L'espionne des Ardennes

Produced by someone who had practically no knowledge of combat realities in WW2. Forgive the tanks--though the jelly-mould appearance of American tanks on both sides does nothing for realism, giving no contrast with the angular shapes of actual German Mark 4's, sturmgeschutze, Tigers and Panthers.They have no Panzerfaust and only one Panzerschreck that I saw.

The Americans have no bazookas, and no anti-tank guns. The ubiquitous German 88mm, the best anti-tank gun of the war does not appear. The Americans oppose heavy German tanks with light machine guns--a recipe for suicide. The historical point is that the balance between tanks and infantry was swinging to the infantry at just this time as hand-held shaped-charge weapons appeared on both sides.

Bad history and an unconvincing story.

The Nazis release a woman into the open and take one shot at her. American soldiers later find her and treat her back to health. Her name is Alexandra Bastegar (Tina Louise). She is actually a spy sent to get information on the Americans for the upcoming Ardennes offensive and the start of the Battle of the Bulge. Colonel Devlin is sure that the obvious German attack should be coming right at him, but few others believe in his suspicions.

This movie never completely takes off. It's great to see a pre-Gilligan Tina Louise. Maybe she should be revealed as a spy much later. That would be a great shock to spice things up. Burt Reynolds is also in this with a disturbing scene. He did play some evil villains early in his career. That shock is not necessarily what I'm looking for in this movie.

Armored Command finds Tina Louise playing a German spy plunked down in the middle of a neglected front during the Battle Of The Bulge counteroffensive with the Germans still trying to pull something out. Tina's even given a shoulder wound courtesy of the Wehrmacht to make her story convincing.

For those of you who are used to seeing Tina Louise as the vapid movie star on Gilligan's Island this will be a revelation. She's quite the cool and ruthless character.

She's left out on the front lines for a passing American patrol to find and one headed by Sergeant Earl Holliman does. She's taken back to their billet and of course everyone starts thinking with their hormones. Especially Holliman and Burt Reynolds who was in his second big screen film in Armored Command.

In the meantime the commander of the area, Colonel Howard Keel is convinced an offensive will come through there, but he's having trouble convincing the higher ups of his notion. It seems to Holliman's squad to get the job of digging up the evidence to prove Keel's theories and they've got a spy in their midst.

Armored Command was shot on location in Germany near Munich and Howard Keel relates in his memoirs he was given the job of directing some of the second unit battle scenes which he enjoyed. He did not enjoy however when one of his extras which were some US Army troops stationed in Germany nearly got killed.

Keel gets on to Louise early, but then she gets on to him getting on to her. They have an interesting battle of wits as neither of them are stupid.

The film was done by Allied Artists and maybe a bigger studio with better production values could have gotten a higher rating for it. As it is it's not a bad war film and those into that genre will probably like it.

Armored Command is set in the Western European theatre of operations shortly after D-Day ,and it opens promisingly with a scene showing a jeep bearing two German officers and a young woman approaching across a snow shrouded landscape.The woman climbs down from the jeep and walks a short distance with the senior officer,who lights a cigarette for her and then shoots her as she stands against the skyline.She is discovered alive by a passing American patrol and cared for by them in a local inn they have commandeered. She is a spy sent by Germany to infiltrate the American army and feed news back to the Abwehr.One plot strand revolves around her attempts to do so and also tackles the impact her presence has on the patrol ,especially when the sergeant becomes infatuated with her and a private (played in slimy and impactful style by a pre- stardom Burt Reynolds giving the best performance in the movie)entertains altogether less exalted designs upon her person.

The other main plot strand deals with the efforts of an American officer to persuade his high command that German forces still constitute a danger in the area. He is proven correct and the climactic battle scene is the best thing in an otherwise flat and bland picture which never matches its striking opening .Poor performances by Howard Keel as the cigar chomping Colonel and Tina Louise as the spy drag proceedings down and the movie never really sustains the interest beyond its neat opening. Stick with "Attack" the brilliant Robert Aldrich movie on the same campaign -that is a work of consummate genius where this is just studio double bill material

This film definitely has a handful of issues that are a tad bothersome but on the whole I enjoyed it.

It's not the kind of film you're going to recommend to friends and family but if you're a fan of the genre or a WWII buff, it's worth watching.

I was annoyed that both sides were using the same tanks but there have been better films and more famous films to commit that sin. I also shook my head that the "German" tanks didn't even have the right cross painted on them but that's not something everyone will notice.

There are a couple of shots that are repeated during the final battle segment, one in particular of a tank leading 3 rows of troops through a space between two buildings, along a narrow road must be shown 3 or 4 times.

It is an oversimplified telling of actual events but there is a payoff at the end. Had this film been even 10 or 15 minutes longer, I would have rated it lower and not recommended it for even die hard fans. But they didn't make that mistake thankfully!