grainne6: I haven't had this problem myself and I run Vista 32bit but it sounds like you could be missing some necessary codecs.
Try download the K-Lite Codec Pack
[url=]http://www.free-codecs.com/k_lite_codec_pack_download.htm[/url]
and installing it.
Then goto Start -> All Programs -> K-Lite Codec Pack -> Configuration -> FFDShow video decoder.
Then scroll down to the Format "Cinepak" and change "libavcodec" to "disabled"
As I said the game worked fine for me so I don't know if this will help but I have found that it's helped with other games. I hope it helps.
Thanks for replying! I installed the K-Lite codec pack. The setting for Cinepak was already set to "disabled" by default. Unfortunately, that didn't fix the problem. I still only get the Commandos logo and a black screen after that (no error message).