Armored Command

Armored Command (1961)

The Hell-To-Glory Story of the 7th Army!

An American Army tank unit is trapped in a small French town in the Ardennes unaware that a spy amongst them is providing the German counterattack with vital battle information.

Date of release
1961-07-09
TMDB
5.5 / 10 (6)
Runtime
1h 39m
Genres
War, Drama
Director
Byron Haskin

Casting

Interesting facts

Armored Command is a 1961 American war drama film directed by Byron Haskin, and starring Howard Keel and Tina Louise with Burt Reynolds in a small role.

Production

According to the film's director, Byron Haskin, writer-producer Ron Alcorn had made a TV series in Germany called Citizen Soldier and "had some kind of hold over some high muckamuck general... this general had sent through his permission to give Alcorn everything he wanted and Alcorn used all the tanks and ammunition and soldiers for nothing" on Citizen Soldier. This deal still applied during the making of what would become Armored Command.

Haskin said Alcorn researched the Battle of the Bulge at the Library of Congress, and used some real incidents to create a story which he turned into a script. Alcorn then used his deal with the general to secure finance via Allied Artists.

Adamson hired Haskin to direct. Haskin said "I didn't like the thing in the first place. I took it as a breadwinner - when you get low on dough you've got to take a picture." He felt "the screenplay was somewhat amateurish but I figure I could make corrections."

The movie was filmed in Munich and Hohenfels, Bavaria, but takes place in the Vosges Mountains during the Eastern France campaign of World War II. Filming started on 21 November 1960. Howard Keel directed some second unit.

Lt. Col. Thomas A. Ryan, who appeared in the film as the Major, also acted as the film's technical advisor.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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