I say this first . One of most entertaining WWII films ever made . Iconic performance's all a round . Great underdog war Flick .
During World War II, a rebellious U. S. Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers.
The Dirty Dozen into one of MGM's biggest moneymakers of the 1960s--It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1967 and MGM's highest-grossing film of the year. Lee Marvin plays Major Reisman, assigned to coordinate a suicide mission on a French chateau held by top Nazi officers. Since no "normal" GI can be expected to volunteer for this mission, Reisman is compelled to draw his personnel from a group of military prisoners serving life sentences. This "dirty dozen" includes a sex pervert (Telly Savalas), a psycho (John Cassavetes), a killer (Donald Sutherland), and the equally malevolent Charles Bronson, Trini Lopez, Jim Brown, and Clint Walker. On the dim promise of receiving pardons if they survive, the criminals undergo a brutal training program, then are marched behind enemy lines dressed as Nazi soldiers, the better to overtake the chateau and kill everyone in it--including the innocent wives and mistresses of the German officers.
The cast here is brilliant and each brings something to the screen that makes this such a great film. As an action film, The Dirty Dozen ranks as a classic of the genre.
The novel was inspired by the supposedly true story of some World War II criminal soldiers who got the nickname the Dirty Dozen (or Filthy Thirteen, depending on the source) for their refusal to bathe and who were said to have been sent off on a similar mission. ... So he and his editor decided to fictionalize the story.
Box office It eventually earned rentals of $24.2 million in the United States and Canada from a gross of $45.3 million. It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1967 and MGM's highest-grossing film of the year. It was also a hit in France, with admissions of 4,672,628.
During World War II, a rebellious U. S. Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers.
The Dirty Dozen into one of MGM's biggest moneymakers of the 1960s--It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1967 and MGM's highest-grossing film of the year. Lee Marvin plays Major Reisman, assigned to coordinate a suicide mission on a French chateau held by top Nazi officers. Since no "normal" GI can be expected to volunteer for this mission, Reisman is compelled to draw his personnel from a group of military prisoners serving life sentences. This "dirty dozen" includes a sex pervert (Telly Savalas), a psycho (John Cassavetes), a killer (Donald Sutherland), and the equally malevolent Charles Bronson, Trini Lopez, Jim Brown, and Clint Walker. On the dim promise of receiving pardons if they survive, the criminals undergo a brutal training program, then are marched behind enemy lines dressed as Nazi soldiers, the better to overtake the chateau and kill everyone in it--including the innocent wives and mistresses of the German officers.
The cast here is brilliant and each brings something to the screen that makes this such a great film. As an action film, The Dirty Dozen ranks as a classic of the genre.
The novel was inspired by the supposedly true story of some World War II criminal soldiers who got the nickname the Dirty Dozen (or Filthy Thirteen, depending on the source) for their refusal to bathe and who were said to have been sent off on a similar mission. ... So he and his editor decided to fictionalize the story.
Box office It eventually earned rentals of $24.2 million in the United States and Canada from a gross of $45.3 million. It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1967 and MGM's highest-grossing film of the year. It was also a hit in France, with admissions of 4,672,628.