The Devil's Brigade

 

 

Dr Goat reminded me today about William Holden and I had to go rewatch my favorite of his movies - The Devil's Brigade. It's the mostly true story of a the first Canadian/American team-up during WWII. The Canadians were the best of the best and many were battle trained and hardened. The Americans were the dregs, whomever volunteered for the unit to avoid jail time of somekind. Prim and proper meets scruffy leads to some great bonding scenes.

It's also a terrific movie about the comradry of men and the hardships they go through to fight and die for their country. But that is really a false analysis. They fight and die for the guy next to them. This movie gets that in a big way and there are meaty parts for some great character actors like Claud Akins the future Sheriff Lobo) and Cliff Robertson. His speech about Dunkirk always breaks my heart.





William Holden, Dana Andrews, Harry Carey Jr., Richard Jaeckel, Carroll O'Connor, Claude Akins, Karl-Otto Alberty, Norman Alden, Luke Askew, Paul Busch and many others round out a stellar cast. This is a great old school war movie. One of my Dad's very favorites. Worth you time if you want something fresh from the old days. Listen to me. I lived long enough to be an old man and have a list in my head of great old movies. If you even KNOW who William Holden is then you are my people.