Ahí vienen los tanques

It's 40 days after the Normandy landing. An American tank squad is rolling in France and heading for Germany. Sgt Sullivan takes over the squad after a devastating lost and the men do not care for their hard-driving leader. Ike is concerned about their tanks' inferior armor but a general assures him that the new tanks are coming.

Tanks. Tanks. Everywhere. Tanks. Tanks. There's lots of tanks. It's nice to see the old tanks and a lot of the equipment. I don't recognize the faces who seem to be a lot of nameless character actors. The action is good although they are often filmed statically along with incorporating some real war footage. This is pretty good for a B-movie.

The best thing that The Tanks Are Coming is good use of actual combat footage well integrated into the film. A whole lot like the Sands Of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Theater. Unfortunately said footage is tied to a rather pedestrian story.

As a lad I remember reading those Sergeant Rock comic books and watching Steve Cochran and the rest of the cast I got the feeling that I was looking at one of those comic books come to life. It shocks me though that Samuel Fuller wrote the original story. That man certainly went on to do bigger and better things in the war film genre.

Not the best work for any of the cast and crew.

This movie begins 40 days after the D-Day landing in Normandy with an element of the American 3rd Armored Division known as C Company preparing to engage German units near the vaunted Siegfried Line. Unfortunately, as the company advances one of the platoon sergeants named "SSG Joe Davis" (Michael Stelle) is seriously wounded and as a result another NCO by the name of "SSG F.A. Sullivan" (Steve Cochran) is selected to be his replacement. However, SSG Sullivan turns out to be nothing like his predecessor as he soon gains a reputation of being overly-ambitious, arrogant and reckless. And needless to say his penchant for taking dangerous risks doesn't sit well with the tank crews under him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a decent World War 2 film that featured some good, realistic combat action scenes. One particular example was the manner in which the Sherman tanks had to maneuver to take out the Panther tanks from the side as they were no match one-on-one. Likewise, the scenario of having soldiers escape from their burning tanks and subsequently acquiring another Sherman tank as a replacement was also quite accurate as well. On the flip side, however, I didn't particularly care for some of the scenarios involving the personal dynamics of the individual characters. The scene involving "PFC George 'Ike' Eisenhower" (James Dobson) and the division commander was especially hokey. Be that as it may, I thought that this was an adequate film all things considered and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

What a great cast this is. Steve Cochran is perfect in the role of the hard uncompromising. His character is near to a villain what he often played. But "Sully" turns out as a real hero in an "Audie-Murphy-style". Also very interesting is Philip Carey as Lieutenant. He only was 25 at this time but he radiates wisdom and superior style. All the supporting players are also good although I only knew John McIntire before. The characters are well developed and Lewis Seiler also directed the action sequences very thrilling.

All in all it is an entertaining movie which certainly only shows one side of the medal.

While this movie was a fairly non-objectionable way to kill 90 minutes since nothing else was really on, I have to say that most of the acting was pure HAM! I was even laughing out-loud as Marconi was gasping and wheezing (for dramatic effect, I suppose) during the radioing-in of the coordinate information for the artillery barrage. Then there was Sullivan's on then off again hayseed accent and mispronunciation of words. There's the fact that MAJORITY of the equipment (tanks and assorted vehicles) that are period incorrect. The blatant insubordination of just about everybody to their superiors. The miraculous overnight (literally) transformation of Sgt. Sullivan from reckless and abusive horse's arse to everyone's buddy and "stand-up" tank commander. Let's not forget the clips of actual scratched and grainy WWII battle footage that was spliced (without ANY attempt of matching whatsoever) together with the newly filmed footage. The terrain of Fort Knox and surrounding areas of Kentucky used as various locations in Germany again without any serious attempt of blending/matching to real European terrain. There was even a bright and sparkly 1950's style concrete and steel overpass in one shot. And the list just goes on. Now.... like I said, It wasn't a hideous movie. At least there were cool tank battles to watch but the acting! Eeeegads!!! Overall I'd say this reminded me of a cheesy 1950's B-grade sci-fi movie (fun but unbelievable) except the subject was American WWII tankers. Anyway...... that's just one guy's opinion, of course! :^)