Attack on the Iron Coast (1968)

That was an excellent one.

Load of rubbish!!

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If it wasn't for Lloyd Bridges being in this, I doubt that I would have had any interest in seeing this, just another rushed out action film made on the cheap in the 60's, documenting one of hundreds of thousands of missions during World War II. Bridges is the only familiar name in this, seen in the opening vowing to make up for a mission he just failed on. He is at conflict with several other allied officers, especially Andrew Keir who blames him for the death of his son, conflicting with him over every decision made aboard ship. Bridges is seemingly acting defensive over the failed mission, and seems all too eager to clear his name by becoming commander of a very important upcoming mission. Drilling scenes are interpolated with his home life, which leads to his grade school aged son asking the above question.Every veteran working actor in the 1960's seemed to be asked to star in these assembly line war dramas, and while some became classics, a good majority of them are instantly forgotten. This one is amongst the later, overly scored in domestic scenes and focused on personal conflicts in the preparation of the mission (attacking German troops on the French coast) rather than coming together to defeat the enemy. It slows down horribly with these scenes, and it makes it hard to root for characters who are fighting on the same side but are carrying on their own private war. This seems to have been rushed out as part of a quota agenda without regards to anything that might make it stand out like "The Dirty Dozen". I will give credit to where it is due, however, and say that the ending is incredibly action packed and filled with tension, making it worth the ride to get all the way through.

ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST is a typical UK/USA collaboration detailing a brave Allied attack on German forces during WW2. This one has all of the planning of THE DAM BUSTERS and a similarly-themed raid in which a group of dedicated soldiers risk their lives in attempting to destroy a strategically-important German position in occupied France. There's a whiff of THE COCKLESHELL HEROES about it to in the way the action is sea-based.Stories such as this may not be true but they're certainly based on real raids which did occur and thus they're easy viewing. ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST is suspenseful and well-acted by a decent cast, all of whom give a ring of authenticity to their characters. Lloyd Bridges is a typically hard-assed character, a Canadian major brought in to lead the British attack. Andrew Keir is well cast against him as the gruff and antagonistic ship's captain.There isn't a great deal of action in this picture although the usual training sequences and the like play out. The special effects are limited to rather poor miniature models of the ships but they don't spoil the effect. However, there is some suspense, and it does build to an action-packed climax which has all of the explosive incident, drama, and pathos that you could hope for.

Haunted by his failure in a previous mission, Major Wilson signs up to lead Operation Mad Dog even though the risks are high. Mad Dog seeks to bring several boats of commandos onto a heavily fortified part of France's coast – one of them full of explosives. While the commandos raid the shore the ship will explode and reduce the defences to rubble and leave the area open for attack. However accidents during training are only the start of a fraught and dangerous mission.From this period it is not unusual to have a commando movie – if fact they were quite common and quite popular. Taking this as my reason, I decided to watch this film but quickly regretted bothering. The plot is not anything new – training a group of men for a risky mission against all the odds. The first half of the film is quite slow and the training is given none of the wit of Dirty Dozen and other movies that have done it better. Worse still is the fact that the film delves into Major Wilson's personal life, giving long scenes the feel of a melodrama. The actual attack is quite short and quite ordinary – lots of men running round alleys for 5 minutes. The model work is also pretty poor considering the time it was made – they really could have done better.Another reason for the film lacking teeth is the fact that I never really cared about the characters. It was surprising that, given how much of the film is spent talking, that only the two lead characters were developed to the point that I could give a damn about either of them. Of the two leads, Bridges is miscast and didn't convince me he was a tough wartime Major. Keir however was solid and I enjoyed his character.Overall this is a pretty poor film that is dull for the most part. It aspires to be a film like Dirty Dozen but it never manages to get anywhere near it. Poor characters, uninvolving development, weak action and a plot that does exactly what you expect it to. Even if you want a film in this genre you can do way better than this.

You could probably have more fun, and learn more, from just 'imagining' what an attack on the coast of occupied France would have been like, rather than putting yourself through this perfunctory movie. And call me pessimistic, but Lloyd Bridges, with his slick enthusiasm and even slicker hair, did not make for a believable wartime Major. That said, the reasons why the operation was approved, and also the revelation that at least six of his men were killed in his stringent training program was thought-provoking.