YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT KELLY

I have liked the show for years, I watch it about once a month. I have picked out a various number of little things that are different.

When the column of tanks followed by the Engineer Unit make thier way towards Kelly, and the bunch. Oddball's pants are soaked with water, when he dismounts his pants are dry.

When they enter the town, and they stop at the corner of the street. Kelly splits, and Oddball hangs on to the barrell as he jumps down. The whole barrel assembly bobs up and down. Must be some pretty loose bearings in that turret. (I spent 8 yrs in a Canadian Armoured Unit in the 1970's)

At the end of the show, it showed the Panzer SS Commander jumping off his tank to meet with "The Good, the bad, and the ugly" group. He later says after he get's his share of the gold. We go now. Who is the "We" I thought he was in the tank by himself, as now one else dismounted.

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I have the understanding that Sherman's mounted 75mm guns, Oddball says it was a 76mm.

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I LUV this movie cuz it portrays the American soldier as he really is, a good
guy who isn't all glory and guts, but will fight and DIE, it shows what the
daily grind is like day in day out of complete sh**!!, my whole family is
either a veteran of WW2 or Vietnam so to me this movie just helps me picture
how they felt sometimes, and in the words of Big Joe "There's no action
here!!", and I can honestly saw many of my family said the same things when
the were serving

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Just found your site after searching AltaVista. Definitely one of
the (actually #1 in my book) best every made, with others such as
Where Eagles Dare and Tora Tora Tora. I remember having a large
book on the making of war movies that had many interesting facts about
the movie. But, I haven't seen the book in years. The page were
about 2' by 1', spiral bound and had tons of pictures and background
info.

Think your site is great and I look forward to checking out all of its
contents. Good luck with your site.

-Mike B.

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Hello, I found your page looking for the "Burning Bridges" song of this
GREAT film.. do you know where to find thid BEUTIFUL SONG ( if possible on
MP3) Big thanks and nice to meet you

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I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I never thought I would find
another who was a big "Kelly's Heroes" fan! What a
relief! For a minute, I thought there was something
wrong with me. I loved your page. Hope to see more
on it.

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-NICK. FISHER

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This movie has it all, action, great characters, laughs, cool battles, and a unique story. What more do you need besides a big bowl of popcorn and some friends or family to watch it with. I am only sad that the movie was cut to its present length by MGM. Too bad someone did not save the lost items. Maybe Clint can give us some clues.

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My boyfriend's favorite movie is Kelly's Heroes. Does anyone know where I
can get him a poster? Thanks for your time. -Lori

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Brilliant. Brilliant plot esp.. Both pro and anti-war, characters brilliant
in their absurdity e.g. a hippy in WW2!, and the way they behave e.g. Kelly
interrogates POW's by getting them drunk, Crapgame suggests a deal.
Cool actors e.g. Telly Savalas, Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland.
Immensely quotable, great soundtrack. Action scenes cleverly thought out;
makes you feel part of the plan. Large body count but still happy ending!
-Chris May

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Yes, this is one of the greatest movies ever. Hard to believe it's over 35 years old! I own the VHS, DVD, and watch it from beginning to end every time it's on TV.;

-David Masters - Des Moines, IA

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I may have watched this 8-10 times so far and I am about due to watch it again. The cast is impressive and the story is genuine... who wouldn't want to take advantage of a bad situations and risk nothing more to gain MILLIONS !?!?! Some of the quotes from this movie are classics that will never die. I own the DVD and hope to find more trivia and possibly some artifacts from the movie.

Killroy was here!

-Jimmy Buffett

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The Big Mick's 4 Top Favorite Films of All Time:

1. Casablanca

2. The Quiet Man

3. Star Wars Episode 4 the Original (A New Hope)

4. Kelly's Heroes

The Big Mick

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This is the best movie ever !! I have probably watched it over 100 times.

Christine George

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Quote:

I have the understanding that Sherman's mounted 75mm guns, Oddball says it was a 76mm.

Quote:

The Sherman Mounted Both the French 75mm and the Navy 3inch (76mm) guns and believe it or not their was a Sherman with a 105mm Howitzer too. OH, and a few with 90mm. Just when you think you know everything about the Sherman some one tells you something new. I learned of the 90mm Sherman's from a WW II vet and confirmed through "Jane's WW Tanks" There were only a small number made and saw service -- mostly with Tank Destroyer units. I'm sure they ruined a few German Tiger & Panther Tanks crew days.

Telly rocks in this film -- a perfect SGT. Be interesting know how he prepared for the role? Wish Clint would have taken the extra step and got a hair cut before filming. This film covered many things that most WW II Films about the Combat Soldier (from both sides) and the European Campaign miss.

Dave

A Kelly's Heroes fan and WW II History Buff.

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I always wanted to make a Sherman tank I could drive but in the end I had to go for a Tetrarch as it better resembled the donor vehicle.

Well some form of tank is still better than none.

I saw the film with my dad when I was a kid and it's still up there with the best of the best!

Some pictures of my tank here.

http://www.ww2airsoft.org.uk/php/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1699&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

and here http://www.imperial-fleet.com/bbcforum/viewtopic.php?t=899&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60

Nice site BTW!

Nigel AKA Oddball.

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Hello

I have enjoyed watching Kelly'e Heroes ever since the
early 1970's when it was released. I watched it again
today, and still am confused with one section. There
is one part of the story that I have never understood.
I am hoping someone can help me with this.

Oddball, watching in binoculars, sees the bridge
across a river get bombed, then must get the band to
come build a new bridge for him. After the band bridge
builders arrive, Carrol O'Connor is listening in on
the conversation. At this time, it seems that Oddball,
Kelly, and all his regulars are already on the other
side of the river. How did Oddball get his tank across
if none of the other tanks and trucks were able to?
The others still had several hours of bridge building
in order to get across, but somehow, Oddball had
crossed. If he could have crossed, why did he even
involve the bridge builders at all?

Thank you for any help you can give me.
Dean

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There was a German Bridge in place when they got there and they used the German Bridge before it was damaged, the Tanks had gone across first. The Engineers were repairing a German Pontoon Bridge. I imagine the attack on that German bridge was part of the stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor when the movie was being whittled down.

Dave

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well i don't care what you all say, i'm the biggest fan of them all and i can't believe that there are others like me ... i truly did believe i was the only huge fan.

This movie often gets a bad wrap about being silly or unreal, what are these critics thinking, its a tremendous movie, i saw it first on tv, my dad taped it and in the early 70's i watched it over 50 times one summer, sometimes three times a day, i learnt the script and i know it so well i can pick up on the smallest of changes.

Here is one, when the three march down the street towards the Tiger to offer a deal to the German tank commander you see a shot of the tank radio op's machine gun move from side to side, in the original that came with an effective sound effect ... well that has gone in the remastered version, instead we get som lalo musical effect. I'm a huge fan of lalo too mind you but mostly for Bullit and Dirty Harry.

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Locations

I'm trying to find the filming locations for this movie, obviously it is Yugoslavia and the production company was Avala Film in Belgrade but does anyone have an information on where they filmed:

1. the final bank scene, what village is it?

2. the minefield scene

3. the top of the hill and the air strike

4 the opening sequence and town they drove through at night that they mortared

5 the railyard sequence with oddball and his triangular formation

i've drawn a map of the village from reviewing all the footage to get an idea of the layout .... you'd be surprised to learn that the movements of the tanks and soldiers fits in perfectly, the continuity is excellent, i've mapped out the movements of crapgame and his 30cal, big joe and his crew, and the three tigers, it all works.

anyone know where they filmed this.

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M4 verses Tiger 1 (panzer MKVI)

The M4 Sherman wasn't able to destroy a Tiger head on from any range, not even point blank, the tiger on the other hand could take out the sherman at 1600m. The only chance the sherman had was point blank and from behind, Tiger had 100mm armour on the front and only 80mm on the rear, the turret had as much as 110mm. The biggest problem the tiger had was its weight, it couldn't move very quickly and steering was difficulty, the tiger was designed to be well protected with the best weapons, but it was too heavy for most bridges and a sitting duck if it got damaged. It had a sophisticated 16 variation turning mechanism because of its weight and this made sticking it in a small town with narrow streets a real issue ... one that kelly used to his advantage.

About the Sherman breaking down ... tanks broke down often, these were heavy machines that were manufactuered quickly and weren't designed with reliabilty in mind, in battle a tank would be lucky to last ten minutes before it got hit. The engines would overheat and for a fuel pump to fail wouldn't be unheard of, it was hardly a critical element .... armour and guns were.

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Big Joe never said "theres no action here"

he said "there's no booze, there's no broads, there's no action"

tony

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I'm a big fan of KH. One of the most important and interesting things about
this film that also makes it a cut above most War films is the facts of
soldiering. A lot of soldiering is either boring stuff done on your own and
that's rarely shown on film because there's nothin' happening, or in the
movies it's gung ho individualism. KH is a team project because it shows
lots of teams in action from top to bottom not always working on the same
project since K's team is on a mission of its own.

Whether it's comms or bridge building or gold hunting (we're all in this
together) or black market stores people or even R&R, the hero is the team
and the team wins and even the team of the enemy wins (the tank group we
never see). This is a film that repays careful analysis for those who are
into that (which I am). It's a pity that we don't have a DVD with very many
special features and interviews and stuff. C'est la vie.
The fact that there is a fan site which I've just discovered is brill.
Steve
KHfan

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It's a Motha Beautiful site! WOOF WOOf!

Oddball: It's a beautiful tank.

Moriarity: Oddball.....it's a piece a junk! The fuel system leaks over the place. IT'S A PIECE AH JUNK!!!

Oddball: Always with the negative waves Moriatity always with the Negative waves.

-Ted Smythson

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Kelly's Heroes is one of my favorite movies. One thing that really caught my attention the first time I watched it was the level of detail they spent trying to get the look of the tiger tanks realistic. It always made other movies annoying because they would use 1950's/60's American tanks to simulate a German Tiger.

One thing I have not seen in the posts is the fact that the tanks you see in the movies are NOT Tigers......they are T-34/85's with steel welded on to make them look like Tigers. Also, if you look at the tank in Saving Private Ryan, it is the same set-up. I always wonder if they either used the same tanks or at least copied the same technique in building them.

Mike

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Hello All,

Great website, and thanks for maintaining it!

This movie ranks up there with my all-time favorites: Apocalypse Now, Alien, Vanishing Point, Kelly’s Heroes. There is a small blurb on Wikipedia about the Yugoslav T-34’s that were modified into ‘Tiger’ tanks.

To see how much detail went into this movie: After Oddball nails Tiger 1 “in the arse!”, he pulls the Sherman out of the bombed-out building. Tiger 2 comes crashing through and shoots at the passing Sherman . The scene is held and you can see the shell explode on the hill way behind the town. That impressed me!

I wish DML/Dragon or Tamiya would come out with 1/35 figures of The Heroes. They have Cross of Iron and some from Apocalypse Now.

Keep watching!

Bill

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hello to you all. greetings from a French fan of KH. my name is jean-philippe and love that movie.I've seen a hundred times . write me soon to : jpnatcharlotteboucher@orange.fr

The German outfit is a leibstantarte Adolf Hitler SS panzer division

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I've always been a huge fan of Kelly's Heroes. Fellow fans can read my tribute article on this classic film at Suite101.com by clicking this link: http://classicfilms.suite101.com/article.cfm/war_movie_kellys_heroes

William J. Felchner

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Man, oh Man! do i love this movie!!

Rick Hind

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My most favorite movie, when it first came out I stayed in the theater all day and watched it 4 times in a row. Have it in VHS, and DVD.

Richard

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Hello, Great site. A sad update, actor Perry Lopez, "Pvt Petuko", the BAR gunner, passed away from lung cancer at age 78 in Feb 2008 in CA. As a big fan of the movie and a former BAR gunner (WW2 reenactment group) this is indeed sad news. May this understated character forever live on delivering high volumes of automatic rifle cover fire in this one of a kind classic movie.

-Chris Moore

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