Kelly's Heroes (1970)

A group of U.S. soldiers sneaks across enemy lines to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.

Director:

Brian G. Hutton

Writer:

Troy Kennedy-Martin (as Troy Kennedy Martin)

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clint Eastwood	...	Kelly
Telly Savalas	...	Big Joe
Don Rickles	...	Crapgame
Carroll O'Connor	...	General Colt
Donald Sutherland	...	Oddball
Gavin MacLeod	...	Moriarty
Hal Buckley	...	Maitland
Stuart Margolin	...	Little Joe
Jeff Morris	...	Cowboy
Richard Davalos	...	Gutowski
Perry Lopez	...	Petuko
Tom Troupe	...	Job
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Willard (as Dean Stanton)
Dick Balduzzi	...	Fisher
Gene Collins	...	Babra

Storyline

During World War II, German Colonel Dankhopf (David Hurst) is captured by the Americans, but before he can be interrogated, an artillery barrage hits the camp. However, Lieutenant Kelly (Clint Eastwood) manages to reach the Colonel, get him drunk, and learn that he is on a secret mission to ship sixteen million dollars of gold to a base in France. Kelly is determined to get the gold, and plans for himself and a few of his fellow soldiers to slip into enemy territory and steal the bullion.

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Plot Keywords:

1940s | 20th century | world war two soldier | soldier | u.s. soldier | 

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Taglines:

Never have so few taken so many for so much.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | War

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Certificate:

GP

Did You Know?

Trivia

If each bar of gold is 2.5 x 1.5 x 10 inches, then it weighs 26.2 lbs. 14,000 bars would weigh 366,439 lbs, or 183.2 tons, requiring many trucks to carry. At $35 an ounce, the gold would have been worth $205.2 million, not $16 million.

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Goofs

When the soldiers realize they've walked into a minefield, Kelly tells Big Joe that there's a road up ahead, and Big Joe tells the rest of the soldiers to carefully approach towards Kelly. However, there's a narrow, hard-ground path right in the middle of the minefield, which is seen a couple of minutes later. This path is obviously not dug or mined, and the soldiers walk on it freely.

As an experienced combat soldier, Big Joe would have told their men to approach to that stretch of hard ground. It was at a much shorter distance and would have been much quicker than of approaching inch by inch towards Kelly, who was on the far end of the minefield.

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Quotes

Pvt. Little Joe: It's Mulligan.
Big Joe: It's Mulligan! What the hell does he want?
Pvt. Little Joe: He says he's sorry.
Big Joe: [muttering] Sorry son of a bitch.
[exits]
Pvt. Little Joe: [into the radio] Mulligan, Big Joe's a little upset right now, I think maybe you should leave town... Get out of the neighborhood... Right.

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Alternate Versions

An older video release has a very quick scene involving Germans trying to jump over a truck (after the group crosses the minefield). This scene isn't in the 1999 video; however, a scene with one of the American machine gun crews right after the deleted scene is inserted.

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Connections

Featured in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005)

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Soundtracks

La Marseillaise
(uncredited)
Written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Heard in the village when the villagers celebrate their liberation

User Reviews

There's nothing quite like it.

A real ripping WW2 adventure yarn, that does not take itself too seriously and mixes rebellious comedy with some serious, thrilling action sequences. A great cast of actors, plus authentic looking clothing and weapons. The whole story is too fantastic to ponder on (to any great depth) but that is all part of the fun. Donald Sutherland as the character 'Oddball', steals the show and the film (with one realistic looking Tiger Tank), has a grand, feel good conclusion,

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French German

Release Date:

23 June 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Warriors

Filming Locations:

The coast South of Trieste, Yugoslavia

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$5,200,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,200,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Katzka-Loeb, Avala Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

144 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Stereo (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1