Sombras de gloria, like Blaze o' Glory, takes its premise from the story The Long Shot by Thomas Alexander Boyd. It is part war movie, part courtroom drama.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, a group of six children from the East End of London are evacuated to the village of Payling Green. The boisterous pair Charlie and Ern are lodged with the local vicar and proceed to torment, mock and terrorise his sensitive and delicate son. They then get involved in petty-thieving and vandalism, before being taken under the protective wing of a local female novelist with progressive social views.
In priestly disguise, the con artist Orlowsky learns from a last confession about a village where a treasure is hidden. He seeks out the Mexican bandit Max Lozoya, who knows more about its precise location – (part of) the instructions is tattooed on his ass.
Opening remarks by Charlton Heston and Mickey Rooney are used to establish the film’s direction and mood. Introductory scenes quickly dissolve into one laced with sounds of thunder and artillery fire. The setting is atop Niagara Falls where waters cascade over the falls’ edge. Superimposed in the haze are dissolving scenes of American conflicts from the American Revolutionary War through Desert Storm.
The year is 1945 and the Germans have just surrendered. An airborne unit is ordered to a nearby way-station to help process German surrenders. Along the way, they cross paths with a broken Werhmacht unit that's been cut off for days and does not know the war is officially over. With no translators in either group, they must overcome the language barrier before it is too late.