While he did plead on Hutton's behalf, Eastwood's voice did not carry quite as much weight with Aubrey as it would have just a few years later, with the release of films like Dirty Harry(1971) and High Plains Drifter(1973). Once the film was nearly in the can, Hutton was forced to make a number of cuts to suit the then MGM boss James Aubrey, a move that Clint Eastwood resented.
Unfortunately, Eastwood did not have quite as much clout as needed to release the picture he and Hutton intended. And like M*A*S*H (1970) and Catch-22 (1970), this military comedy takes place in an earlier war but is really a thinly disguised treatise on the modern-day insanity then unfolding in Vietnam. Kelly's Heroes was just one of several war films produced between 19, like Castle Keep (1969) and Catch-22(1970), that were adapted from anti-war novels that dated from the early 1960s. So with the Vietnam War and anti-war protests raging, the release of the film seemed timed just right to reflect the tone of the nation.
At least that's the standard idea in Hollywood filmmaking.īut Eastwood and Hutton wanted to do something daring, the timing seemed right, and the star had the clout to do the unexpected, since Eastwood was the second biggest box office draw in 1970, sandwiched between Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. After all, if a formula works, there's no need to change it. Hutton and Eastwood collaborated just two years prior on the very successful Where Eagles Dare (1969), so the studio expected a similar treatment in Kelly's Heroes. Hutton were set to make a unique anti-war picture, in the same vein as M*A*S*H*(1970). With a working title of The Warriors, star Clint Eastwood and director Brian G. Kelly's Heroes experienced a rocky road from conception to the screen. Share Kelly's Heroes (1970) was made during a transitional phase in Clint Eastwood's career - between his former days as a stogie-chewing pistolero in Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns and his future job as San Francisco's most relentless cop, Dirty Harry (1972). Kelly's men then take the gold and leave the military victory to General Colt. A sole German remains protecting the bank, but he is persuaded to join in the robbery. The unorthodox mission is finally launched, and Kelly and his men reach the bank at the cost of many German lives. Meanwhile, Field Commander General Colt, who has been listening to the radio communication setting up the operation, believes the group is on a heroic venture and sets off to join them. Next, Kelly recruits Oddball, an eccentric young soldier who has stolen two Sherman tanks. After deciding to "appropriate" the gold, Kelly and his men enlist the aid of Crapgame, the manager of the supply depot, to provide the equipment necessary for the robbery. Further questioning reveals information concerning 14,000 more ingots worth $16 million being held in a nearby German bank. Hoping to learn the location of the German Army's supply of liquor and women, Kelly instead discovers two gold ingots hidden in the German's uniform. Army officer, captures a German colonel and brings him back to American headquarters for questioning. Before he is killed by an attacking German Tiger tank, the drunken Dankhopf blurts out that there is a cache of 14,000 gold bars (worth $16 million) stored in a bank vault 30 miles behind enemy lines in the town of Clermont (most likely Clermont-en-Argonne).Lieutenant Kelly, an unconventional U. When Kelly notices his prisoner has a gold bar in his briefcase, he gets him drunk to try to get information about the gold. Kelly (Clint Eastwood), a former lieutenant who has been demoted to private as a scapegoat following a disastrous assault some time earlier, captures Colonel Dankhopf of German Intelligence. In World War II France in early September 1944, units of the 35th Infantry Division are nearing the town of Nancy when one of the division's platoons receives orders to pull out while under attack from the Germans (much to the dismay of the men, who are eager to get into Nancy in order to find a decent place to get some rest).