La brigade des bérets noirs

Tank Force is a curious combination of The Great Escape and Desperate Journey. Only four British prisoners one of them an American and another one a Pole, manage to escape in what should have been a more successful operation from combined German and Italian custody on the African front.

Leo Genn is one of the escapees and he's a strict by the book disciplinarian. Bonar Colleano plays the Pole who has enlisted in the British Army after his country surrendered. He's fighting his own private war with the Axis and does not take to discipline easily.

But in that regard he's nothing to Victor Mature. He's an American who was married to a Jewish wife and who tried to assassinate Joe Goebbels and escaped Nazi custody. When the Axis finds out Mature's in their custody, he has to escape and quick because he won't be treated like any other prisoner of war.

Desperate Journey was one of my least favorite Errol Flynn movies. It shows the Nazis as the stupidest kind of people imaginable. When the fantastic four of Mature, Genn, Newley, and Colleano escape in the African desert, both the Nazis and the Italians keep fumbling the capture. It was getting ridiculous after a while.

The quality of Mature's work went down considerably after he left 20th Century Fox for the most part and Tank Force is a prime example.

I caught this on TV under the title TANK FORCE. It's a British WW2 movie made up to look like an American film with Victor Mature as the imported lead and to the film's credit it always convinces as a bigger budgeted production. While scenes of tank warfare are limited to moments at the beginning and end, for the most part this is a fitfully exciting desert adventure with some suspense and incident to see it through.

The film features a mature Mature and a very good Leo Genn as allies who are sent to an Italian prisoner of war camp in North Africa and who vow to escape. The supporting cast is populated by the familiar faces of Anthony Newley, Percy Herbert, George Coulouris, and many others. Once the plot gets going it trundles along quite nicely with the usual run of plot twists, betrayals, and sudden death, and there's even time for a scene of romance or two here and there. Genn in particular is very good as the Brit with the stiff upper lip and the exciting climax rounds things off quite nicely.

This exciting war/adventure about a misfit band of soldiers on a daring mission while flee from a camp from Lybia desert. Tank Force! (1958) is set during WW2 in North Africa, an American sergeant, Daniel Thatcher (Victor Mature) serving with the British 8th Army in a British tank corps in North Africa. He and most of his unit (Leo Genn, Anthony Newley, Bonar Colleano) are captured by the Germans, and imprisoned at a concentration camp. But Nazis learn his identity as a man who once tried to assassinate Josef Goebbels, Hitler's right-hand man. He hatches various plans of escape from the POW camp. The escaped prisoners throughout desert trying to make their bid to freedom , including pursuits and tank attacks. When iron men in iron monsters fought for a continent !. Hitting the Screen With Irresistible Force!. And introducing...Italy's most exciting new film firebrand Luciana Paluzzi !. The Titanic Battle of World War II! When the men from the ranks held the Desert - in Tanks !.

This WW2 movie is packed with noisy action, suspense, thrills, spectacular tank combats and is quite entertaining. By the time the plentiful action and incident get under way, there's not much time to relax either. This is the story of four men who believed in freedom, and had the guts to seek it across the burning desert. This is a thrilling, if implausible WWII adventure that has its good moments here and there. Director Terence Young (who had previously served in the British Army) and his cast were shooting in the Libyan and Morocco deserts for 8 weeks. The film was internationally released as No time to die ! Or Tank Force!. Runtime film is adequate, 86 min minutes, but isn't boring and gets lots of amusement for the fast-movement. From the beginning until the ending , the action movie is continuous. Interesting screenplay by director Terence Young himself, Merle Miller and "loosely based" on author Ronald Kemp's "No Time to Die" novel (London, 1954). It is co-written by veteran James Bond film series writer Richard Maibaum who co-wrote thirteen Bond movies and collaborated with producer Albert R. 'Cubby' Broccoli on eight other pictures . This is one of the best of several movies about commandos and imprisoned soldiers from beyond behind enemy lines. The film is more in the wake of the concentration camps with a study of the characters, and their getaway as will be the later ¨John Sturges' The Great Escape¨ more than the style of commando subgenre as ¨Dirty dozen¨,¨Tobruk¨, ¨Kelly's heroes¨ , ¨Where eagles dare ¨ and the group of films that were made regarding to warlike adventures during the 1960-1970 years about special forces in dangerous missions. However, Tank Force!(1958) obtained limited success at the box office.

The film is mediocre, but you really can't blame Victor Mature as a tough Sergeant for his idiomatic choice of command to his fellow escapees from an Italian prison camp in the Libyan desert. Because he is laying that almost inevitable role in British movies of the Fifties, the token Yank. Mature became one of Hollywood's busiest and most popular actors after the war , though rarely was he given the critical respect he often deserved. These enjoyable films were all ordinarily played by Mature who was nearly at his most agile and deft style , as he starred various Adventure films and was superstar of Hollywood epics . His roles in John Ford's My darling Clementine (1946) and in Henry Hathaway's Kiss of the death (1947) were among his finest work, though he moved more and more frequently into more exotic roles in films like Samson y Delilah (1949) and Sinuhe, the Egyptian (1954) . Never an energetic actor nor one of great artistic pretensions, he nevertheless continued as a Hollywood stalwart both in programme and in more prominent films like The Robe (1953). More interested in golf than acting, his appearances diminished through the 1960s, but he made a stunning comeback of sorts in a hilarious romp as a very Victor Mature-like actor in Neil Simon's Zorro (1966). One of six movies (Zarak, The Bandit of Zhobe, Safari..) that Victor Mature made for the British production company Warwick Films. Warwick was set up by Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli, and its main purpose was that it offered a Europea lifeline to fading Hollywood stars such as Mature, Robert Taylor and Alan Ladd. Victor Mature is well aaccompanied by a good secondary cast - mainly made up of British actors-, such as: Leo Genn, Anthony Newley, Bonar Colleano, Anne Aubrey, George Coulouris, Alfred Burke, David Lodge and the wasted italian Luciana Paluzzi, who Terence Young himself, shortly after, would lead her to success as a Bond girl in Thunderball (1965).

The motion picture was professionally directed by Terence Young, though has some flaws and failures. Young participated in the Royal Armored Corps as an officer during the Second World War. Terence Young was an uneven filmmaker with hits and flops. As he made three of the best Bond films: Doctor No , Thunderball, From Russia with love, he also directed other genres , Western : Red Sun , Drama/intrigue : Klansman, Bloodline , Jigsaw man , The poppy is also flower, wait until dark ; Costumer : Adventures of Moll Flanders , Adventure : The Rover and WWII : Triple Cross. Rating 5,5/10 , acceptable and passable . The movie will appeal to WWII buffs.

This is a film made here in the UK by Warwick Films,the partnership of Irwin Allen and Cubby Broccoli.They generally specialised in making up market action films in colour with an American star.In this instance it is Victor Mature who at 46 is a bit overage for any army let alone the British tank corp.His rational for being in the British Army is all a bit silly as is the script which at times seems to be a boys own adventure.He has the stoical Leo Genn in support.Anthony Newley,a rising star at the time is the cockney private,normally played by Sam Kydd,and in one of his last films,before his tragic early death,Bonar Celleano.The problem with the film is the star and the script.Otherwise it is entertaining.

"Tank Force" is set in North Africa during WWII. The story begins with an Axis victory and many Brits are captured. Among them is Thatcher (Victor Mature)...a middle-aged American who somehow got into a British unit. I have no idea if Americans served with the British infantry or tank corps during the war, though I know some American volunteers did fly for the RAF. It seems Thatcher is more eager than most to escape the Italian/German POW camp, as some time before he made an attempt on Goebbels' life...and the Germans would love to know his identity. So, this means he had better escape...and soon.

Most of this movie consists of the characters on the run from the Axis...hoping to eventually reach Allied lines. Occasionally, they fight it out with the baddies. Otherwise, that's about all there is to it. It's not bad though not especially deep as well. I also think the Goebbels angle was unnecessary and even detracted a bit from the film, as it's hard imagining anyone in this situation ever having any chance of escaping.

By the way, according to IMDB there is an American edit as well as a British edit for this film and the longer of the two is the British one. The copy I had ran 86 minutes and was the American version.

Also, the 'German' tanks in the film are British and the halftracks are American. This sort of thing doesn't particularly bother me, as nearly all the German vehicles were destroyed in the war and simply weren't available for movies.