Shot for what was less than my annual salary when I was last employed and even less than my New York state pension, The Silent Raiders has the look of cheapness that Sam Katzman pioneered at Monogram and that Lippert Pictures did its best to uphold. A cast of people you will not know are in this World War II film about Commandos raiding into France to blow up a communication station 24 hours before D-Day.
Even at that they were wrong at the beginning of The Silent Raiders as the opening credits say that this took place in SOUTHERN France. With that I thought this was about the landings that took place a few months after D-Day on the Riviera. The only movie I recall ever being made about that operation or the aftermath thereof is the Frank Sinatra/Tony Curtis classic Kings Go Forth.
And of course it bothered me that the term Commando was used. In the American army I thought the proper term was Ranger.
Slightly over an hour in running time, The Silent Raiders is mostly preoccupied with the two sergeants on the mission and a subdued rivalry between the two of them. But what totally through me for a loop was the fact that when they got to their objective one of the men sees a German soldier being entertained by some cute French mam'selle and decides to cut himself in on the action. I mean really.
Films like this killed Lippert Pictures.
