The patriot, the professor, the comic and the stripper, were fighting for what they believed in. Getting rich!


The original British version of Escape to Athena ran 125 minutes; American prints were judiciously cut to 101 minutes, emphasizing the action content and neutralizing the duller dialogue sequences. Roger Moore stars as Major Otto Hecht, an anti-Nazi German who presides over a World War II POW camp. The prisoners, played by such diverse types as Elliott Gould, David Niven, and Sonny Bono, plan an escape with a group of Greek partisans (headed by Telly Savalas). It's not that the POWs are dissatisfied with life behind barbed wire -- it's just that they've been coerced into rescuing valuable art treasures from the Nazis, and there's a possibility of turning a profit!


Escape to Athena is a British adventure war film (with several elements of comedy) released in 1979, directed and co-authured by George Pan Cosmatos and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. The international cast included many well-known actors of the 1970s, including Roger Moore, Telly Savalas and Elliott Gould.
The film is set during the Second World War on a German-occupied Greek island. According to the film credits, it was filmed on the island of Rhodes.


Release Date: June 8, 1979

Distrib: AFD