Tank Commandos

In the 1950s, American International Pictures specialized in films about juvenile delinquents as well as war stories. The one commonality of these films were very low budgets and most no-name actors, though a few went on to excellent careers. In general, these films are not great by any stretch...but a few manage to be timeless and entertaining despite the studio's reputation for cheapness. Is "Tank Commandos" a decent AIP film? Or, is its current score of 4.3 accurate...indicating it's not especially good?

The story is set in Italy in 1944. An American demolition unit is given the task to find out HOW and WHERE the Germans are bringing in reinforcements. For much of the film, the unit searched in vain and suffered significant losses. However, an Italian boy manages to help...how and what happens next, you'll need to see for yourself.

Despite the no-name cast, the film is well made. Of course, some of the stock footage is too grainy....but other than that it actually was well made and emphasizes the ugliness and losses in war. Well worth seeing and NOT a bad film at all.

You don't see many tanks in this economy-sized AIP war movie (given grandeur as usual by cameraman John Nickolaus), unless you include those worn on the backs of the frogmen who sabotage the bridge used by the stock footage Axis tanks to attempt to cross a river.

Talk being cheaper than action, there's a lot of reflection ("When this war is over I'm gonna have myself one big cry!"), while there's a cute Italian war orphan called Diano who's the subject of a song over the opening and closing credits!!

Wally Campo plays a GI who speaks Italian, and a bit of German is spoken too; but whether it sounds as phoney as English always does when spoken in foreign-language movies I'm not in a position to confirm or deny...

Movies are meant to entertain. Tank Commandos did that for me, but not in the conventional way. In my opinion, it was so bad, it was good! I wondered if this movie was a weekend project for an amateur theatrical group that had some uniforms and weapons and too much time on their hands. One commodity they seemed to be very much short of, in addition to acting talent, however, was in FILM. This was constantly evidenced by seeing how many of their patrol they could get into the same frame of film. The concept of "don't bunch up" must have escaped these brave G.I.'s or maybe they were sick that day in Boot Camp when it was explained. Not only would a grenade or an "88" take out the whole patrol, a single rifle shot could have had at least two or three of them. Oh... and how about a little "security" when out there in the 'Badlands'? The way they lounged around in a bombed out building in the enemy town, you would have thought they were in the South Bronx. Oh... and how about noise discipline??? Three G.I.'s in a bombed out house are talking so loud about how they were going to do in two German soldiers standing outside, it's a wonder these two enemy combatants weren't on their way to Berlin by the time the plan was put into action. It was so magnificantly bad.... it was good!

You'll be hardpressed to stay focussed on this boring programmer. AIP make some decent war movies---Hell Squad, also from 1958 and also starring Wally Campo, is one--but Tank Commandos is simply not very interesting. Some good tank footage and little else.

Forty-five Apple, an Ammo and Demolition unit, is assigned to a Recon mission to determine how the Germans are crossing a deep river to refortify an Italian city with tanks and supplies. These combat-weary 'Demo' experts resent doing recon, taking risks and facing the dangers normally left to "mud sloshers" (Infantry). The film focuses on the experiences and reactions of two men: Pvt. Sonny Lazzotti (the group's interpreter) and Lt. Jim Blaine, their commanding officer. Later, after the secret of the hidden route is revealed, the team goes into action and you get to see demolition techniques and procedures that I believe were never before portrayed in earlier WWII movies.

The film makes up for its lack of Star power with exceptionally realistic dialogue, performances, plot, and hard-hitting direction. "Tank Commandos" has a convincing, matter-of-fact feel to it that somehow reminds me of the Korean War movie, "Pork Chop Hill", and the very best of the TV series, Combat!