Battle of the Bulge (1965)

A dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II.

Director:

Ken Annakin

Writers:

Philip Yordan, Milton Sperling

Stars:

Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Henry Fonda	...	Lt. Col. Dan Kiley
Robert Shaw	...	Col. Hessler
Robert Ryan	...	Gen. Grey
Dana Andrews	...	Col. Pritchard
George Montgomery	...	Sgt. Duquesne
Pier Angeli	...	Louise
Barbara Werle	...	Elena
Charles Bronson	...	Wolenski
Hans Christian Blech	...	Conrad
Werner Peters	...	Gen. Kohler
James MacArthur	...	Lt. Weaver
Karl-Otto Alberty	...	Von Diepel (as Karl Otto Alberty)
Telly Savalas	...	Sgt. Guffy
Steve Rowland	...	Eddy
Robert Woods	...	Joe - Kiley's Pilot

Storyline

In the winter of 1944, the Allied Armies stand ready to invade Germany at the coming of a New Year. To prevent this occurrence, Hitler orders an all out offensive to re-take French territory and capture the major port city of Antwerp. "The Battle of the Bulge" shows this conflict from the perspective of an American intelligence officer as well as from a German Panzer Commander.

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Plot Keywords:

battle of the bulge | world war two in belgium | cold weather | wehrmacht | panzer | 

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Taglines:

Unlike anything you have seen before, as Cinerama hurls you into the most extraordinary days of World War II!

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Genres:

Drama | History | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

19 January 1966 (France)

Also Known As:

Battle of the Bulge

Filming Locations:

Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range, Madrid, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

United States Pictures, Cinerama Productions Corp.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

167 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The small plane Col. Kiley (Henry Fonda) used for his reconnaissance missions is a Cessna L-19A/O-1 known in the military simply as the Bird Dog. This planes was used after WWII and is distinguished from the Piper L-4 Grasshopper by its raised cockpit, angled side windows and rounded rear window. These were not initially purpose-built military planes. The Cessna 305A was the military version of the 170, a small civil aviation plane popular with private pilots. Its ability to take off and land in relatively short distances on dirt fields made it very useful to troops operating in remote or forward areas. Though completely unarmed, they carried out a number of vital missions including reconnaissance, artillery spotting, supply drop and even air ambulance.

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Goofs

All of the American vehicles in the movie use a German Red-Green-Brown camouflage color scheme; however, in late 1944 only olive drab/black camouflage schemes were used on armor. In winter whitewash was used on some armored vehicles to blend in with the snow. Transport vehicles, artillery, etc., were still painted in basic olive drab. In one scene we can even see a bazooka with a camouflage paint scheme.

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Quotes

Lt. Weaver: [speaking to U.S. Army M.P.s he knew were Germans in disguise at the fuel supply camp, in a sarcastic voice] Does the road to Amblève still lead to Malmedy?
[then he shoots them]

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Alternate Versions

Some TV versions are nearly complete. TNT aired one in the late 1990s which was missing the Overture, Intermission, Exit Music and also excised most of the Cinerama footage of the train making its way through the mountains. The pan-and-scanning on this version was significantly different than that on the previous VHS releases.

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Connections

Referenced in Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers: Battle of the Bulge (1989)

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Soundtracks

Der Panzerlied
(uncredited)
Written by Kurt Wiehle

User Reviews

Good movie, if you ignore the title

Let's pretend this movie has nothing to do with the battle in Belgium, winter 1944. The movie is only bad if you associate it too much with the real life events, but if you focus on the amazing line-up of actors, special effects, soundtrack, and battle sequences, it becomes a very interesting and entertaining World War II movie. Although compared to more realistic war movies like Patton, this film serves no real educational value. To me it seems like a WWII fan-fiction of some sort, like a "what-if" scenario. The movie would have probably been ridiculed a lot less if it was titled something different (anything but The Battle of the Bulge), therefore people would just assume it's some sort of war sci-fi movie.

Don't let the title fool you; There's only a few things in the whole movie which actually relate to the Ardennes 1944 (i.e., the snow battles, unexpected German spearheads, General McAuliffe & the "nuts" letter, locations in Malmedy, etc.), meanwhile there's no mention of Patton's relief of Bastogne, which was the the event most people associate with the real battle of the bulge in the first place.

Check this movie out if you'd like to see something different from factual movies. It's a small break from reality, and portrayed in a seemingly fictional (but real, technically) campaign in WWII. It's also a great movie if you like all-star casts and A list actors.