11/19/2022 0 Comments The ascent at windward![]() The story was adapted for television in 1953 as an episode of Robert Montgomery Presents. #The ascent at windward seriesThe Ascent is based on Felice Benuzzi's Italian war memoir, No Picnic on Mount Kenya, about a series of events that took place at Camp 354 near Nanyuki, Kenya. Tony Lo Bianco called the film "Wop on Top." Production Background and development The Italians were tired of being made to feel inferior by both the British and the Germans. The Germans were always bailing them out and had no respect for the Italian soldiers. Franco buries the flag and surrenders, returning to the camp a hero.įour askari are played by Titi Wainaina, Jacob Otieno, Konga Mbandu, Lenny Juma.ĭonald Shebib described The Ascent as being about Italian honor, "a person caught between personal good and the common good."Ī lot of it was inspired by that joke about Italy having the thinnest book of war heroes. At the summit, the Major has Franco in his sights and implores him to halt. At night they engage in shouted banter with one another, inflaming the Major's envy of Franco's mountaineering skill and jealousy over Patricia. Mountain sickness leaves Enzo unable to continue, so Franco proceeds alone for days, sometimes catching a glimpse of the Major across the canyons. Once over the wire, however, Kist betrays the Italians and flees but is quickly captured, revealing their plan to the Major, who prepares to give chase up the mountainside. When the Major, who had pressed his own unsuccessful suit with her, finds out, his ensuing rage pushes the POWs to put their plan in motion immediately, and Franco, Enzo, and Kist make good their escape. Gear is produced by artisan prisoners, including the German Kist (Rico Vanden Hurck), who trades his compass for a place on the three-man climbing team.įranco is away from the camp after he agrees to repair the industrialist's antiquated sawmill, where he and Patricia share a romantic interlude in the hayloft. Franco agrees with the proviso that he makes his own descent from the other side into Italian-occupied Somalia. The demoralized commanding officer of the Italians, Enzo ( Tony Lo Bianco), devises a scheme to regain his and the others' honor: a select band will escape to climb Mount Kenya with the aim of reaching the 16,300 ft Point Lenana and planting the Italian flag there before returning to the camp, a feat that will also humiliate their captors. Standing before the Major, he taunts the commander for failing to conquer the mountain, further vexing him. When the British catch up with him, Franco goes quietly. He resembles Patricia's late husband, and his intelligence and charm leave an impression on her. After an initial misunderstanding with the occupants an industrialist and his daughter Patricia ( Rachel Ward), Franco fixes their truck and stays for lunch. Succeeding on his sixth breakout attempt, Franco steals a jeep and makes his way through the Kenyan countryside to a small village, crashing the jeep to avoid hitting another truck stuck in the road. One of the Major's preoccupations has been attempting to ascend one of Kenya's forbidding southern approaches, but he has been frustrated, his failure a joke amongst the mostly Italian prisoners, including his nemesis Franco Distassi ( Vincent Spano), a world-class climber who has attempted escape five times. The camp is staffed mainly by African subjects overseen by a few British soldiers and their commander, the stiff-lipped Major David Farrell ( Ben Cross), who lost both his wife and child to the war. During the 1942 African Campaign of the Second World War, an isolated British East African POW camp sits on a dusty plain in the shadow of Mount Kenya, said to be one of the most difficult mountains in the world to climb. ![]()
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