The Glory Brigade

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

This packs a lot of punch for its tight construction.

We go straight to war in the opening shot: the platoon retreats over the makeshift bridge, the camera pulls back on the corps' sign; it jiggles with the concussions from the explosions in the river, then pans over to the embankment -- a complicated shot that says a great deal, but does it economically. The movie ends economically, too, with the battle won, and the two commanders smiling at the results, cuing our response.

I suspect this movie was a template for several modern war features, yet strangely this has gone somewhat overlooked; perhaps, simply because Korea is not an over-filmed war, and we think of it mostly on "MASH"'s terms.

A guerrilla attack on a tank uses an explosive charge under a tank tread -- later used in "The Terminator". A depot is attacked by using distractions, then an infantry charge; the actors' positioning, movements and the camera angles -- the very visual vocabulary of that scene -- are elements that would later appear in "Predator".

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 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.

Aside from this being a war film about the Korean War (there are surprisingly few of these), there isn't a lot to distinguish this movie. It's basically a time-passer and not much more.

The story is about a cooperative effort between some American and Greek troops during the war. Yes, while the US was heavily involved, quite a few other nations sent troops to fight under the authority of the United Nations. At first, the American lieutenant (VIctor Mature) and his men have their doubts about the Greeks but (not surprisingly) by the end of the film they have developed a respect for their allies.

If all this sounds a bit familiar, of course it is. Quite a few other films have focused on American soldiers being forced to work with allied forces (such as in "The Devil's Brigade"). And, there really are few surprises or unusual twists to make this anything other than a time-passer.