Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Frederick has never seen combat. This is set to change however, when the allied high command puts him in charge of the 1st Special Service Force. The force will comprise of U.S convicts and Canadian servicemen whom Colonel Frederick must meld into crack Commandos. Initially, a bitter rivalry develops between the two nationalities, but the men come to respect each other before shipping out to Europe. Under the Colonel's staunch leadership, the force successfully takes a German held town. Their next mission is to secure an impregnable mountain fortress. Colonel Frederick knows that, despite heavy casualties, the fighting men of "The Devil's Brigade" will prevail...This wartime actioner from United Artists is placed in the capable hands of Andrew V. McLaglen, who helmed many fine westerns and war movies. It's really a poor man's Dirty Dozen and has obviously been inspired by Robert Aldrich's classic. The Devil's Brigade is a cracking combat movie that is grounded in fact. As mentioned in my synopsis, it tells the story of the creation of the 1st Special Service Force under Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Frederick. The movie chooses only to cover part of the Italian campaign fought by the brigade and the climatic mountaintop battle is a loose depiction of the battle for Monte La Defensa. It also concentrates on Colonel Frederick's struggle to volunteer the brigade for another assignment after their mission in Norway is cancelled. Much of the film's running time is devoted to the rivalry and subsequent bonding of the Americans and Canadians. This was tedious at the best of times, although thankfully there were no love interests to bring the movie down. At times it was easy to loose interest in the narrative with the endless training and briefing scenes and William Roberts' script is good, if not rather dry. It is based on the book by Robert H. Adleman and Colonel George Walton, the latter a former serviceman in the force.Watching the movie again I didn't feel as much for the characters as I did, which I can't really put my finger on. However, a lot of the characters were quite interesting. I thought William Holden was a terrific choice to play Lieutenant Colonel Frederick. Holden brought his unique brand of professionalism to the character, a brand of professionalism I'm sure the real Robert T. Frederick was impressed with. Cliff Robertson was rather wooden at times, but at least believable. The same can be said for Vince Edwards. Jeremy Slate, Claude Akins and Richard Jaeckel gave the standout performances. Carroll O'Connor made an excellent General and there's even a cameo from Dana Andrews. Let it never be said that The Devil's Brigade lacks star power. There isn't really any action until the end of the movie where we have the tight assault on the mountain fortress. Here the special effects even struck me as cheap but this didn't detract from the excitement. The entire battle was taut and there was plenty going on. As usual I enjoyed the stunts the most. If you haven't lost interest in the film by this point then you will find the battle exhilarating.Dated, yes. Overwrought, yes. Laboured, yes. Boring, not overly. The Devil's Brigade is a rip roaring tribute to Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Frederick and the men of the 1st Special Service Force. 8/10.

The movie is kind of a re-run treat. It very closely follows the true story of the First Special Service Force. The commander is correctly identified as Lt. Colonel Robert Frederick and it did consist of both US and Canadian troops - about 500 Canadians and 1200 Americans. All were volunteers. The American criminal contingent is all Hollywood although as with all volunteer forces there will have been some with checkered pasts.Training in the real unit was intense and the movie follows that training faithfully. The mountain assault really did happen that way. I have always considered the assault to be a highlight of cinematic combat action.About the only thing missing is their real moniker - the Black Devils. In German it was the "Schwarzer Teufel" so named because of the black face paint used in night raids. They would attack and then flee into the night as if they were literal devils. The unit was disbanded on December 5, 1944 after only two years. All US special operations combat forces are said to be descended from this unit.Cliff Robertson is masterful in the role of the Canadian commander. Jack Watson as Corporeal Peacock is one of my all time quirky characters.

When it comes to the sentiment that it is a wonderful tribute to those in the Devil's Brigade I have to take my grandfather's opinion... "All a bunch of Hollywood BS" The reason for this is he was part of this elite unit.He never talked about his time in this unit but only one time... when he was interviewed by the paper about the release of this movie. He was lucky to survive as this unit had the highest casualties and was severely wounded just shy of the liberation of Italy. He has been gone now for almost 20 years (Oct. 1992) and when I miss him the most I put this movie on, it may be almost all fictional but at least I take comfort in the fact I have something of him to keep me from missing him too much and gives me a sense of pride he was part of this unit and fought for our freedom. Also they were trained as paratroopers as comment above, but after his time in Devil's Brigade he would never ever step foot on a plane again.

This is a rugged WWII actioner concerning an unexperienced Lt Colonel (William Holden) , he's assigned by Lord Mountbatten (Patrick Knowles) to train a group of American misfits and Canadian soldiers . The Americans are an oddball/rag-tag/motley gang (a largely cast formed by Claude Akins , Luke Askew, Andrew Prine , Tom Stern, Richard Dawson..) , under command a Major (Vince Edwards) . While the Canadians who appear in a spectacular parade under Scottish bagpipes music , are disciplined and commanded by a Major (Clift Robertson) and a corporal (Jack Watson), but a new sergeant (Jeremy Slate) has joined the ranks of the brigade for training in combat . The commando is denominated the Devil's Brigade (and actually existed) . The team is trained in Fort William , a barren place to take on the Nazis in Scandinavia . But the mission in Norway is suspended , as they are sent on yet another new mission by the staff command (Generals : Dana Andrews , Michel Rennie , Carrol O'Connor) . Later its cancellation they must participate in two suicidal missions , the first to wipe an Italian little town and after an assault over a strong position located on the Alps . The "Black Devils" was the nickname of the 1st Special Service Force, The Devil's Brigade (also called The Black Devil's and The Black Devils Brigade), a joint American-Canadian commando unit organized in 1942 . This flag-waving film packs frantic thrills , perilous adventures, humor , relentless feats and buck-loads of explosive action and violence . The noisy action is uniformly well-made , especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes on the impregnable mountain . Serious and rough William Holden is good as leader of the motley pack together thwart the the Nazi schemes , as well as the largely secondary cast with special mention to Claude Akins and Jack Watson who finish developing a sincere friendship . Atmospheric and martial musical score by Alex North (Spartacus) and appropriate cinematography by William H Clothier (John Ford's usual cameraman) . This is is a wartime typical vehicle and a stand-out into the warlike commando genre , which also belongs : 'Dirty dozen' (Robert Aldrich) , 'Where eagles dare' (Brian G. Hutton) and 'Kelly's heroes' (Hutton). The motion picture was well realized by Andrew V McLagen , son of Victor McLagen . He's a warlike expert , such as proved in several films (Return to Kwai , Wild Geese , Dirtdozen: the next mission , Sea wolves , Breakthrough).