Well Deserved Praise

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hyped garbage

The film is set in post-war Europe and an American Army train loaded with gold is blown up and its contents robbed. The film mostly consists of the efforts taken to discover who is responsible. Considering the film is about a violent gold robbery and its investigation, the film is amazingly dull. Much of it can be blamed on the indifferent direction, the very poor casting of stars in the various roles as well as the script which practically put me to sleep. It's not a terrible film but one that should have been so much better.As far as my problems with the film, the most noticeable was the casting. George Kennedy seemed odd as Patton but others made even less sense...such as a very, very young looking Bruce Davison playing a full colonel and John Cassevetes as a major who simply scowls all the time. None of the other stars were particularly distinguished as well and the film has the look of a star-studded affair instead of a film honestly trying to tell a good story.

Brass Target has as its plot premise the fact that George S. Patton's automobile accident which left him paralyzed with a broken neck that eventually killed him was really an assassination. For the more traditional view I suggest you see Patton: The Last Days which starred the most famous Patton of all George C. Scott.250 million dollars in gold bullion from the Third Reich is robbed and the perpetrators are a group of OSS men headed by Robert Vaughn. These guys were doing this sort of stuff during the war and apparently saw no reason that they shouldn't pull one last job with a heist that would certainly insure them a comfortable old age. The problem is that a whole train load of GIs are killed in a tunnel during the heist.Which brings in John Cassavetes late of the OSS who was the author of a heist plan that was a dead ringer for what the robbers used. Which gives Cassavetes a good head start in an investigation, but not exactly a smoking gun.After George S. Patton played here by George Kennedy is called out by the Russians for his laxity, that's something no one can accuse Patton of. He takes personal charge of the investigation and puts himself in an assassin's cross hairs.I think a lot of good players got wasted here in a film that didn't make sense many times. You have to fill in a lot of gaps. Sophia Loren is in the film, top billed in a supporting role that doesn't make any sense. Max Von Sydow is the professional hit man that Vaughn and company hire sight unseen though on strong recommendation. Von Sydow was interesting and clever and is the best one in the film.This is one urban legend that truly is a legend. As a film Brass Target is hardly legendary.

"Brass Target" is a rather frustrating film. It begins with a real grabber opening, the tunnel robbery of 250 million dollars in gold from a U.S. Army train. What follows is the story of an assassination contracted by the perpetrators on General George S. Patton due to his involvement in the robbery investigation. This does not make a whole lot of sense, since Patton was ordered back to the States in a few days, therefore the urgency to eliminate him seems rather pointless. Although the cast is strong, the screenplay is murky and confusing. Plot contrivances abound, especially a highly improbable code breaking. In the end, the exciting gold robbery is all but forgotten, making the movie rather forgettable as well. - MERK

I saw this movie just by accident on TCM when I was surfing through the channels.The movie tells the story how just after World War II, a train carrying 250 million dollars in gold from the German Reichsbank is hijacked by renegade U.S soldiers. When the Russians hear about it they are furious and want the gold back since it should be shared by all the allies, General Patton, old "Blood & Guts" a well known anti-communist takes it his job to retrieve every single bullion to show off to the Soviets.While the story gets a promising start it bogs down a bit after the first 30 minutes, the story gets just too unfocused also the casting could have been better, Sophia Loren is far from convincing and McGoohan is certainly not at his best, if Hough would not have tried to get more audience by starring a lot of big names like Loren and Montague and just have hired other actors who could played the characters more convincingly this could have been a better film.