Tarnished Heroes

TARNISHED HEROES is a long forgotten British WW2 B-movie with one of those men-on-a-mission plotlines that make for easy suspenseful cinema. This one sees the underrated star of the era, Dermot Walsh, leading a group of British soldiers behind enemy lines to blow up a key German bridge to help stop a Nazi column being resupplied in the dying days of the war. The supporting cast is populated by familiar, hard-acting performers including Richard Carpenter, Anton Rodgers and screen villain Maurice Kaufmann, and the action, although not spectacular, works, the siege scenario in the second half being particularly well developed.

Could well be described in the old speak as a 'Ripping Yarn'. This was the type of story that would turn up in boy's comic magazines and perhaps for the same reason this film would turn up on TV in the morning of a school holiday. Its all very cheap but very effective.

Set in World War Two, Major Bell is given the task of blowing up a bridge that is a life line for German supplies, the only troops he can muster is a bunch of renegades and wasters who are awaiting a Court Martial, can he turn them into the team that will do the job while watching his own back? A cast of favourites from British TV this little gem rarely gets seen now but if you want an idea of the plot just watch The Dirty Dozen with Lee Marvin.

I've just watched "Tarnished Heroes" on YouTube and found it acceptable enough, given the obviously limited budget. The other two reviews here on IMDB say it all, or most of it.

I groaned when the soldiers discovered a young French girl in the church where they were holed up, with an instant romance ensuing between her and Major Bell as Germans trapped the squad inside. And there was rather too much extended soul-searching and soul-baring, some of which involved the besieged men sorting out individual and collective issues and not keeping watch on what might have been developing outside the church.

Several of the German soldiers died in quite a realistic manner, reeling back from gunshots, in contrast to the almost languid collapsing one sees too often in war films.