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A 'maybe it happened this way' WWII thriller from the 70's. A consignment of captured German gold is on its way to its new home guarded by American troops when it's robbed prompting a CID officer played John Cassavettes to investigate what happened. Up the ladder of command Patton (George Kennedy) is grilled by the Russians on the theft so he decides to stick his nose in as well prompting the real thieves to hire an assassin (Max Von Sydow) to take care of 'ol Blood & Guts & anyone else who comes close to finding who did the deed. Not very good w/a bevy of talent, namely Sophia Loren, wasted as window dressing as we're more than a few steps ahead of the investigation than than person assigned to investigate.

"Brass Target" is a rather frustrating film. It begins with a real grabber opening, the tunnel robbery of 250 million dollars in gold from a U.S. Army train. What follows is the story of an assassination contracted by the perpetrators on General George S. Patton due to his involvement in the robbery investigation. This does not make a whole lot of sense, since Patton was ordered back to the States in a few days, therefore the urgency to eliminate him seems rather pointless. Although the cast is strong, the screenplay is murky and confusing. Plot contrivances abound, especially a highly improbable code breaking. In the end, the exciting gold robbery is all but forgotten, making the movie rather forgettable as well. - MERK

Interesting and intriguing tale of murder and conspiracy is set in the closing days of WWII, concerning a plot to assessinate General George S Patton for the sake of 250 million dollars in Nazi gold, being robbed from a train to Frankfurt by an undercover staff involved in the vast gold bars heist .The Germans hid it . The Russians want it . The Americans stole General George S Patton may die for it ...suspense that reaches the highest rank . In December 1945 , America's most controversial General, George S Patton , was killed in an auto accident in Germany . 250 million dollars in gold says it was no accident .

Thrilling robbery movie about a train heist, it contains action, thrills, Bond-style techno-glamour , complex narrative with red herrings and labyrinthine plot, as well as nice cast, but all these things can not find the convoluted story. Pure Hollywood profitable hokum at its most ridiculous premise as General George S Patton was allegedly killed because of a large lot of gold robbed after WWII, being committed by a suspicious staff formed by ambitious subordinates . The film goes for various targets as suspenseful narration with stubborn investigation , historical significanc or hard preparation of an assassination, but missing them all . Mining the boxoffice vein of "Days of the Jackal" by Fred Zinneman with Max Von Sidow in Edward Fox-alike role, and even copying some scenes. Rating PG (Parents Guide) for violence, and moderated language. Main and support cast are pretty good. As trio of protagonists : John Cassavetes, Sophia Loren, Max Von Sidow are very fine, though Loren as the woman with a past holds an unnessary, superflous role . Support cast is filled with familiar faces giving acceptable acting , such as : Bruce Davison, Patrick McGoohan, Robert Vaughan, Ed Bishop, Edward Herrmann, and two historical characters performed by Lee Montague as Lucky Luciano and George Kennedy as George S Patton.

Special mention for the rousing and powerful musical score by Laurence Rosenthal in Jerry Goldsmith style. Cinematography by Tony Imi is passable, though a perfect remastering being really necessary. The motion picture was professionally directed by John Hough, though it has some flaws, gaps and failures. John Hough is a nice British artisan with a long career directing all kinds of genres such as terror, fantasy, thriller, drama, and adventure, in films as Treasure Island, The watcher in the woods, Eye witness, Escape to Witch Mountain, Return from Witch Mountain, The Black Arrow, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Incubus, Triumphs of a Man called House, Biggles, Twins of Evil, Howling 4, Incubus, The legend of hell house, American Gothic, The Lady and the Highwayman, The Dying Truth, Duel of Hearts, Hells's gate, among others.

I saw this movie just by accident on TCM when I was surfing through the channels.

The movie tells the story how just after World War II, a train carrying 250 million dollars in gold from the German Reichsbank is hijacked by renegade U.S soldiers. When the Russians hear about it they are furious and want the gold back since it should be shared by all the allies, General Patton, old "Blood & Guts" a well known anti-communist takes it his job to retrieve every single bullion to show off to the Soviets.

While the story gets a promising start it bogs down a bit after the first 30 minutes, the story gets just too unfocused also the casting could have been better, Sophia Loren is far from convincing and McGoohan is certainly not at his best, if Hough would not have tried to get more audience by starring a lot of big names like Loren and Montague and just have hired other actors who could played the characters more convincingly this could have been a better film.

If you take Brass Target as a re-imagination of the situation in post-WWII Europe, similar to "Inglorious Basterds"©, this movie is easier to accept. However, any similarity to "Inglorious Basterds"© ends there. I feel this is a film made due to contractual obligations and maintaining SAG membership. The only reason I ever watched this film is because I was an extra in it, and even actually appear on screen for a second. Other than that, I MAY have been tempted to watch it once by some of the names, in particular Patrick McGoohan and George Kennedy, but other than my own one second of film glory, I wouldn't own it. The plot is completely implausible. I feel the actors make the best of it out of sheer professional pride. Here's a trivia point for you IMDb© keepers out there: Many of the extras are actually U.S. Army personnel recruited from troops serving in Munich at the time the movie was shot.