Gettysburg | At Close Range | A Christmas Story | A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) | Shaft (2000) | The Perfect Storm | Star Wars Trilogy | The Bounty | Gladiator | Frequency | Escape From New York | Escape From L.A. | X-Men | Titan A.E. | Get Carter | The In Crowd | Mission: Impossible 2 | Big Momma's House | Return to Me | Malice | Final Destination | High Fidelity | Pump Up the Volume/Bed of Roses | Scream 3 | The Dead Zone | Rosemary's Baby | Never Say Never Again | Diamonds are Forever | You Only Live Twice | The Living Daylights | A View to a Kill | Brothers McMullen/She's the One | Code of Silence | Delta Force 2 | Tales of Terror | The Amityville Horror | Where the Heart is | This is Spinal Tap | Boogie Nights | Hard Eight (Sydney) | Arsenic and Old Lace | North By Northwest | Region 2 Releases | The Fog (R2) | Citizen Kane (R2) | Alligator (R2) | The Gate (R2) | The Gate II (R2) | Beastmaster (Region 2) | Hellraiser: Limited Edition Tin Set | Halloween | Halloween II/Halloween III | Halloween 5 | Friday the 13th/Friday the 13th Part 2 | Friday the 13th Part 3 | Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter | Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 | The Fly/The Fly II | Phenomena | Demons/Demons 2 | The Beyond | Tower of Evil | The Devil Rides Out | My Best Fiend | Fight Club | Edward Scissorhands | Moonlighting -- The Pilot | Die Hard | The Whole Nine Yards | Martin | Seven Days in May | Romeo Must Die | Broadcast News | The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 | Supernova | Prince of Darkness | The Quiet Man | Kelly's Heroes | Runaway | Living Out Loud | 2010 | The Last Starfighter | Enter the Dragon | Conan the Barbarian | Nashville | Highlander | Army of Darkness | Blazing Saddles | The Naked Gun | Leon: The Professional | Braveheart | Caddyshack | Land of the Lost | Blue Thunder | Marnie | Easy Money | Planet of the Apes | Shane | Exorcist III: Legion | The Invisible Man | Creature From the Black Lagoon | Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein | Supergirl | Swamp Thing | Lured | The Ninth Gate | Jaws | My Dog Skip | The World is Not Enough | Shaft | Star Trek II | Star Trek Generations | Dead Again | The Blade Runner Nexus

Home

The Latest DVD
Kelly's Heroes

ninth.jpg

By Steve Vivona

Warner, $24,95, Widescreen

Despite his Dirty Harry image Clint Eastwood has never shied away from comedy. One of his best efforts has just been released on DVD. "Kelly's Heroes" is a World War II comedy about a group of malcontent soldiers who perpetrate the heist of a lifetime.

Near the end of World War II a German colonel is captured by a ragtag unit of malcontent soldiers, but before he can be interrogated by the brass an artillery barrage hits the camp. Private Kelly (Eastwood) gets the colonel drunk and learns that the Germans plan to ship $14 million in gold bullion to a base in France.

Ever the entrepreneur Kelly decides to go after the gold himself, with a little help from some friends of course! He enlists the aid of Big Joe (Telly Savalas) his angry superior, a man who only wants to capture a town with a decent brothel and a good restaurant. Kelly also seeks out "Crapgame" (Don Rickles) a corrupt quartermaster who can get them the supplies they need.

Rounding out the quartet of masterminds is "Oddball" (Donald Sutherland), World War II's only hippie (the film was released in 1970). Oddball has three Sherman tanks at his disposal, but his cohorts doubt his ability to keep up his end. Several other soldiers enlist in this covert operation and we see lots of familiar faces including a young Harry Dean Stanton and Gavin MacLeod.

Also making a hilarious appearance is Carroll O'Connor as Colt, a glory-hungry general desperate for some notoriety as the war winds to a close.

"Kelly's Heroes" isn't a knee-slapper (except when Don Rickles is on the screen) but it's an entertaining heist caper that benefits from a strong ensemble cast. Sutherland is also funny as a character obviously meant to entertain audiences of the day (he recently reteamed with Eastwood for "Space Cowboys").

Warner has given a loving transfer to this MGM film. Colors are strong and accurate, and the source material seems to have been cleaned up nicely. Owing to the running time there is only a widescreen version and that's all that's needed for this Panavision film. A trailer has been included as well.