Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Leofwine_draca
THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE is another men-on-a-mission war film to follow in the wake of THE DIRTY DOZEN. This is along very much the same lines, albeit with a much bigger cast, and once again it concerns an officer training up a platoon of men for a suicide mission. This time around, the orders are to capture a bunch of Germans and later take a mountain occupied by German forces in Italy.It's obvious from the outset that this is a highly entertaining picture just from the level of talent involved. The familiar faces are endless and the pacing never flags despite the lengthy running time. The first half of the movie is taken up with training but it doesn't feel slow, thanks to the conflict arising from the Canadian troops and the dregs of the American jails forced to join forces with them. Later, when the action hits it does so impressively, mixing quietly taut peril and suspense sequences with all out battle warfare.William Holden headlines the cast as the ultra-tough lieutenant colonel while Cliff Robertson and Vince Edwards play the two opposing majors under him. Elsewhere we get good character parts from the actors playing the privates such as Claude Akins, Richard Jaeckel, and Richard Dawson, and a scene-stealing turn from Jack Watson as the tough Scotsman Corporal Peacock. THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE is an entertaining war flick in that inimitable 1960s style.
Oslo Jargo (Bartok Kinski)
Idiotic film that portrays a bunch of drunk losers who brawl, that suddenly become one of the best army units in WW2. The incessant brawling takes 2 hours of time. It is tedious and juvenile.William Holden is as stiff as ever in his role as some tough commander who's always at the front of the battle, without taking an injury I might add.You might want to throw away your brain once the actual battles start up, since the Wehrmacht is portrayed as a bunch of idiots who don't know how to fight or stand guard duty. The greenhorn US grunts walk down a stream and take the whole town just like that.There is also no way a bunch of greenhorn US grunts are going to capture a town that was probably supported by Gebirgsjäger (Mountain units) and Waffen SS Mountain units by simply and easily climbing up a steep hill without gloves or equipment.There is also no way a bunch of greenhorn US grunts are going to capture a hill held by seasoned Fallschirmjäger units (paratrooper).
JohnHowardReid
Allegedly based on a true story, this is a moderately entertaining war film that would be twice as exciting at half the length. In fact, the real-life characters presented here are actually rather superficial and unappealing. They never arouse much audience interest because many of the characters exist as mere ciphers. Despite its present length, the film bears evidence of cutting. Possibly the rejected footage filled out and rounded the characters, so that they had some semblance of reality. But this material has presumably been jettisoned in favor of three big action sequences, namely the fight with the lumberjacks, the round-up of German prisoners, and the final climactic battle. These are extremely well staged although many viewers will find the battle scenes too realistically gory. Earlier on, however, there is an amusing sequence when the hand-to-hand combat instructor arrives at camp. Nevertheless, by and large, the screenplay loses most of its opportunities for dramatic suspense. Why not allow at least one of the trainees to escape from the camp? Loose direction doesn't help either and some of the special effects are faulty. Within the limitations of the screenplay, the performances are good, particularly Holden and Akins. Patric Knowles, superbly made up, is fleetingly glimpsed as Lord Mountbatten. Michael Rennie, Dana Andrews and James Craig are understandably perfunctory in two-second bits. Harry Carey Jr, who seems to turn up in many McLaglen films, has nothing to do but march around in the background of two or three shots. In fact the main trouble is that just none of the characters are developed. In common with most of the other credits, Clothier's color and 'Scope photography is competent but undistinguished.
moonspinner55
WWII story has William Holden looking distressed at playing an American Lieutenant Coloniel, assigned to the heady task of whipping a large group of delinquent G.I.s into shape within four months for possible battle in Norway; complicating matters on the training base is the inclusion of a Canadian military unit who must share the field--and the barracks--with the obnoxious Yanks. Robert H. Adleman's book must have seemed like surefire screen material in 1968, but today it merely looks like a second-rate imitation of any number of "Dirty Dozen" war entries. All the usual clichés are firmly in place, from the rowdy bar brawl to the male ego-bruising to the eventual bonding amongst the men (which happens at exactly the 60-minute mark, commencing with the graduation ceremonies). A not-bad supporting cast (including Cliff Robertson, Vince Edwards, Carroll O'Connor, and an aged Michael Rennie and Dana Andrews) mostly takes a backseat to the soldiers-in-training, with Claude Akins' class-clown hogging a great deal of the spotlight. By-the-numbers film-making (not to mention storytelling) has a handful of rousing moments; yet, once the first-half is done, the rest of the picture is practically irrelevant. *1/2 from ****
