I believe Robert Shaw was the major reason this film worked. His character was forcefull, commanding, mean and strangely enough somewhat likeable. Nothing against the rest of the cast which was very good but in my opinion this was Shaw's movie.
Norberte
Memorable line " release the boy, SHOOT THE FATHER "
shareRobert Shaw has always been one of my favorite actors. Ever notice though that when they have him playing a German his hair is dyed blond? There is one scene in the movie Von Ryan's express where he plays a German fighter pilot and again his hair is blond even for that bit part. That's another reason I like him is that he even did the bit parts very well.
"We are not soldiers we are cooks."
"Lunch is over,grab a rifle and follow me!"
That's one of my favorite quotes from this movie.
He was my reason for liking this film. He had the kind of skill to make any character great. I especially like the speech he gave to Conrad before the big singalong.
Also, the scene you're thinking of was like this.
"But we're cooks."
"Lunch is over. Grab your rifles and come with me."
http://booklocker.com/books/6520.html
I agree, Hessler makes whatever this movie is. One interesting item is that Hessler is obviously representing Joachim Piper in the real Ardennes offensive. So they switched from SS to Heer and Peiper to a generic Hessler. I imagine they did not want the SS to be part of the story in 1965.
shareI understand that the film did not explicitly name Peiper because he was still alive - although he was assassinated around ten years later. .
shareRobert Shaw was not in Von Ryan, i think you may mean the Battle of Britain where he played Squadron Leader Skipper
shareYep, Quint owns this movie.
sharetank riding scenes are classic
Maybe I should get, get me, find me a script with a retarded slave then I get me the oscar.
Classically BAD!
shareShaw was a talented playwright who accepted stuff like this to support his writing career.
Watching this movie again on TCM just days ago, I remembered his scary Russian assassin in "From Russia with Love" and recall I thought at the time what an excellent James Bond he would make; tall, good looking and a forceful personality
Come on lads, bags of swank!
don't get me wrong ... I loved the way RS plays the role ... he was great in pretty much everything he did ... but those tank scenes ... SO FAKE ... SO BAD!
share