Dirty Dozen

Classic Wartime movie from 1967
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich, based on the novel by E. M. Nathanson and starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson and Jim Brown.

Kelly's Heroes / The Dirty Dozen (Double Feature)

Watch Movie - The Dirty Dozen

Lee Marvin portrays a tough as nails major volunteered in the Army way to command a squad of misfits on a suicide mission against Nazi brass. Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Trini Lopez, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Clint Walker are among the 12 jailbirds who will earn their freedom if they survive.

Plot Synopsis

In England, in the spring of 1944, Allied forces are preparing for the D-Day invasion. Among them are Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin), an OSS officer; his commander, Regular Army Major General Worden (Ernest Borgnine), and his former commander Colonel Everett Dasher Breed (Robert Ryan). Early in the film the personalities of the three men are shown to clash and the characters of the individualistic Reisman and the domineering Breed are established.

Major Reisman is assigned an unusual and top-secret pre-invasion mission: take twelve American criminals convicted of capital offenses, either serving sentences of hard labor or awaiting execution, and whip them into a unit capable of carrying out a specific task. They are asked to infiltrate a château near Rennes, in Brittany, used as a retreat for senior Wehrmacht officers, on the eve of the invasion. Without having complete intelligence as to the identity of the guests, it was felt that the elimination of officers in the German high command or senior staff could cripple or confuse the German military's ability to respond at the time of crisis. It is quickly established that both Reisman and the generals with whom he frequently clashes consider the mission to be a suicidal long shot.

The film unfolds in three major acts; the first act identifies and "recruits" the prisoners, depicts the unit in training and highlights the interpersonal conflict between the men, some of whom see the mission as a chance for redemption and others as a chance for escape.

The second act places the mission, and the characters, in jeopardy when a breach of military regulations on Reisman's part forces General Worden, at Breed's urging, to have the men - now dubbed the Dirty Dozen by Sergeant Bowren (Richard Jaeckel) because of their refusal to shave or bathe as a protest against their living conditions - prove their worth as soldiers.

 The Guns of Navarone (Special Edition)

The final act, which was a mere footnote in the novel, is a set piece action sequence detailing the attack on the chateau.

Lee Marvin as Maj. John Reisman Ernest Borgnine as Maj. Gen. Worden Charles Bronson as Joseph Wladislaw Jim Brown as Robert T. Jefferson John Cassavetes as Victor R. Franko Richard Jaeckel as Sgt. Clyde Bowren George Kennedy as Maj. Max Armbruster

Trini Lopez as Pedro Jiminez Ralph Meeker as Capt. Stuart Kinder Robert Ryan as Col. Everett Dasher Breed Telly Savalas as Archer J. Maggott Donald Sutherland as Vernon L. Pinkley Clint Walker as Samson Posey Robert Webber as Brig. Gen. Denton

Tom Busby as Milo Vladek Ben Carruthers as Glenn Gilpin Stuart Cooper as Roscoe Lever Robert Phillips as Cpl. Carl Morgan Al Mancini as Tassos R. Bravos Colin Maitland as Seth

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