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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.

Hollywood has produced hundreds, perhaps thousands, of films about the US Infantry in World War II and other conflicts. Partially this may be cultural, with the lowly dogface rifleman as the everyman hero. Partially it might be logistics, since it is fairly easy to dress and rehearse an infantry squad, even on a sound-stage. (Although this limitation did not seem to prevent large numbers of aviation and naval films using planes and ships.) Off the top of my head, only Battle of the Bulge, Sahara, and Fury have focused at all on tanks and their crews. In all other movies they appear just as nameless support for the infantry.

The drama focuses on Staff Sgt. Sullivan, who replaces a popular platoon sergeant and his conflict with the crew. Sullivan is a hard-driving glory seeker, which causes conflict with subordinates and superiors. There are also several side-plots, the most notable involving a German-born crewman with a special purpose in returning home.

But the real point and beauty of the film is the armored combat. With clear (and somewhat anachronistic) support from the US Army, there is finally a film showing widescale tank maneuvers, using a mixture of combat footage and contemporary scenes courtesy of the Army. This is a desperately needed niche in WWII films.

A few quibbles. I don't complain about the anachronistic supporting vehicles, since very few 1944 standard ones would be available in 1951. But there are a few things that don't quite work. Although Sullivan is almost suicidally brave, some of the maneuvers are too aggressive and would likely get him relieved, and demoted, even when he succeeds. I can't imagine any tank commander deliberately getting hung up on dragon's teeth. Also, Sullivan is assigned as the platoon sergeant, but we never see him doing any leadership beyond his own crew. Finally, there is a short interlude between Sullivan and a female war correspondent that seems to indicate some history is there, but this is never followed up. It is unusual to have a female character in a combat movie that does not develop into someone's romantic interest.

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.

Interesting films for war movie enthusiasts, where it's possible to witness a substantial deployment of Sherman tanks and the famous first US 90 mm-gunned tank (M26 Pershing), although erroneously utilized since it did not become operational until February 1945, rather than in the fall of 1944 when the film is set.

Aside from the display of these military assets, which were still abundant at the time of filming, only a few years after the conclusion of WW2 and with a continued strong American military presence in liberated territories, the movie doesn't offer much more. The narrative is quite lacking, and the characters are only superficially sketched.

The use of real footage, well integrated with the fictional sequences filmed for the occasion, is interesting. The cinematography stands out solely due to its subject matter, and on very few occasions does it contribute more to the storytelling. The film earns a passing grade, but nothing more, as it is replete with the typical resources of American war-themed cinema, which doesn't make an effort to disguise its underlying purpose, which is war propaganda. However, we are accustomed to this, as this particular cinematic vein always has to contend with this aspect.