Underplayed Gems
The whole movie catalogue

Films and series, searchable by what they are

← Back to the shop

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

The Dirty Dozen poster
Directed by
Robert Aldrich
Genre
drama film, action film, war film
Country
United Kingdom, United States
Runtime
2h 23m
Rated
NR
Rating
7.6 of 10 from 1,335 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb

How it feels

During World War Two, a U.S. Army major trains a squad of twelve convicts for a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. The convicts must work together despite their criminal backgrounds to carry out the operation.

tensegrittydarkly comicaction-packedhigh-stakesirreverentcampysuspenseful

What happens

The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin, with an ensemble supporting cast including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Clint Walker and Robert Webber. Set in 1944 during World War II, the film follows a penal military unit of twelve convicts as they are trained as commandos by the Allies for a suicide mission ahead of the Normandy landings. The screenplay is based on the 1965 bestseller by E. M. Nathanson, which in turn was inspired by a real-life World War II unit of behind-the-lines demolition specialists from the 101st Airborne Division named the "Filthy Thirteen". Filming took place at the MGM British Studios. The Dirty Dozen was released on June 15, 1967 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was a box office success, grossing $45 million against a $5 million budget. It won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing at the 40th Academy Awards. In 2001, the American Film Institute placed it at number 65 on their 100 Years... 100 Thrills list. The film spawned several television film sequels, including The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985), The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (1987), and The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988). A remake was announced in 2019 by Warner Bros. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? Tell the Catbot what you feel like watching and it picks from the whole catalogue, or browse by genre, country and year.

Lists: Korean thrillers worth the evening · Anime films beyond Studio Ghibli · Slow films for a rainy night · Horror that unsettles instead of startling · Series you can finish in a weekend · Nordic crime worth the subtitles · Good films that end in under 90 minutes · Documentaries that play like thrillers

Loading movies…

What should I watch?