Les roues de la terreur

For almost two years I successfully resisted renting this movie. That resistance was certainly aided by the cheap looking case of the video, and the fact that director Gordon Hessler is known (if at all) in the US only for a trio of cheap, British, AIP horror flicks, "Scream and Scream Again" being marginally the most watchable of the lot. But the desire to see what Hessler and his mostly American TV actor cast would do with such material, and the need for relief from a recent diet of "serious" indie film viewing, pushed me over the edge to spend the whole one dollar rental fee. Obviously "the Misfit Brigade" is no masterpiece, but it was far better than I expected, and, as others have pointed out, occasionally rises to the level of pretty damn good. I loved, for instance, the sequence in which the misfits watch a Soviet propaganda film projected on a large screen across the front line. I don't know if this ever happened, and if it did, I doubt he films would have had the big studio production values of the one presented. The bordello sequence was also funny, and reminded me of the humor in some of the better Italian westerns. There was also the occasional visually striking shot. I particularly liked the long tracking shot that begins on a Russian peasant coming to a road, then follows a Russian military vehicle through the gates of a compound, then swoops up on a crane to the roof, where a German soldier is observing the vehicle. Then, in subtitled Russian, someone yells, "There's a Kraut on the roof," and we cut to a shot of the rest of the misfits (some distance away) as we here automatic weapons' fire on the soundtrack. This is damn good sequence. I've read in his mini biography here on Imdb, that Hessler worked for Hitchcock's TV unit at Universal before directing features. This long tracking shot is certainly similar to one of Hitch's, and even shares a bit of the master's dark humor. But, OK, this film is not art. It is somewhat choppy (at least in the U.S. video version), and the low budget shows in some of the action sequences. Still, it's a fun little movie if one can accept its limitations. Even David Carradine seems to be enjoying his minor role as an uptight German officer. Oliver Reed is not on screen very long as a pompous German general who arrives at the end of the film to decorate the misfit heros. I cannot agree that his attitude during the air raid which follows detracts from the film's "realism." This is all slapstick anyway, which accounts for the film's final cut, before some graphic violence would have betrayed it's lighthearted mood.

This film is far from perfect, though I'm overall quite glad I saw it. It's basically THE DIRTY DOZEN if the protagonists were all Germans serving on the Eastern Front. Sound interested? Well I was hooked right away.

The main strength to the film is the characterization. The three central characters are fleshed out pretty well and the interplay between them rings quite true. There's plenty of action sequences involving tanks, planes, and a fair amount of explosions but overall they're quite hindered by the low budget.

Problems here include a lot of confusing moments, character decisions, and anachronisms. For one, we're introduced to the heroes at the beginning of the film driving a soviet post-ww2 T-62 tank! Later they're seen manning two SU-122 tank destroyers, which were also soviet, but the film wants us to believe are STUG-III's which look nothing alike. Also, the heroes (a penal battalion) often speak irreverently of Nazis and SS, but the costuming department outfitted them with Totenkopf SS emblems on their uniforms.

However I must give credit to proper firearms. The uniforms overall look quite good though I wonder what a Russian 1939 early war hat would be doing on the front line in 1943/44. The Russian T-34/85's are quite authentic though with a lot of additions they wouldn't have had on in WW2. Overall the tank-fighting scenes are quite poorly done, though somewhat realistic in showing that tanking is a very cooperation-based profession.

Overall, this is a movie that will only appeal to WW2 buffs. It's a pseudo-comedy but it isn't really that funny, per-say. It's an action movie too, but isn't particularly bloody or violent either.

An ill-advised adaptation of one of Sven Hassle's WW2 Eastern Front novels, WHEELS OF TERROR is a film that it's quite difficult to enjoy. Hassle's books were always grimly realistic and downbeat, and despite attempts to emulate that style, WHEELS OF TERROR feels cheesy and quite sentimental by comparison. What's obvious here is that the budget was quite low, meaning that the various action scenes are only averagely handled, and at times look more like they belong in a '60s Italian war film than a 1980s movie. I do like the work of director Gordon Hessler (THE OBLONG BOX, SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, etc.) but this is one of his lesser efforts.

The cast is a mixed bag of familiar faces. Some stand out, others are bland. Bruce Davison headlines things but was quite wooden, I thought, although the ever-snide David Patrick Kelly (COMMANDO) is better as the volatile one. The all-American David Carradine is an odd choice to play the German officer, but it works quite well, and it's hard not to enjoy Oliver Reed's cameo as the pompous general. Overall, though, I found WHEELS OF TERROR to be quite a shoddy film, and not really something I can recommend, which is a surprise given that screenwriter Nelson Gidding previously wrote the scripts for classics like THE HAUNTING and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN.

You need real talent to make a movie of Sven Hassel's comrades during WWII. The talent was not there. It would also be high budget with an incredible screenplay. As to Oyster's comments (or whatever your name is)you are badly misinformed. Because of incosistencies in his books? Oh, boo hoo! Look for some in The Holy Bible - ever heard of it? Go on Yahoo and search for Sven Hassel: whooomp! - There it is! A picture of him in a German Army uniform. Standard archives shot. A lot of right-wingers in Europe have tried to discredit Hassel with "documented" proof of his "lies." He didn't lie: Hitler's War Against Civilization was horrifying-- especially to the guys who had to fight it. I have always wondered if the guys were real. Hassel has said that they were real and that most died in the war. Tiny and the Legionairre, now very old, are living on retirement pay from the French Foreign Legion. What I wouldn't give to meet them!

...my main reason for adding this review is speculating on why so many of the more positive reviews mis-spell Sven Hassel's name in the same way ('Sven Hassle').

Seems legit...

EDIT:

Aaaaanyway, so this turned up on UK TV and I watched it again after a long interval.

Back story: I was an almost fanatical fan of the books in my teens. I tracked this film down on rental in about 1989 when I was about 16, rigged two VHS players up and made a copy.

Boy was I disappointed. The book it wasn't.

Watching it again after ~33-34 years, it's nowhere near as bad as I remembered. Sure, it's no Saving Private Ryan, but it does make a decent effort with an obviously microscopic budget, the tank scene is... spirited I suppose. David Carradine and Oliver Reed chew the scenery in a satisfactory way.

And despite what the other reviews say, it actually makes a fairly good stab at capturing the atmosphere and spirit of the book. Square-jawed German heroes these are not.

Finally, I note now that the actor that plays Sven was also the young blond Russian soldier in Cross of Iron, a thematically similar - albeit far superior - film.

A slightly surprised 6/10.