The Glory Brigade

Glory Brigade was filmed in my hometown of Tuscumbia, Missouri as well as nearby Fort Leonard Wood near Waynesville. Originally, it was to be named "Baptism by Fire" but the name was changed before release for reasons I never knew. I was about ten years old at the time and remember how exciting the event was for everyone in our small community of about 200 people situated on the banks of the Osage River in the picturesque Missouri Ozark hills. Victor Mature was loved by everyone because he was so friendly with the local natives, some of whom had camaras and who were delighted he would patiently pose and smile with his arm draped around one or another of us for one after another picture taking session between takes. The Ozarks were chosen as the film site we were told because the terrain resembled that of much of Korea. My uncle loaned Twentieth Century a John boat(local style of boat which was flat bottomed and narrow, designed for the clear, fast, sometimes shallow, spring fed Ozark streams)for use in construction of a pontoon bridge across the river, which was used in an important exciting scene in the movie. Unfortunately, one day while setting up some explosives for the scene in which the bridge was bombed, the dynamite accidently was discharged killing one man and causing another to lose his leg. No ambulances were around in those days and the nearest hospital was in Jefferson City, thirty miles away, so the men had little chance for emergency care. All of us were greatly saddened by the event as we had become friends with all the crew. I have seen Glory Brigade several times on late night t.v., even recently, and an amazed at how I can be drawn into the story of events supposedly taking place in Korea even though the scenes in the background are familiar to me, easily recognized as the hills around my home

This film takes place during the Korean War with an American engineer unit having to destroy a bridge across a river before the North Koreans can capture it intact. Yet, despite the fact that they are successful in destroying it, the United Nations leadership is curious as to the size and strength of the enemy on the other side of the river and decide to send in a Greek infantry company to gather some necessary intelligence. To cross the river, however, they will require the assistance of an engineer unit and because of his Greek heritage "Lieutenant Sam Pryor" (Victor Mature) volunteers his platoon. Since it isn't supposed to be a particularly hazardous assignment his men don't seem to mind too much. But things become much more complicated when they find themselves trapped on the other side of the river with the enemy closing in and distrust developing between the two allies. Now rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was one of those films mentioned over the loudspeaker in the movie "MASH" and-even though I wasn't expecting much-I decided to check it out for the sake of curiosity. To my surprise, it turned out to be an okay film. Having said that, however, I should also mention that this movie is clearly a bit dated and it follows the typical plot prevalent during this particular period of time. But I figure it was more than sufficient for the time spent and because of that I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

This film is a decent war melodrama as well as a vehicle for star Victor Mature. It tells a somewhat engaging tale of an American platoon cooperating with a Greek platoon during the Korean war. The filmmakers use the distrust these platoons have for one another as a comment on racism and, ultimately, a slightly heavyhanded lesson on looking past differences to work together against a greater enemy. But the film has some rousing battle scenes, few and far between as they may be, and it's heart is certainly in the right place. The acting is mostly good, especially from the intensely watchable Lee Marvin, who is the primary reason I saw this film. He is my favorite actor and I jumped at the opportunity to see this little seen movie which is not available on home video at present time. He plays the demolitionist in Mature's platoon, just one of several random soldiers, really. Lee's role is small, but he does the most he can with the character and screen time he has. Fans will be interested to note that Marvin's character wears glasses, one of the few times he has ever been seen wearing them in films, or anywhere else for that matter. All in all "The Glory Brigade" isn't much better than fair, but Marvin and Mature fans may want to check it out.

This is a pretty average small-scale war-movie, in which a platoon of American soldiers show themselves to be tougher, braver and cleverer than the Greek soldiers they have to join forces with. It's standard stuff all round, Victor Mature agonises, his colleagues wisecrack and the Greeks redeem themselves by the end.

I waited thirty years to see this film because Lee Marvin was given third billing. But all he does in the film is sit at a radio, wearing glasses, with the occasional bit of insubstantial dialogue. In fact he should have got tenth or eleventh billing, but one assumes that, following his success in "The Big Heat", the publicity boys decided to 'use' his name.

I felt cheated, which probably accounts for my not liking the film a bit more.

Victor Mature plays Lt Sam Pryor an American officer of Greek descent who is given the task of leading a platoon of Greek soldiers during the Korean war

This had the potential to be a fairly good war film dealing with profound subjects like cowardice , ethnicity and identity . Unfortunately somewhere along the line something went wrong but I`m not entirely sure what . I guess all the ingrediants are there for a deeply scathing anti- war film but since THE GLORY BRIGADE has a fairly short running time it`s probably been produced by the studio as a B movie to be put on before the main feature which is a pity since it had a lot of potential , but I guess it deserves some credit for pointing out that the Americans didn`t fight the Korean war single handed