Does Anyone Here Besides Me Like The

Reason I ask is because I just picked up the DvD yesterday at Best Buy.

This movie stars these greats:

Henry Fonda (Lt.Col. Kiley), Robert Shaw (Oberst Martin Hessler), Robert Ryan (General Grey), Dana Andrews (Colonel Pritchard and Kiley's Commanding Officer), Karl-Otto Alberty (Major Dieple), Hans-Christian Blech ( Conrad the Old German Sergeant and Hessler's aide), Ty Hardin ( Leutnant Shoemacher German English-speaking Commando Officer), Telly Savalas (Sgt. Guffy), George Montgomery (Sgt. Duquesne), James MacArthur (Lieutenant Weaver Duquesne's Commander), Charles Bronson (Major Walenski), Werner Peters (Generalleutnant Kohler German Commanding General [ Taking the simulated role of the actual German Commander of the 47th Panzer Korps General Heinrich von Luttwitz]

A movie just cannot get much better than this IMO because their senior technical advisor was General Meinrad von Lauchert who at that time, commanded the German 2nd Panzer Division which was a part of the 47th Panzer Korps) and plus the vast majority of the detail was absolutely correct cept for the "German" ""Tiger"" tanks used.

Anyway, my point is that if you like this movie, you will NOT regret buying the DvD because they added many extra scenes in the movie that had previously been butchered out of it over the years when played on TV (most recently played on AMC and still somewhat butchered.)

Hi Cole, Viper, thank you for your thoughts.

Cole, your correct, "Kraut Killer" was shoved off the bridge by a German "Tiger" (which is really an American tank circa shortly after the Korean War and these "Tigers" were borrowed from the Spanich Army) The cannons on those "Tigers" are not 88s (which would by what real Tigers had) but were 105's I think? "Kraut Killer" was shoved off after losing their short-lived battle with the "Tigers."

K.K's radio operator: "What? are you sure? Watch out! the M.P's are Krauts!"

Anyway, that aside, this is a great movie and the all-star cast is unbeatable. BTW, I read somewhere on the IMDB site many months ago that the rold that Henry Fonda had was originally offered to John Wayne who turned it down because of committments elsewhere. I can't prove this but it was something I had read at IMDB awhile ago.

Cole, I remember the name to another of the "Sherman" tanks (which were Chaffee tanks I believe??) the name was "Ape Face" which I laughed at and still get a good laugh from it. I also thought the names of the American Tank Battalions were cool ones: Butcher Btn, Baker Btn and Phantom Btn.

I'm a huge fan of all the actors in that movie including some of the German actors like: Hans-Christian Blech (The grizzeled old German Sergeant and Karl-Otto Alberty (Major Dieple), both of whom you see protraying German soldiers in many war movies.

Hi Cole, thank you for the kind words and you brought back a good memory for me in mentioning the toy soldiers ssts you had. I always wanted the Battleground set which I think was sold only at Sears but I never got it. However, my nextdoor neighbor had that set and we used to set it up on his dad's pool table. Needless to say, that was one cool set of toy soldiers. The Germans were in Grey platic and the Americans were in OD Green plastic. If I recall, I think this set came with a mountain.

A few years ago, I saw a few of the soldiers from that set for sale in an antique store, the price was $5.00 each! Needless to say, I did not buiy therm but got lucky the next dat at a garage sale. I was just driving down a street passing time and noticed a small garage sale going on but about to close. I stopped just on a whim and just before leaving, I saw a small pile of toy soldiers sitting in a bowl on the table for sale at 5 cents each. I bought them all (only had about 10) and I noticed a few of the German soldiers were molded in white plastic which I had not seen before. I still have these put away somewhere. Guess i'll have to look for them and dig them out and display them on a shelf or something.

Hi Cole, Harold, Viper.

Cole, I think I have one German Soldier from the later set you have (the white ones) this one is a "dead" soldier which has an MG 34 and MG belt links around his torso and shoulders.

I'd love to find a complete set of these sets but they probably go for a few hundred $$$$.

Harold, yep, Battleground is an excellent movie. It was released in 1949 and stars Van Johnson as Holly, James Whitmore Sr. as Sgt Kennie, Richard Jaeckel as Pvt Bettis, George Murphy as "Pop" Stazack, Ricardo Montalban as Pvt. Roderigues and Don Taylor.

Viper, great minds think and love alike. ;-)) That is an excellent movie.

Hi IHW, Blondie was destroyed in the German's opening attack. This was before Sgt. Guffy's tank "Bargain Basement" was rammed by a German "Tiger" and pushed down a small embankment.

Yeah, I like Force 10... too and like it more because Richard Kiel, who is more known as "Jaws" in some of the Roger Moore James Bond movies, plays the very tall Chetnik in that movie. Also, I like the earlier appearance of Carl Weathers too.

I had no idea that Richard Kiel was in Happy Gilmore? All the more reason to see it. Carl Weathers was good in Tour of Duty. I also liked the fact that Lee Majors was in that show as well.

I also remember seeing Richard Kiel in a funny movie called: Strange Brew. I most remember him in the original: The Longest Yard as the football player who got his nose broken in training. I always did like him and wish he acted in more movies.