Le commando sacrifié

Original title: The Steel Bayonet

1957
Approved
1h 25m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A small band of British soldiers is sent on a mission to hold up a German advance.A small band of British soldiers is sent on a mission to hold up a German advance.A small band of British soldiers is sent on a mission to hold up a German advance.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

241

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos6

User reviews15

6.2241

Featured reviews

9clanciai

Clearing the road in Africa for the allies to advance into Europe

This is a film of that kind which I consider the very best kind of films, a true story told straight without sentimentality or embellishments, without any glorifying romantic ruffle, of plain men of very human calibre, and no hesitation in telling the uncompromising truth. A small band of British soldiers are selected to halt a German advance in Tunisia, and the chances are that no one will survive. Yet the operation was successful, the German army was detained for three hours giving the allies time to get there for the conquest of Tunis and opening the way to Europe. Leo Genn as Majos Gerard makes one of his many memorable characters of high integrity and manages the mission perfectly, as far as it goes.

9allumjcc

Called Steel Bayonet on TPTV

This really is a very good film. It's got everything a WWII war movie should have. You can almost feel that you are actually in situ when events take place. One not to miss.

6boblipton

Fighting The Good Fight In Hampshire

A company of the British Army is ordered to hold off the entire German army in North Africa while Raymond Francis -- called "The General" int he movie, but presumably intended to be Montgomery -- can get the rest of the British Army off their.... well, moving.

With explosions aplenty, what's most interesting about this Hammer film is how it tries, mostly successfully, to maintain the illusion of it taking place in North Africa, while being shot in the moorlands around Aldershot, where the British Army did a lot of training. There's smoke to obscure what's going on in the background. The camera shoots the players mostly in close-ups, or inside of tents, or occasionally at a high enough angle that obstructions hide the background. The clear shots show a very English-looking countryside, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that there are place that look like that in Tunisia.

I don't believe that the average movie-goer would have noticed those things. It's a pretty good, if generic, war flick.

10andyrobert

A Very Underrated Film and I Have Never Seen it on TV - Should Have Been a Classic

I saw this film at the cinema in 1963 - it was still doing the rounds since it was first released in 1957. Many young people, at the time, had an abiding interest in films about the Second World War.

What struck me most about the film was its realism, and how well acted it was - Leo Genn has always been a fine actor, especially when playing Military Officers. He, himself, was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

The realism came in the form of the worthy absence of propaganda and social comment, and there were no staged heroics, nor poignant moments, that are sometimes designed the make the actors look good.

I think the film was shown as a second feature and had a 'A' certificate - which would have been equivalent to a 'PG' today.

The British Film Industry is always something I have been interested in, and I like to watch some films two or three times, but I have never seen this film again since I first saw it at the cinema. It has never been released on DVD, and I am surprised that it has never become a classic and that I have never seen it shown on television.

6arthur_tafero

Gritty British WW2 Desert Film - The Steel Bayonet

Leo Genn does an admirable job of holding this film together with the British version of Bataan. It is a film where a unit draws the short straw, and must face the wrath of the German forces which greatly outnumber them, so the Allies can make a concentrated offensive for Tunis. This battle allowed that advance. Tunis was a turning point in the African campaign, and marked the end of the dominance of the Desert Fox, Rommel, the desert genius general of the German Army.

The unlikely unit contains characters that, at first glance, appear as if they could not defend their apartments back in London, much less the flank of the Allied attack. However, looks can be deceiving. These men were as gritty as they came, and did a spectacular job under the circumstances. In a way, the film reminded me of Zulu, when a small group of Army engineers held off superior numbers of Zulu warriors. One of the better British war films.

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
In 1958, United Artists released this movie in the U.S. on a double bill with Fort Massacre (1958).

Goofs
Though set in 1943, the military trucks in use are post-WW2 Commer Q4s.

Quotes
Major Gerard: Look Vernon - you've got very little idea yet what it's all about.
Lt. Vernon: And how am I supposed to learn when you pull rank on me every time I open my mouth?
Major Gerard: Alright, let's forget about rank for a few minutes. Now come on, let's have it: what's the bellyache?
Lt. Vernon: To start with, you made me look a complete fool out there just now. The Sergeant-Major argues when I give him an order and you back him up.
Major Gerard: And isn't it better that you should look a fool than that half a dozen men should get themselves killed? Anything else? You don't like the way the stretcher bearer talks to that wounded German boy.
Lt. Vernon: Who told you that?
Major Gerard: Nobody told me; I saw it in your face.
Lt. Vernon: Have they forgotten the fellow would've shot the lot of us if he could? Yet they call him "chum" and show him snapshots of their wives and kids.
Major Gerard: Yes. Rather fine, isn't it?
Lt. Vernon: Fine?
Major Gerard: Yes, fine! Look, the curious thing about war is that it brings out the worst and the best in us, both at once. The worst is what we're fighting against. And the best is what makes it sometimes almost worthwhile.
Lt. Vernon: I don't get it. There's something here that all these chaps seem to share. Some sort of secret - and I'm on the outside.
Major Gerard: [SIGHS] Look, Vernon: in 24 hours most of those chaps out there will have had it. Perhaps that's the secret.
Lt. Vernon: How do you mean?
Major Gerard: If we don't get an order to withdraw - which is in the highest degree unlikely - the farm in square 2735 will cease to exist by dawn.
Lt. Vernon: Oh. That's us.
Major Gerard: That's us. So you see, what happens outside this particular farmyard isn't very important just now. If I were you, I'd leave it outside. We're all in the same boat. You expect a lot from those chaps out on the hill. They expect the same from you. Work it out for yourself. Don't look to me for a series of beautiful thoughts; any that I ever had went astray a long time ago. I'm moved by men, not ideals. So I'm not asking you to take me as any kind of an example, there are far better. The best of all is yourself. Your own conscience. What you conceive to be the right way to do your job, and stick to it. Nobody can ever ask more of you than that. Now, let's get on with the war, shall we?