Kelly's Heroes - Oddball

"Eastwood's disgraced former officer Kelly leads an oddball group of GIs behind Nazi lines to steal a fortune in gold bullion. Kelly's Heroes are anything but heroic but the movie is one of those unsung heroes of cinema, a superbly crafted film with some awesome directorial touches.

Brian G. Hutton, reunited with Eastwood again after Where Eagles Dare, has never been seen as one of the great directors but Heroes really is a lesson in action and suspense. The twenty-minute real-time sequence where Kelly and his men silently descend on the village holding the gold is simply breathtaking. This is the time the Tiger tanks guarding the loot have to turn over their engines. Kelly and his men use this time to get into position for the climatic battle.

Hutton's use of time and space, plus his lack of dialogue in this set piece, would be hailed as genius if a recognized auteur director handled it. It is so well directed that Spielberg largely adapted the entire sequence for his final battle in Saving Private Ryan.

Not only is the film exquisitely directed but it also features a cast tapping into the zeitgeist of the period it was made. The film maybe set in the second world war but it has a distinct 60s sensibility about it mostly found in Sutherland's prototype hippy Oddball and his strange tank commune. Juxtaposed with Rickles' hustler Crapgame and his ultra-capitalist doctrine, Heroes lightly touches on the conflict raging in America about their involvement in Vietnam.

Hutton crucially never forgets he is entertaining and follows a classical story arc along the lines of The Odyssey or Jason and the Argonauts quest for the Golden Fleece. The hero Kelly gathers an eclectic band of unique heroes together and sets off into uncharted territory full of danger. A minefield and machine guns double for Scylla and Charybdis, fighter planes for the Harpies, and the Tiger tanks for the Hydra guarding their prize.

But any film that features Telly Savallas as a sergeant alongside an already great cast is worth five stars alone. The fact that he is in Kelly's Heroes chewing the shit out of the scenery is an added bonus to a wonderful, wonderful film."

The film was going to have a female role, but prior to filming, it was cut from the script. Ingrid Pitt, who was cast in the role revealed that she was "virtually climbing on board the plane bound for Yugoslavia when word came through that my part had been cut." The filming commenced in July 1969 and was completed in December and was shot on location in Vi%u017Einada in the former Yugoslavia and London. Yugoslavia was chosen mostly because earnings from previous showings of movies in there could not be taken out of the country, but could be used to fund the production. Also the Yugoslav army had in its inventory U.S. Sherman tanks (part of the military aid packages received when Marshal Tito split ways with Stalin and the U.S. feared a Red Army intervention through Hungary).

Several years after the film was released, Eastwood claimed that the movie studio (MGM) made additional cuts to Hutton's final version of the film, eliminating scenes that gave depth to the main characters. The resulting edits, Eastwood said, made the characters look like "a bunch of goof-offs from World War Two. Kelly's Heroes was the last non-Malpaso film that Eastwood agreed to appear in until In the Line of Fire. Bronco Billy was also made with a different company formed by Robert Daley (who produced 15 of his films from 1971-1980), due to Eastwood's divorce at the time.

There is a nod to Eastwood's spaghetti westerns in the standoff with the Tiger tank - a virtual remake of the ending of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, right down to the musical score.

This film was produced and released during the Vietnam War, and in the same political and cultural climate as M*A*S*H - the war-weary soldiers who "don't even know what this war's all about" (Big Joe's words to the German tank commander), the Liberation of Europe being the least of their problems as they set out to line their own pockets.

The U.S. troops wear the insignia of the US 35th Infantry Division. The division actually was in action around Nancy in France in September 1944. The film also uses authentic M4 Sherman tanks (from Yugoslav Army's reserves), while most other contemporary war films, for example Patton, employed too-modern M48 tanks. Because the Yugoslav Army was at the time armed with US arms and locally developed German World War II equipment, the German and American vehicles, machine guns, radios and entrenching tools are remarkably accurate. There is, however, one anachronism. Private Gutowski, the unit's sniper, should be armed with a US Model 1903A4 Springfield sniper rifle with an Unertl target scope. He instead has a Soviet-made Model 91/30 Mosin Nagant sniper rifle with a bent bolt and a PU 3.5X-power side-mounted scope, with a US GI bayonet tied into place on the muzzle. The three Tiger I Tanks used in the film were actually ex-Soviet Army T-34 tanks, converted in great detail by specialists of the Yugoslav army for the 1969 movie The Battle of Neretva.

The movie inspired the 1975 movie Inside Out, about ex-American World War II veterans who team up with ex-Nazi war criminals to con a former Nazi party leader into revealing the location of a secret shipment of gold.

Although he does not appear in the credits, future director John Landis worked as a production assistant. He also appeared in the movie, dressed as a nun. During the shooting of the picture in Yugoslavia, he wrote the first draft of what would eventually become An American Werewolf in London.

Donald Sutherland became seriously ill during filming on location in Yugoslavia. His wife received a telegram telling her to come immediately but warning her that he would probably be dead before she arrived.

John Landis was a production assistant on this film. He also appears as an extra (he was one of the three nuns).

Mike Curb, who wrote the lyrics to the movie's theme song "Burning Bridges," served as lieutenant governor of California between 1978 and 1982.

The movie was mainly filmed in Yugoslavia because the Yugoslavian army still had a large quantity of Sherman tanks in 1970.

The "Tiger" tanks used in the film were actually Russian T-34 tanks which had been specially modified to look like Tiger tanks. This is apparent when you look at the suspension of the tanks (T-34s used a modified Christie suspension, whereas the Tigers' wheels were much more elaborate.)

A record was made of Clint Eastwood singing "Burning Bridges", the theme song from the film. It was released as a 45-rpm disc on Certron Records, catalog #C-10010, produced by Dickey Lee and Allen Reynolds (with the B-side of "When I Loved Her" also sung by Eastwood, and written by Kris Kristofferson).

The 'key' symbol on the Tiger tanks denotes that they are attached to the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte (Body guard unit) Adolf Hitler."

Gutowski carries and uses a Russian sniper rifle, a Mosin Nagant M91/30.

Kelly, Big Joe and the other recon soldiers wear the shoulder patch of the 35th Infantry Division, which was fighting in the area of Nancy, France, in late summer 1944.

Oddball's division is the "Super Sixth", the 6th Armored Division.

The noise made by electric motors of the Tigers' turrets was later used for the movements of the power lifters in Aliens.

Film is based upon a true incident. The caper was covered in a book called "Nazi Gold: The Sensational Story of the World's Greatest Robbery - and the Greatest Criminal Cover-Up" by Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting. The heist was perpetrated by a combinations of renegade Nazi and American officers. It was also listed as the "biggest" robbery ever in the Guinness Book of Records, in the 1960's.

It was during shooting in Yugoslavia 1969, that Donald Sutherland received word, via co-star Clint Eastwood, that his then-wife Shirley Douglas was arrested for trying to buy hand-grenades for the Black Panthers with a personal cheque from an undercover FBI agent. Sutherland recounts this story often, mentioning that when Eastwood got to the part about the personal cheque, he laughed so hard, he fell to his knees, and Sutherland had to help him up. Eastwood then put his arm around Sutherland and walked him down the hill that overlooked the Yugoslav countryside, assuring his friend with complete support of his predicament. Sutherland and Douglas, who are the parents of Kiefer and twin sister Rachel Sutherland, later divorced in 1970.

Clint Eastwood signed to do the film mainly because his friend and favorite director, Don Siegel, was set to direct it. However, Siegel ran into post-production problems while finishing up Two Mules for Sister Sara and had to withdraw from the project. Brian G. Hutton was then signed to direct. Eastwood, who had already signed a contract to do the film, couldn't pull out.

The blue "crosshair" shoulder patch indicates Kelly and his men are from the 35th Infantry Division. It's a National Guard Division, comprised of Guardsmen from Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas.

The American fighter-plane that attacks Kellys group, is actually an Yugoslav "Ikarus Type 522" trainer, that flew for the first time in 1955.

The number of gold bars stated in the heist is 14,000. The initial value of the stolen bars was estimated at $1.6 million and then later corrected to be estimated at $16 million in total. The international standard weight for gold bars is 400 troy ounces and in 1944, the price of gold was $35 dollars per (troy) ounce. That would make approximated total value of the score to be closer to $196 million dollars; not $16 million dollars as stated.

14,000 gold bars, valued at $16M, equals about $1,143 per bar. At the long-standing price of $35/troy ounce, the bars would have had to weigh only 32.6 oz (almost 36 oz avoirdupois) each--probably a gross understatement, even though the bars are clearly much smaller than the standard "Fort Knox" size. But even assuming the weight is correct, 14,000 bars would weigh almost 16 tons (not counting boxes, men and equipment)--well beyond the capacity of the truck they were using. Then again (still with me, folks?), 14,000 bars, at only 12 to a box, would require over 1,100 boxes--seemingly a lot more than is in the pile. So maybe the German colonel was wrong.

Artillery sergeant Mulligan has a humorous name. In golf, a "mulligan" is a "do-over"; a chance to repeat a bad shot. In the film, Sgt. Mulligan is repeatedly berated for his inaccuracy.

The German Tiger tank commander (played by Karl-Otto Alberty) appears to be a parody - both in appearance and manner of speaking - of Marlon Brando's portrayal of German Lt. Christian Diestl in THE YOUNG LIONS.

I liked the Oddball character so much, a few years ago I produced this work of art. It has become quite popular, and now is available in a variety of ways... click the links below to order or see more about the product.

click image to go to order page.


Oddball Says (b/w)



Oddball Says


Oddball Says

Title: Oddball Says *NAZI GOLD EDITION*
Edition of 100
Signed & Numbered
Size: A1 (594 x 841mm / 23.4 x 33.1")
Type: Silkscreen Print
only £20 ($32)
+ post & packing


Oddball Says Mousepad


Oddball Says iPad Skin


Oddball Says Hat


Oddball Says Mug