Post by petrolino on Mar 21, 2020 1:02:04 GMT
A maverick Major takes twelve scruffy military convicts, some with minds focused by imminent hanging, on a suicide mission just before D-Day. Only one of the prisoners survives.
As an action fantasy the plot is ludicrous but very satisfying. Much comedy and a great concentration of talent. Lee Marvin had a cool, cynical intensity I don't think anyone else could do. John Wayne turned down the role.
I think the plot owes a debt to Roger Corman's 'Five Guns West' (1955), scripted by regular collaborator R. Wright Campbell, later retooled as 'The Secret Invasion' (1964).