Watched this 1966 movie last weekend. I'd never seen it before, and when I came across the DVD in the bargain bin at my local HMV store I thought "why not".

Quite long (heading for 3 hours), full of big-name '60s stars (some in blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos), and somewhat disjointed. It was also shot in black and white, which works both for and against it (and was apparently one reason why it flopped at the box office).

But what struck me was that although the German "Panthers" were quite clearly M24 Chaffees, the producers had gone to the effort of dressing them up a bit to make them at least vaguely resemble Panthers - even to the extent of adding Zimmerit!!

Which is a far cry from the usual lazy approach of that era, namely just take a bunch of M-47s, paint 'em up light grey (!!), daub big black crosses on the sides and call 'em "Tigers" or "Panzers" ("Battle Of The Bulge", anyone?!).

And the Shermans in I.P.B? were the real deal also (I guess there must have still been plenty of them still in running order in Europe back in 1966).

Perhaps not the greatest war movie of all time, but ok to while away a rainy Sunday afternoon.

- Steve