1944: Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) is in trouble again. Whilst out on a mission, he ordered his men to hijack a truck full of steaks and scotch that was on its way to a banquet for top Nazi officers. Facing years of hard labour in a military prison and dismissal from service, Reisman is reprieved by General Worden (Ernest Borgnine) to form another Dirty Dozen (made up of military prisoners on death row or facing long term imprisonment) to undertake another suicide mission. This time they must sneak into occupied France and hijack a train in order to assassinate a Nazi general because he is planning to kill Hitler.
Nearly twenty years after the release of Robert Aldrich's classic war movie, THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), came this preposterous made for TV sequel in which the plot bares no credibility what so ever. There's a ridiculous climatic sequence where Reisman and his men come within yards of Hitler himself and the Major has to persuade his man to shoot the general and not Hitler as he's tempted to do just that. In reality of course, they wouldn't have got within fifty yards of him and there is no suspense to be had here as we know that they wouldn't have shot Hitler anyway as this would have made the tale even more absurd than it already is. On the positive side, Lee Marvin is still fun to watch as the tough Major Reisman and he is reunited with Richard Jaeckal as Sgt Bowren and Ernest Borgnine as General Wordon who still offer good performances and there's some slick action sequences to enjoy before the absurd climatic showdown.
Nevertheless, it was still unwise to have made this film but two sequels followed. They were: THE DIRTY DOZEN: THE DEADLY MISSION (1987) and THE DIRTY DOZEN: THE FATAL MISSION (1988), which brought back Telly Savalas whose character was killed off in the original, but this time he was back as the man training the men as one Major Wright.
Nearly twenty years after the release of Robert Aldrich's classic war movie, THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), came this preposterous made for TV sequel in which the plot bares no credibility what so ever. There's a ridiculous climatic sequence where Reisman and his men come within yards of Hitler himself and the Major has to persuade his man to shoot the general and not Hitler as he's tempted to do just that. In reality of course, they wouldn't have got within fifty yards of him and there is no suspense to be had here as we know that they wouldn't have shot Hitler anyway as this would have made the tale even more absurd than it already is. On the positive side, Lee Marvin is still fun to watch as the tough Major Reisman and he is reunited with Richard Jaeckal as Sgt Bowren and Ernest Borgnine as General Wordon who still offer good performances and there's some slick action sequences to enjoy before the absurd climatic showdown.
Nevertheless, it was still unwise to have made this film but two sequels followed. They were: THE DIRTY DOZEN: THE DEADLY MISSION (1987) and THE DIRTY DOZEN: THE FATAL MISSION (1988), which brought back Telly Savalas whose character was killed off in the original, but this time he was back as the man training the men as one Major Wright.