cal reid A German panzer brigade is smashed to bits by Americans ( who are wearing stupid Nazi helmets , what ? ) but one crew survive and must repair their m47 Patton , sorry , tiger in order to get back to their own lines before being captured or killed. The plot sounds interesting but when the film gets started it delivers bad acting , poor action scenes and an array of weapons that are from the 1960's , come on every war film still manages to get the correct uniform and weapons ( besides tanks ). Don't even watch this film sober otherwise you will go to a neighbouring farm and shoot yourself with the farmers shotgun. A poor movie in every aspect and i am shocked that TCM were the ones who showed this on TV.

zardoz-13 "La Battaglia dell'ultimo panzer" is a standard issue World War II actioneer made on a dime-store budget with countless of anachronisms, but it isn't as awful as some of the critics here contend. First,this drive-in style movie probably was never intended to be shown in the United States, and its producers were willing to do whatever it took to get their movie made so they cut numerous corners. Second, like every World War II movie made since the 1950s, a lot of the physical elements are clearly wrong. The infamous Nazi Tiger tank is in fact an American M-47 Patton tank, but what else could the producers have done? All Tiger tanks were destroyed in World War II, and this was before the age of digital effects wizardry? Indeed, it appears that the filmmakers turned to the Spanish army to get all those tanks. Unfortunately,unlike their air force with its scores of vintage Nazi training planes, the Spanish military didn't have any Tiger tanks to loan them like they did with their aircraft in "The Battle of Britain." Look at all those American World War II movies since 1945, they have M-48 Patton tanks clanking through them. The chief difference between the M-47 and the M-48 is in the shape of the turret. Yes, I'd have to agree that the U.S. uniforms are rather lame, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get a movie made. Nevertheless, I'd say that the story about one enemy tank caught behind Allied lines after D-Day was a pretty interesting departure for any war movie. Guy Madison of TV's "Buffalo Bill" plays an American commander who thought that he had destroyed all of the Tiger tanks. Predictably, with all its errors, "La Battaglia dell'ultimo panzer" presents itself as an easy target to eviserate for most serious-minded movie consumers who think that they have the critical credentials for the job. Naturally, the dubbing is execrable, but again the producers—like those on the ten-thousand abominable kung fu movies churned out in China—had to work fast. Remember,however, the late 1960s were still the time when most American movie audiences couldn't stand to read subtitles. I remember watching the historically accurate but lackluster "Tora, Tora, Tora" and the white subtitles used to translate the Japanese leaders, except that these white subtitles got lost in the picture when they appeared against the white Japanese uniforms. Yes, at times the music sounds straight out of a spaghetti western, but it does have the usual drumbeats that mark a military movie. Remember, these producers probably couldn't afford to pay for the likes of Jerry "Patton" Goldsmith, Elmer "The Great Escape" Bernstein, or Ron "633 Squadron" & "Where Eagles Dare" Goodwin to score the movie. The idea that the U.S. Army would disguise a German tank to get sneak into enemy lines wasn't so bad either. Similarly, portraying the French resistance in such an unsavory light is at least DIFFERENT! Like a lot of late 1960s Spanish/Italian war movies, "La Battaglia dell'ultimo panzer" qualifies as an anti-war movie. Indeed, most war movies are anti-war, but you have to have the blood splattered butchery of warfare to get that point of across. While the Nazi leader (Stan Cooper) is your run-of-the-mill, foaming-at-the-mouth Nazi fanatic, the other Germans emerge as less gung-ho. I like the German war correspondent who wanted to murder the tank commander. You don't see stuff like that in every W.W. II movie. At one point, the movie makes the legitimate statement that nations aren't good or bad but that people can be good and bad. Now, on the serious side, upon learning that the Americans are arriving in their French village to liberate them, a blonde innkeeper babe with the wrong era hair style observes pungently that the Americans liberate everybody except Americans. This was a legitimate complaint that real Nazi propagandists made about the U.S. during World War II about our hypocritical treatment of African-Americans. You don't hear that kind of stuff in "The Longest Day" or "A Bridge Too Far." Granted, "La Battaglia dell'ultimo panzer" is not designed for short-sighted, authenticity-oriented, armchair historians who bring unrealistic expectations to every film that they see. As an historian with a Ph.D. in World War II movies, I have seen virtually every World War II movie ever made and I'd prefer this lamentable but off-beat epic to one of those pretentious piles of junk with budgets out the butt that make the same mistakes with uniforms, armored equipment, and small arms that this one makes. As a colleague of mine at the university where I work is prone to say: "Remember, it's just a movie."

EuroNYC7 World War II movies are my forte and I am well-versed in military history as well as time-period accoutrements. I have seen some bad Second World War flicks in my time, but this "thing" of a picture, this blasphemous abomination, sure cuts the cake! Besides lacking talent, creativity and a determination for a little historical research, the guy who directed this film had to have sympathies with Nazi ideals. First, it was shocking to see the French Resistance portrayed as a roguish band of buffoons headed by an equally idiotic and boisterous leader; a smack in the face to the brave, witty Maquis who courageously resisted the German occupation of their homeland. Secondly,the film is saturated with bad acting, senseless dialog, contemporary uniforms,weaponry and vehicles (check out the "U.S. troops" wearing Spanish Army camouflage uniforms, helmets - which are a direct copy of the old German M1944, poorly concealed by helmet covers and brandishing CETMEs -Spanish copies of the G3 7.62mm automatic rifles). The "Tiger" is clearly a Spanish Army-issue M-48! Need I go on? Rent, but do not buy, this movie. The insatiable stupidity will make you laugh and cry..and laugh again; yes, it's that bad!!!

TGlimm "La Battaglia dell'ultimo panzer" is about a German panzer crew caught behind the American lines in France in 1944. The production values of the movie are very low; the anachronisms and errors concerning equipment and uniforms are actually quite obvious. Nevertheless, the plot is quite intelligent. This is a surprisingly serious war movie and much more reflective than most WW II war movies of the period (such as 'Where Eagles Dare' or 'Kelly's Heroes', or the countless Italian rip-offs of these more 'lighthearted' war thrillers.)This is mainly because the characters, and in particular the German soldiers, are more than just the kind of cardboard cliches one expects from this type of low-budget movie. Especially the main character, a German lieutenant and commander of the crew, played by Stelvio Rosi, is a surprisingly three dimensional character. While he presents himself as a hardline nazi believer at first, we later see that the horrors of war affect him deeply in an unexpected moment and the final scenes of the movie have a very bitter lesson in store for him. Civilians and their different ways of dealing with the occupation also have a place, giving some surprising nuances which most war movies (including the technically infinitely superior, but plot-wise arguably inferior 'Saving Private Ryan') lack.The acting is middle-of the road. None of the (quite unknown) actors are really bad, but none really stands out. 8/10 for some of the writing, 2/10 for the production values