Sette baschi rossi
Encyclopedia
Sette baschi rossi also known as The Red Berets, Seven Red Berets and Congo Hell is a 1969
1969 in film
The year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980...

 Italian West German co-production about a fictional group of mercenaries filmed in Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 produced and directed by screenwriter Mario Siciliano (often credited as "Marlon Sirko") in his debut as a director. Several of the action set piece
Set piece
Set piece may refer to:* Set piece , an elaborate sequence which sees either a chase, fight, or other action taking place in an original and memorable way...

s of the film were reused in Siciliano's 1978 Scorticateli vivi/Skin 'em Alive. It was based on the novel Rebellion by Dean Craig AKA Piero Regnoli
Piero Regnoli
Piero Regnoli was an Italian screenwriter and film director and for a time was the film critic for the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano and was a Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1949 and 1954...

. Like Dark of the Sun
Dark of the Sun
Dark of the Sun is a 1968 adventure-war film starring Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Brown, and Peter Carsten...

the film also features a train sequence.

Plot

Set during the Simba Rebellion
Simba Rebellion
The Simba Rebellion was a 1964 rebellion in the former Republic of the Congo which began as a result of alleged abuses by the Congolese central government...

 in the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

, the film begins with a quote from Martin Luther King, the spearing executions of a group of captured mercenaries and the pack rape of a French female journalist (Pamela Tudor). At Mercenary Central an angry Colonel (Arthur Brauss) rebukes the only survivor of the incident, the German Captain Brandt (Sieghardt Rupp
Sieghardt Rupp
Sieghardt Rupp is an Austrian actor who has performed in film and television and later theatre....

). Brandt has left important documents in the Simba village that contains information on the activities and employers of the mercenaries. The documents must be retrieved within four days. Brandt says he can recover the papers and rescue the captured journalist with a small patrol. The Colonel agrees, but the patrol is to be led by the African-American Captain Loriwood that antagonises Brandt as the Colonel informs Brandt that his record of performance clearly shows he is incapable of leadership.

His Sergeant (Kirk Morris
Kirk Morris
Kirk Morris born Adriano Bellini. born 26 August 1942 in Venice is an actor and Italian bodybuilder. Unlike many of the actors who played strongman leads in the peplum and sword and sandal genre in the 1960s he was an actual Italian. He was discovered whilst working as a gondolier in his native...

) selects three men; a German (Gino Marturano who also acted as the film's armourer and stunt director
Stunt performer
A stuntman, or daredevil is someone who performs dangerous stunts, often as a career.These stunts are sometimes rigged so that they look dangerous while still having safety mechanisms, but often they are as dangerous as they appear to be...

), a black African (Wilfred Gurley) and an Irishman (Dale Cummings). As the patrol is unfamiliar with a swamp and desert they have to cross, Captain Loriwood recruits a French gunrunner called Caret (Ivan Rassimov
Ivan Rassimov
Ivan Rassimov was an Italian film actor of Serbian origin who appeared in many horror and exploitation films....

) for the fee of $15,000. Caret is familiar with the area as he has sold weapons to the Simbas. Caret became a weapons salesman after witnessing the torture of his wife who was burned and beaten to death in front of him. He became further alienated when the French government did not want to antagonise the local situation by seeking their prosecution. Loriwood also takes along a mercenary female doctor (Angelica Ott).
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