together with Ermanno Donati, he founded the production company "Athena Cinematografica", which in 1960 became "Panda Cinematografica". All ...

who had recently produced another popular Italian production set in World War II, ''

Salon Kitty Salon Kitty was a high-class Berlin brothel used by the Nazi intelligence service, the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD), for espionage purposes during . Created in the early 1930s, the salon was taken over by SS general Reinhard Heydrich and his sub ...

''. The two got in touch with Bonvi through screenwriter Vittorio Vighi. Filming was initially set to start in June 1976. The project eventually went through several different stages as Donati and Carpentieri were not convinced by the original director Ennio De Concini's vision of the film. The script was originally written by Vittorio Vighi and Maria Pia Fusco but these parts were dropped and director

signed as the director. De Concini later spoke about his involvement in ''Strumtruppen'', stating that he "felt that my relationship with cinema was running out. ..I did not feeling like doing 'Strumptruppen'' I would have made a bad job and a bad movie."

Release

''Sturmtruppen'' was released in Italy in 1976. The film was a big box office hit in Italy, grossing over a one billion lire at the box office. The film's success led to a sequel ' which was written by Bonvi and again directed by Samperi.

References

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* 1976 films 1976 comedy films Films directed by Salvatore Samperi Italian comedy films French comedy films Films based on comic strips Military humor in film Italian World War II films Films based on Italian comics Live-action films based on comics 1970s Italian films 1970s French films French World War II films {{1970s-Italy-comedy-film-stub

Cast

Production

Release

See also

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links