Many of the same elements of the Saturday night television 60s action epics – well known cast (albeit solidly B list), washed colour, Germans, action. But this falls into the secondary category along with Bridges of Remagen – Phil Yordan scripts of this time often just missed eg 55 Days at Peking and this is no exception.
It’s a decent enough account of the battle – it gets off to a sluggish start with some very bland scenes, such as soldiers going “oh it’ll all be over by Xmas” and Henry Fonda going “no it won’t” and Dana Andrews continually to the point of contrivance; Telly Savalas is a wacky corrupt sergeant and there is some boring hey-I’m-a-writer-I’ll-put-in-conflict between a lieutenant and a sergeant, but 50 minutes or so in the battle gets going and its particularly exciting when the Germans pretend to be Yanks and when the Germans shoot a bunch of Americans who’ve surrendered.
Robert Shaw is effective as an imposing Nazi; Ty Hardin is good, too, as a German. I always liked George Montgomery and he pops up and does well as a sergeant. Pier Angeli is one of two poorly incorporated love interests.
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