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The Devil's Brigade

Released: 1968
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Staring: William Holden, Cliff Robertson, Vince Edwards, Andrew Prine

Dismissed in 1968 as a plodding rip-off of The Dirty Dozen - without that 1967 film's sardonic, antiestablishment satire - The Devil's Brigade now plays like a nostalgic last gasp of the sentimental World War II action genre.

Celebrating the 1st Special Service Force (a commando-like unit formed to fight in Norway but ultimately deployed in Italy), this typically broad Andrew V. McLaglen production recounts the teaming of some miscreant GIs with "the handpicked best of the best-trained army in the world" - the Canadians - under a U.S. officer (William Holden) who had never commanded men in combat.

The first hour, heavy on machismo and low comedy, depicts the unit's training at an abandoned base in Montana, with nonstop international rivalry until Yanks and Canadians bond in a lusty saloon brawl. After that, the Germans are easy meat.

Holden is solid, as usual, and so is the widescreen work of veteran cameraman William H. Clothier, impeccably rendered on the DVD. © Amazon.com

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