Von Kroner, the son of a Nazi General who speaks fluent American English, is first used as a spy inside a WWII German POW camp, and later as part of an infiltration battalion of German troops (who were disguised as Allied ones) during the 'Battle of the Bulge' in the winter of 1944. Although a loyal German soldier, he finds his conscience increasingly at odds with the methods and attitudes of his German comrades.
This film was crisply shot in the Netherlands in B&W and uses archive footage to supplement the action. It isn't a big budget film, yet manages to come across pretty well; the production values are pretty good (considering) and the plot is fairly coherent. It is unusual to find a production of this sort that follows the action from the perspective of someone on the German side.
The events portrayed are loosely based on actual events. Otto Skorzeny did indeed lead a battalion of disguised German troops during the 'Battle of the Bulge' as part of what was called 'Operation Grief' (NB this should be spelt G-R-E-I-F in this case but the ruddy stupid spellchecker won't let me....Grrr). These troops created havoc out of all proportion to their actual numbers behind Allied lines; the damage they did directly was bad enough but even American Generals were occasionally held up as a result of the increased security checks that were imposed once the presence of these infiltrators was known.
Similarly, that some allied prisoners were shot out of hand by German forces during this battle is also something that is based on historic fact.
The film does have some obvious flaws however; the weather is basically too good; it doesn't ever look like winter 1944, and there is talk of foggy conditions (which prevented the Allied air superiority from having an effect for some time during this battle) but not much actual fog on view. The handset radios they use are (I think) Model AN/PRC-6 which would have been correct in the Korean War but not WWII. No soldier in their right mind would have bright white marks on their helmets in a war zone, either.
Several of the 'Germans' are played by Dutchmen; their English-speaking accents (they are meant to be speaking English in the film BTW) are clearly not typical German accents, which I found a bit distracting; I kept wondering if the Dutchmen were going to be revealed as spies any minute.... I guess if you have not heard so many Dutchmen speaking English in their characteristic way, it wouldn't worry you as much as it did me. Similarly although I am no great linguist, I doubt that many native German speakers would find Von Kroner's(Van Johnson's) German accent terribly convincing either, but at least he has a go.
Some folk may find the ending of the film somewhat unbelievable; a plot twist too far perhaps. Maybe; I thought it made more sense than many of the other possible endings, especially bearing in mind Von Kroner's battle with his own conscience and his reaction to Sgt. Ludwig's comments about his motivations and his relatives.
Anyway, overall this is a better than average budget war movie of this vintage. Some folk would say 'skip it' but I would say it is worth watching.
This film was crisply shot in the Netherlands in B&W and uses archive footage to supplement the action. It isn't a big budget film, yet manages to come across pretty well; the production values are pretty good (considering) and the plot is fairly coherent. It is unusual to find a production of this sort that follows the action from the perspective of someone on the German side.
The events portrayed are loosely based on actual events. Otto Skorzeny did indeed lead a battalion of disguised German troops during the 'Battle of the Bulge' as part of what was called 'Operation Grief' (NB this should be spelt G-R-E-I-F in this case but the ruddy stupid spellchecker won't let me....Grrr). These troops created havoc out of all proportion to their actual numbers behind Allied lines; the damage they did directly was bad enough but even American Generals were occasionally held up as a result of the increased security checks that were imposed once the presence of these infiltrators was known.
Similarly, that some allied prisoners were shot out of hand by German forces during this battle is also something that is based on historic fact.
The film does have some obvious flaws however; the weather is basically too good; it doesn't ever look like winter 1944, and there is talk of foggy conditions (which prevented the Allied air superiority from having an effect for some time during this battle) but not much actual fog on view. The handset radios they use are (I think) Model AN/PRC-6 which would have been correct in the Korean War but not WWII. No soldier in their right mind would have bright white marks on their helmets in a war zone, either.
Several of the 'Germans' are played by Dutchmen; their English-speaking accents (they are meant to be speaking English in the film BTW) are clearly not typical German accents, which I found a bit distracting; I kept wondering if the Dutchmen were going to be revealed as spies any minute.... I guess if you have not heard so many Dutchmen speaking English in their characteristic way, it wouldn't worry you as much as it did me. Similarly although I am no great linguist, I doubt that many native German speakers would find Von Kroner's(Van Johnson's) German accent terribly convincing either, but at least he has a go.
Some folk may find the ending of the film somewhat unbelievable; a plot twist too far perhaps. Maybe; I thought it made more sense than many of the other possible endings, especially bearing in mind Von Kroner's battle with his own conscience and his reaction to Sgt. Ludwig's comments about his motivations and his relatives.
Anyway, overall this is a better than average budget war movie of this vintage. Some folk would say 'skip it' but I would say it is worth watching.