Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission

Surprisingly good and fairly entertaining thriller as Telly Savalas (who had appeared in the original as one of the twelve convicts not to mention one of the most menacing members of the group) takes over as Wright, the new officer chosen by General Worden (Ernest Borgnine) to recruit and train twelve convicts (Randall "Tex" Cobb, Gary Graham, and Bo Svenson among the bunch that are selected for the operation) to attack and destroy several containers of nerve gas hidden in a French monestary and bail out the six scientists who are developing the gas under the close watch of the German SS.

I'll admit that I did like the "Deadly Mission" a lot better than its' predecessor and there's a few reasons (the performances are respectable, the plot twists some of which are slick, and the characters are actually interesting) to back it up. This movie is worth a look.

With the death of Lee Marvin, Telly sabalas who played the psychotic Magid in the original film takes command of another elite fighting dozen from the military stockades.

The mission is to rescue some French scientists who are working on a poison gas project in occupied France which I assume is the southwest portion of the country which was occupied until V-E Day. Savalas gets a bit more on his plate hen wives and kids are added to his mission.

This all takes place in a monastery taken over by the Nazis which made the mission look a whole lot like the one in the original film involving a French chateau as the scene of the action.

And things come full circle for Savalas having been a psychotic in the first film, he gets a psychotic in Bo Svenson in this film to deal with.

None of the men really standout as characters like the first film. But I kind of liked Paul Picerni as a free and easy black marketeer in the stockade for such activities.

None of the pizazz of the original, but a good action flick.

I highly recommend picking up the two Dirty Dozen double feature DVD sets. The first one includes the classic 1967 film The Dirty Dozen with it's 1985 made for television sequel Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission. There's also a documentary on the making of the original Dirty Dozen and a historical documentary on the real life Filthy Thirteen. The other double feature DVD contains the 1987 made for television sequel Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission and it's 1988 made for television sequel Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission. Fatal and Deadly make an affordable DVD package that is infinitely re-watchable and highly entertaining if you don't take 'em too seriously. There's plenty of humor and action in this double feature. It's a great way to spend a few hours kicking back with a quality beverage. Give the Deadly Mission / Fatal Mission double feature DVD a spin.

Wow after "The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985)" they managed to scrape out another two more late 80s straight-to-TV sequels. I didn't even know there was a fourth, yet alone a third. No more Lee Marvin, instead we have Telly Savalas barking the orders. Actually amongst that tough impression is a reflectively moralistic manner that shows he's not your typical by the book soldier. He pushes his men, but for that he grows attached to them. Again it follows the chewy formula of its influencer's; during WW2 a group of misfit stock criminals facing the death penalty are hand picked and trained up in England by Savalas' character to go on a virtual suicide mission behind enemy lines in France to destroy nerve gas containers hidden in a Monastery. Some familiar faces (some slumming it) do pop up in this group; Bo Svenson (who gets a memorable introduction), Vince Edwards, Randall 'Tex' Cobb, Vincent Van Patten, James Van Patten and Thom Mathews (who'll horror fans might recognize). Also featuring is Ernest Borgnine and Wolf Kahler as a German Colonel. It's a sturdily brazen little action joint, as the drama thickens and it builds up to a thrilling climax battle where the act of bravery and redemption shines through. There are enough bangs, secret phrases, cheerful marching music, character conflicts and tension to be entertained within its quick moving time frame.

The second made-for-TV sequel to the classic Robert Aldrich WWII action film is minus Lee Marvin and brings back Telly Savalas to lead the dozen. Savalas, however, is not playing Archer Maggott from the first film, who was killed in the first film, but is a new Major who leads a new crew of condemned soldiers on a new suicide mission. This sequel is wholly unoriginal and is a low-rent clone of the original. "Train them! Excite them! Arm them!... Then turn them loose on the Nazis!" It's a solid formula, though, and what makes this TV movie work is the cast, which, besides Savalas, includes Hollywood veterans Ernest Borgnine (reprising his role from the original) and Vince Edwards, along with a fresh-faced Bo Svenson, Thom Mathews, Gary Graham, and best of all Randall "Tex" Cobb. For my money, Cobb steals every scene he's in playing a dimwitted hulk of a character named Swede. Also kind of fun is Wolf Kahler playing the main Nazi, which capitalized off of him playing the main Nazi in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. But generally speaking, this is merely a serviceable men-on-a-mission action flick where, despite bland action reminiscent of a typical A-TEAM episode, a solid cast makes the film worth watching for fans of this sort of flick.