| Heroes in Hell | |
| Director: | Joe D'Amato |
| Producer: | Walter Brandi |
| Starring: | Klaus Kinski |
| Music: | Vassili Kojucharov |
| Cinematography: | Joe D'Amato |
| Editing: | Piera Bruni Gianfranco Simoncelli |
| Distributor: | Variety Distribution |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | Italy |
| Language: | Italian |
Heroes in Hell (Italian: '''Eroi all'inferno''') is a 1974 Italian Macaroni War film written, directed and lensed by Joe D'Amato (using the pseudonym "Michael Wotruba" for the directorial credit), produced by Walter Brandi and starring Klaus Kinski, Luciano Rossi and Franco Garofalo.[1]
A group of American POW's escape from a vile Nazi prison camp in Germany during World War II. They escape into the countryside, pursued by a squadron of Nazi soldiers assigned to recapture them. The Americans join forces with a group of French freedom fighters, and agree to help them kidnap the high-level German general Kaufmann from his chateau. Using German uniforms captured in combat, the men succeed in capturing the general, but when he puts up a fight they are forced to tranquilize him and physically carry him out of the building. The Nazi platoon catches up with them and a firefight ensues, killing almost everyone on both sides. The last surviving Americans succeed in escaping with their unconscious prisoner.
D'Amato had directed Kinski earlier in Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) and said Kinski "(was) an excellent professional actor.[2] "
In Italy, the film received a limited regional release in very few cinemas and only for a short time, premiering on 27 November 1974.[3] The film was shown on the Italian regional TV station Tele Video TVR on 15 November 1980.[4]
In August 1985, the English dub Heroes in Hell was distributed by "Lightning Video" as Nr. 7502 for the price of $69.95.[5] A VHS of the Italian dub was published by "Shendene & Moizzi" in 2000.[6] In July 2007, Heroes in Hell was released on DVD under the title Hrdinové v pekle by the Czech label "Řitka video, s.r.o." containing both the Czech dub and the Italian dub with forced Czech subtitles. This edition was reissued by Řitka in 2009 and 2012.[7] Also in 2007, a DVD of the English dub was released in South Africa by "Impact Video".[8]