Sick Product of a Sick System

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

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.

When it comes to the sentiment that it is a wonderful tribute to those in the Devil's Brigade I have to take my grandfather's opinion... "All a bunch of Hollywood BS" The reason for this is he was part of this elite unit.He never talked about his time in this unit but only one time... when he was interviewed by the paper about the release of this movie. He was lucky to survive as this unit had the highest casualties and was severely wounded just shy of the liberation of Italy. He has been gone now for almost 20 years (Oct. 1992) and when I miss him the most I put this movie on, it may be almost all fictional but at least I take comfort in the fact I have something of him to keep me from missing him too much and gives me a sense of pride he was part of this unit and fought for our freedom. Also they were trained as paratroopers as comment above, but after his time in Devil's Brigade he would never ever step foot on a plane again.

This is a rugged WWII actioner concerning an unexperienced Lt Colonel (William Holden) , he's assigned by Lord Mountbatten (Patrick Knowles) to train a group of American misfits and Canadian soldiers . The Americans are an oddball/rag-tag/motley gang (a largely cast formed by Claude Akins , Luke Askew, Andrew Prine , Tom Stern, Richard Dawson..) , under command a Major (Vince Edwards) . While the Canadians who appear in a spectacular parade under Scottish bagpipes music , are disciplined and commanded by a Major (Clift Robertson) and a corporal (Jack Watson), but a new sergeant (Jeremy Slate) has joined the ranks of the brigade for training in combat . The commando is denominated the Devil's Brigade (and actually existed) . The team is trained in Fort William , a barren place to take on the Nazis in Scandinavia . But the mission in Norway is suspended , as they are sent on yet another new mission by the staff command (Generals : Dana Andrews , Michel Rennie , Carrol O'Connor) . Later its cancellation they must participate in two suicidal missions , the first to wipe an Italian little town and after an assault over a strong position located on the Alps . The "Black Devils" was the nickname of the 1st Special Service Force, The Devil's Brigade (also called The Black Devil's and The Black Devils Brigade), a joint American-Canadian commando unit organized in 1942 . This flag-waving film packs frantic thrills , perilous adventures, humor , relentless feats and buck-loads of explosive action and violence . The noisy action is uniformly well-made , especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes on the impregnable mountain . Serious and rough William Holden is good as leader of the motley pack together thwart the the Nazi schemes , as well as the largely secondary cast with special mention to Claude Akins and Jack Watson who finish developing a sincere friendship . Atmospheric and martial musical score by Alex North (Spartacus) and appropriate cinematography by William H Clothier (John Ford's usual cameraman) . This is is a wartime typical vehicle and a stand-out into the warlike commando genre , which also belongs : 'Dirty dozen' (Robert Aldrich) , 'Where eagles dare' (Brian G. Hutton) and 'Kelly's heroes' (Hutton). The motion picture was well realized by Andrew V McLagen , son of Victor McLagen . He's a warlike expert , such as proved in several films (Return to Kwai , Wild Geese , Dirtdozen: the next mission , Sea wolves , Breakthrough).

When The Devil's Brigade first came out it got panned by a lot of critics in that it was too similar to The Dirty Dozen. Never mind that it was based on some real figures, the consensus was that The Devil's Brigade was a poor imitation of The Dirty Dozen. Personally I think it was a better film.I'm sure that the characters and incidents were given a lot of poetic license, but that was to make it entertaining. And entertaining it is. But it's also inspiring, especially in the last battle sequence, taking that hill by going up the hard way.When Bill Holden was cast as real life Lieutenant Colonel Robert Frederick, Mrs. Frederick was interviewed and said while she admired Mr. Holden's talent, she thought her husband was more the Gregory Peck type. Nevertheless Holden does a fine job as a man who shoots down Lord Louis Mountbatten's idea of a combined American/Canadian special force and then gets command of it. He's also a staff officer who had not seen combat and he was trying to prove something to himself.As good as Holden is, the best performance in this film has to be that of Cliff Robertson as Canadian Major Alan Crown. Robertson's an Ulster Irishman in the film and his acting and accent are impeccable. He's got something to prove as well, he and many of his Canadians left Europe at Dunkirk. Robertson himself was off his Oscar winning performance in Charly and The Devil's Brigade was a good follow up for him.The Canadians selected for this unit are the pick of the lot, while the Americans emptied their stockades of all the refuse. Holden encourages competition among them and a really terrific sequence involving a bar brawl with some obnoxious lumberjacks welds a camaraderie among former feudees.Standing out in the cast are Claude Akins as a particularly rambunctious American recruit and Jack Watson as the Canadian sergeant. They bond particularly close, some might even infer some homosexuality here, but Watson's death scene and Akins's reactions are particularly poignant.The Devil's Brigade also came out during the Viet-nam War and war films were not well received at that time, at least until Patton came out. Seen now though, The Devil's Brigade is a fine tribute to the Canadians and Americans who made up the First Special Service Force.