Him? Name's Kelly. Used to be a lieutenant, pretty good one, too, till they gave him orders to attack the wrong hill. Wiped out a half a company of G.I.'s. Somebody had to get the blame and he got picked.
During WWII, Kelly, a former Lietenant demoted to Private as a scapegoat, captures a German Colonel in Intelligence and gets him drunk to try to get information. Before he is killed by an assaulting German tank, the drunken POW blurts out an interesting info: there is a cache of 14,000 gold bars stored in a bank vault 30 miles behind enemy lines.
Kelly recruits a group of soldiers on R&R to sneak off and steal it. They include a skeptical sergeant, "Big Joe" (Savalas); a greedy and opportunistic supply sergeant, "Crapgame" (Rickles); a tank commander, "Oddball" (Sutherland); and a number of typical GI's. The men are presented as competent, if weary veterans; their motivations are more cynical and self-serving than patriotic, especially since their commanding officer, Captain Maitland, cares more about turning this campaign into a personal shopping tour than for the actual welfare of his men, who always get all of the worst and none of the best of this war.
The obvious antagonists are the Germans. However, it quickly becomes clear that the motley band's own superior officers are just as much an obstacle if not more so. When intercepted radio messages of the unauthorized private enterprise raid are brought to the attention of American Major General Colt (O'Connor), he misinterprets them as communications between inspired soldiers and rushes to the front line to meet the spear-heading units.
Kelly's men race to reach the French town before their own army. There, they find it defended by three formidable tanks with infantry support. The Americans are able to handle all, but one Tiger in front of the bank itself. Ironically, it is the cooperation of the tanks commander that proves vital to achieving their goal. Powerless to defeat the armored behemoth, Kelly gains the German officer's assistance by offering him and his crew a share of the riches. They load up the gold and go their separate ways, just in time to avoid meeting the still-clueless Colt.
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Movie Script
| Directed by | Brian G. Hutton |
|---|---|
| Produced by | |
| Written by | Troy Kennedy-Martin |
| Starring |
Clint Eastwood Telly Savalas Carroll O'Connor Donald Sutherland Don Rickles |
| Music by | |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | June 23, 1970 |
| Running time | 144 mins. |
| Language | English |
| Budget |