Tank Battalion (1958)

Director: Sherman A. Rose

Writers: Richard Bernstein, George Waters

Composer: Richard LaSalle

Starring: Don Kelly, Leslie Parrish, Edward G. Robinson Jr., Frank Gorshin, Regina Gleason, BarBara Luna, Robert Paget, Mark Sheeler, Baynes Barron, Tetsu Komai, John Trigonis, Don Devlin, Troy Patterson, Warren Crosby

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Terrible in War. Tender in Love. Battleground Heroes Busting Thru!

Plot: Four men in their tank, during the Korean War in 1951, find themselves behind enemy lines.

My rating:  5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Clocking in at 80 minutes this very low budget B-war picture has more drama than war action.  The budget really shows when you see how cheap the interior set is for the tank.  Much of the exterior tank action is either stock footage or an actual tank used for the film that pretty much sits in one place until the end when it moves forward a few feet.  Sorry about the spoilers there.  There's no tank battalion either.  It's four guys in one tank.  That's it.  One of the four is Edward G. Robinson Jr. who's only in the cast because of his famous pop and his performance is very wooden (much like dad's when he was conceiving junior...OH!).  Frank Gorshin has his moments.  I love that guy.  There's a lot of war movie cliches that involve romance and action.  BarBara Luna as the local native girl is smokin' hot and judging by her photos in films she played over the years, she keeps getting hotter.  Hubba Hubba.  The ending is ridiculous as the three or so Korean soldiers who have the tank pinned down are dispensed of far too easily.  The movie wants it both ways, having them good enough to keep a tank at bay for hours on end then then be killed in a moment that's about as ridiculous as it gets.  They could see it coming a mile away.  Just watch the last couple of minutes and you'll see.  It's on Netflix streaming but you can see it in its entirety on YouTube above.  It's a cheap war drama with some action that's hardly worth wasting 80 minutes for.