The Last Blitzkrieg

During the 40s and 50s at MGM the all American GI whether it was Battleground, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, A Guy Named Joe, or Command Decision the role inevitably went to Van Johnson. And he's all American here in The Last Blitzkrieg as well, as all American as Peter Graves was in Stalag 17.

Not only was Van Johnson cast against type, but so was Kerwin Matthews as they play a pair of English speaking Germans who are masquerading as regular GIs during the Battle Of The Bulge. The idea being to disrupt American battle plans and cause havoc behind the lines. It was a last gasp maneuver of the Third Reich, much as The whole Battle Of The Bulge was just that.

Johnson was doing this work already as a spy among American POWs just as Peter Graves was in Stalag 17. But he gets called to this assignment and he and Matthews and two others are sent together.

For a bit he gets some good luck as he keeps the name and ID he had at the prison camp because he runs into Dick York and Larry Storch who were in the same camp, but who were two that managed to escape. They vouch for Johnson, but then some rotten luck descends on the platoon where York is the sergeant.

Johnson is a torn man, he's really not a National Socialist and thinks this is all for nothing. Matthews however is a true believer and he as well as Johnson is cast against type. And Kerwin Matthews delivers a pretty good performance in the part.

If it were not for being the first Darrin Stevens on Bewitched, this might be Dick York's career role as well, though some would opt for what he did in Inherit The Wind. Of all in the cast I was most impressed with what he did. Especially since on Bewitched he's always the butt of the comedy there. York happens to be a soldier of German background who speaks that fluently which comes in very handy.

The Last Blitzkrieg was shot in the Netherlands where a lot of this action really happened. Nice use of newsreel battle films was used and the players are fine. For a Sam Katzman production this one was all right.

This slightly off-kilter Columbia programmer stars Van Johnson as a Nazi double agent who first wins the confidence of the American POWs he's housed with and is then sent on a secret mission to infiltrate U.S. forces during late 1944's Ardennes offensive (more commonly known as The Battle of the Bulge). Johnson does his best as a bad guy, though the film makes an unreasonable stretch to make him sympathetic towards the end, and Dick York is quite good as an army sergeant thrust into a command position by the iniquitous actions of the German infiltrators. As always with a Sam Katzman production, the film tries to mask its low budget with plenty of stock footage, but it also benefits from location footage in The Netherlands. It's no classic, but is a pleasant enough diversion that also features Kerwin Mathews in a rare performance as a really, really bad guy.

Hard to understand how Van Johnson got railroaded into this B-movie trash, except he was on the downhill grade by then and his agent had bills to pay.

As it happens he was involved with Clover Productions again.

Clover's enviable slate of schlock - some now total classics:

It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) The Giant Claw (1957) Zombies of Mora Tau (1957) Don't Knock the Rock (1956) The Houston Story (1956) Rock Around the Clock (1956) New Orleans Uncensored (1955) The Enemy General (1960) The Werewolf (1956) Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

Director Arthur Dreifuss, German by birth had an enviable B-movie list behind him, and certainly the background touched home with him. But obvious budget restrictions lead to basically intolerable errors: German officers with British Sten guns. Or German troops using Browning machineguns. Plus Arthur isn't a natural adept of the 'action genre'.

If they had a combat 'technical advisor' he was drunk on the job. NOBODY would last 10 seconds with this kind of 'action'.

On the other hand there would still be a large number of combat veterans from WW2 & Korea in 60's audiences, so anything more 'realistic' and brutal might cause traumatic memories to return they preferred to try to forget. (But if so, why go to a war movie???)

There's a message but like most of the swathe of 'Battle of The Bulge' outings from the 50's and later like the pitiful 'Ardennes Fury' (2014) why waste time even looking for them?

All-American Van Johnson plays against type as a German officer masquerading as a GI during the dying days of WWII in order to disrupt the advance of the allied forces. It's an unusual story rendered truly forgettable in the hands of Arthur Dreifuss, who doesn't have much of a clue when it comes to filming action scenes or building suspense.

Those with a keen interest in WWII and overall movie history can appreciate this effort. Although there are the "never would happen" situations, such as the officer's rank insignia's on their battlefield helmets being displayed in a nice bright white, the main storyline of German infiltrators into American lines is based in historical fact.

Something that the movie touches on is the fact that many Americans who fought in the war were of German decent and did so while having many relatives who still lived in Germany. It is my guess that this was mentioned in the film due to the fact that the director, Arthur Dreifuss, was born in Germany and moved to the U.S. before the war in 1928. First he worked in the entertainment industry as a dance instructor and then, beginning in 1939, in Hollywood where he made numerous B-level films including the "Boston Blackie" series.

Entertainment historians will appreciate seeing Dick York, who played the original Darren Stevens in the "Bewitched" television series, and Larry Storch, who played Corporal Agarne in the T.V. series "F Troop", in fairly prominent roles playing foot soldiers. Storch's southern accent is especially amusing and those familiar with Storch's Agarne character in F-Troop will see a tinge of it when, upon learning of the prospect of German infiltrators, he exclaims "Don't talk that way - it's disheartening!".

Perfect for a rainy weekend afternoon.