Escape to Athena
Escape to Athena is a 1979 British adventure comedy war film directed by George P. Cosmatos. It stars Roger Moore, Telly Savalas, David Niven, Stefanie Powers, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Roundtree, Sonny Bono and Elliott Gould. The film is set during the Second World War on a German-occupied Greek island. The music was composed by Lalo Schifrin. It was filmed on location on the island of Rhodes.
Plot
In 1944, Allied prisoners at a POW camp on an unnamed Greek island are forced to excavate ancient artefacts. The camp Commandant, Major Otto Hecht, a former Austrian antiques dealer, is sending some of the valuable pieces to his sister living in Switzerland. However, the prisoners have discovered that the prisoners in the camp will be sent to other camps once the finds run out, so they arrange to keep "discovering" the same pieces. While Hecht is content to sit out the war, the SS Commandant of the nearby town, Major Volkmann, brutally enforces discipline, including reprisal executions of civilians.
More details
| author | Edward Anhalt George P. Cosmatos |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | Greece |
| director | George P. Cosmatos |
| editor | Ralph Kemplen |
| events | World War II |
| genre | adventure comedy |
| keywords | allied prisoners allies of world war ii brothel byzantine byzantine empire capture climb control room discover force fuel depot garrison greek island help house kill monk pow camp schutzstaffel search u-boat united service organizations uso v-2 rocket |
| musicBy | Barry Blue |
| producer | David Niven Jr. |
| productionCompany | ITC Entertainment |
| publisher | Associated Film Distribution |
| recordedAt | Greece |
| theme | war |