A Real Treadhead Movie

[John Kettler]

Here's something I first posted on the Panzer Elite board, but I thought the troops here would like to know about it as well. My apologies for the text's appearance; the paste command seems to work crudely.

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I just got through watching an old Warner Brothers war film called Tanks Are Coming. A quasidocumentary

of the 3rd Armored division, it follows a forward tank company all the way from the breakthrough at St. Lo

to the penetration of the Siegfried line.

It bluntly discusses the deficiencies of the Sherman vs Tigers and 88s, has dozens of Shermans, including

the M-32 armored recovery vehicle, tank dozers, even flail tanks, plus Stuarts, Priests, M-8s and halftracks.

The combat clips are mostly good (some great Marder shots, a IV H firing, German field guns firing, lots of

German infantry moving through the woods, plus U.S. artillery firing and armored columns endlessly

advancing), but there are some Blitzkrieg period shots (Pz Is) I could do without. The battle scenes are fairly

good, and it's not every war film which has a real

Panzerschreck in it.

You'll see platoon tactics employed, tanks being fought, incredible interior action shots, units in the

assembly area performing maintenance and remunitioning, medevac, crew replacements, spare tanks being

brought up and the arrival of something much better than a Sherman. You'll even see some things not in

Panzer Elite--dismounted reconnaissance and observation posts.If you can find this film, watch it, especially if you play the U.S. It's running currently on

the Action Channel on Direct TV here in the States.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Guest tom w]

is this that the film you are refering to:

(only 29 minutes?)

THE TANKS ARE COMING - 1941

See the 1st Armored Division at Fort Knox, Kentucky in June, 1941 in this U.S. Army Recruiting Service Technicolor film. A humorous Hollywood storyline is employed to stir

interest in the new armored force. See the early M2A1 Medium and M2A4 Light tanks in high speed action along with scout cars, motorcycles and others. Also included in this video are additional scenes not used in the edited film showing 1st Armored Division

activities at Fort Knox in 1941. 29 minutes, color.

VHS198...................….....................$21.95

found here:

http://vintagevideo.com/cat_wwii.html

[Guest tom w]

or maybe its here:

(Go Crazy! all your favourites are RIGHT here!)

http://www.directvideo.com/war.htm

War MoviesVHS

Use our secure order form or call 1-800-461-1651

Prices in Canadian and U.S. dollars. All videos are brand new.

Title $CDN $U.S.

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Catalog information updated February 14, 2000

[RobVarak]

According to the Internet Movie Database

www.imdb.com

There are two movies with that name. One is the 20 minute documentary from 1941. The other is the feature film that John is talking about from 1951.

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Rob Varak

Editor

Site on Sound: The Web's Premier Site For Musical Discussion

www.siteonsound.com

[Guest tom w]

thanks for the update Rob

My limited research did not get that far

I have book marked "www.imdb.com"

great site thanks

-tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RobVarak:

According to the Internet Movie Database

www.imdb.com

There are two movies with that name. One is the 20 minute documentary from 1941. The other is the feature film that John is talking about from 1951.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Guest Ol' Blood & Guts]

I actually had that movie in my Amazon.com shopping basket for a while. Decided to take it out later though.

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"Why don't we say that we took this one chance, and fought!"

"Stupid humans. Hahahahahahaha!"

--from the film Battlefield Earth

[Guest Blacksilver]

You know, Disney is now shooting "Pearl Harbor" in Hawaii. The production started late because Mike Eisner wouldn't approve the script . . . he wouldn't put the Disney name on it unless the Americans won.

You can guess how they solved the problem. After a lingering shot of where the Arizona was, the screen fades to black with the words "Four years later . . ."

A big mushroom cloud erupts, and as it boils skyward it subtly changes shape, until just as the end credits roll . . . yes! Atomic mouse ears!!

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Blacksilver

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>History is a vast early warning system.

-Norman Cousins<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Major Tom]

I thought that "Tora Tora Tora" adequately portrayed the attack on Pearl Harbour enough not to warrant the need for a sequal? "Pearl Harbor II"? Oh well, hopefully Disney can be objective, and not throw a little kid in it, or an animated charactor.

[Guest Blacksilver]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Major Tom:

Oh well, hopefully Disney can be objective, and not throw a little kid in it, or an animated charactor. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

They were pretty restrained. They just gave Admiral Nagumo a peg leg, hook hand and evil parrot sidekick with big teeth.

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Blacksilver

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>History is a vast early warning system.

-Norman Cousins<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[von Lucke]

Ooooh, man! Talk about kismet! I was just about to start a thread asking if anybody had seen this flick on Encore last night! Spooky...

Well, for those of you who don't know the history behind this war movie, lemme tell ya:

Seems "The Tanks Are Coming!" is based on a script written by the famous American tanker ace Lafayette Pool! Pool based the script on his own life, but by the time it made it to the screen (in 1951), the Hollywood hacks had mutilated his treatment and taken his name off the credits. Pool sued, but never saw any money for his effort.

And given what the movie is like, it's probably just as well Pool didn't have his name associated with it!

The "story" (mostly stock WWII reel footage spliced with a couple of set-piece battle scenes) revolves around M4A2 tank commander SSG Sullivan (a cowboy-boot wearin', six-gun totin', Texas-drawl/Irish brogue sportin' hard-ass) and his multi-national crew (Polish assistant driver, Italian loader, German gunner, alcoholic driver).

High points: They used a platoon of actual Shermans, and some of the action sequences are filmed inside during the battle scenes --- and during one sequence an element of M4's are tooling along a stream bed and get ambushed by a Flak 88 --- a real Flak 88! Don't know where they dug it up, but it was cool to see.

There's also an unintentionally funny scene where this lowly PFC mechanic confronts the MG in charge of the 3rd Armored and demands to know why their boys are going into combat riding thinly armored Shermans armed only with 75's, when the Germans have all those 88's? After a brief discussion on the relative muzzle velocities of both weapons, the General tells the Private that he's expecting a new tank, armed with a 90mm, soon, and said private will get the first one that comes along! (All this done with a straight face). Well, near the end of the movie, guess what should appear? A spiffy new Pershing! And guess who it goes to? Yup --- Sullivan & crew!

Which leads me to the low point: Said super-tanker-ace then proceeds to plow through the woods with his new toy (supposedly looking for a way through the Sigfried Line), and failing to find it, he and the rest of the Sherman equiped platoon are parked near a row of dragon's teeth when they come under fire. Frustrated at not being able to engage the enemy, Sullivan hops into his shiny new Pershing and proceeds to drive it right on top of the anti-tank obstacles! There he leaves it, high and dry, tracks spinning, and runs back (during an arty barrage!) to find a Sherman dozer to build a ramp over the obstacles for the rest of the platoon (guess he learned his lesson that the Pershing wasn't a super-tank). Platoon advances into Germany and wins the war single-handedly.

The End.

All-in-all a fairly standard 50's era B-grade war flick, rife with corny dialogue and bad acting --- but with a little more technical hardware expertise than usuall (Pool's influence?)

[This message has been edited by von Lucke (edited 05-05-2000).]

[Speedy]

Posted by von Lucke

***The "story" (mostly stock WWII reel footage spliced with a couple of set-piece battle scenes) revolves around M4A2 tank commander SSG Sullivan (a cowboy-boot wearin', six-gun totin', Texas-drawl/Irish brogue sportin' hard-ass) and his multi-national crew (Polish assistant driver, Italian loader, German gunner, alcoholic driver).***

Hey von Lucke I come from the great nation of Alcohol too!

[This message has been edited by Speedy (edited 05-05-2000).]

[von Lucke]

Oh yah? I grew up around Southern Ethanol myself...