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Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie is kind of a re-run treat. It very closely follows the true story of the First Special Service Force. The commander is correctly identified as Lt. Colonel Robert Frederick and it did consist of both US and Canadian troops - about 500 Canadians and 1200 Americans. All were volunteers. The American criminal contingent is all Hollywood although as with all volunteer forces there will have been some with checkered pasts.Training in the real unit was intense and the movie follows that training faithfully. The mountain assault really did happen that way. I have always considered the assault to be a highlight of cinematic combat action.About the only thing missing is their real moniker - the Black Devils. In German it was the "Schwarzer Teufel" so named because of the black face paint used in night raids. They would attack and then flee into the night as if they were literal devils. The unit was disbanded on December 5, 1944 after only two years. All US special operations combat forces are said to be descended from this unit.Cliff Robertson is masterful in the role of the Canadian commander. Jack Watson as Corporeal Peacock is one of my all time quirky characters.

Allegedly based on a true story, this is a moderately entertaining war film that would be twice as exciting at half the length. In fact, the real-life characters presented here are actually rather superficial and unappealing. They never arouse much audience interest because many of the characters exist as mere ciphers. Despite its present length, the film bears evidence of cutting. Possibly the rejected footage filled out and rounded the characters, so that they had some semblance of reality. But this material has presumably been jettisoned in favor of three big action sequences, namely the fight with the lumberjacks, the round-up of German prisoners, and the final climactic battle. These are extremely well staged although many viewers will find the battle scenes too realistically gory. Earlier on, however, there is an amusing sequence when the hand-to-hand combat instructor arrives at camp. Nevertheless, by and large, the screenplay loses most of its opportunities for dramatic suspense. Why not allow at least one of the trainees to escape from the camp? Loose direction doesn't help either and some of the special effects are faulty. Within the limitations of the screenplay, the performances are good, particularly Holden and Akins. Patric Knowles, superbly made up, is fleetingly glimpsed as Lord Mountbatten. Michael Rennie, Dana Andrews and James Craig are understandably perfunctory in two-second bits. Harry Carey Jr, who seems to turn up in many McLaglen films, has nothing to do but march around in the background of two or three shots. In fact the main trouble is that just none of the characters are developed. In common with most of the other credits, Clothier's color and 'Scope photography is competent but undistinguished.

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.

Liked this movie for the most part. Not overly hammy, and some good action sequences. Had an authentic feel to it. One quibble, was the laughable scaling of La Difensa during the final assault. You have 500+ men scaling a near vertical wall of 1000+ feet, barehanded, with nothing but muscle and rope ( having of course not had any mountain training by the CO's admission ), no safety devices, and ostensibly not a single fall. Simply amazing. Other than that, no complaints. OK, I have to work hard to fill the 10 line minimum for IMDb. So let's see, loved the scenery at the boot camp. Couldn't help but notice that most of the guys in the flick are dead now, but they were plenty lively in the film.