The Battle of the Last Panzer (1969)

THE BATTLE OF THE LAST PANZER is one of those late '60s Italian WW2 films that doesn't have much going for it. The budget is so low here that most of the costumes are wrong and authenticity seems to have been long forgotten about. The story is about the usual group trapped behind enemy lines, and Guy Madison appears, but the action is limited and one machine-gunning sequence is really annoying in the way the sound effects repeat for about ten minutes without a break. The red filter in this sequence doesn't work either. The worst part of it is the long-winded romantic sub-plot about a Frenchwoman and a German officer.

"The Battle of the Last Panzer" was a co-production between the countries of Spain and Italy. Despite two countries collaborating on the movie, it seems that they weren't able to raise a decent budget. Although the events of the movie take place in France, the filmmakers stuck to filming in the Spanish countryside, which looks nothing like France. Also, the French village in the movie is obviously a thinly dressed set used for a spaghetti western! However, the tacky look of the entire enterprise wasn't what sunk the movie for me. There are two big problems in the movie. The first is that none of the characters is sufficiently fleshed out enough so that we can care about them (or hate them). The second problem is that the movie is pretty boring. There's far too much talk and not enough action. And the little action there is in the movie is poorly directed so that there isn't the least bit amount of excitement. Too bad, because despite the low budget you can see the potential the premise of the movie had.

A German panzer brigade is smashed to bits by Americans ( who are wearing stupid Nazi helmets , what ? ) but one crew survive and must repair their m47 Patton , sorry , tiger in order to get back to their own lines before being captured or killed. The plot sounds interesting but when the film gets started it delivers bad acting , poor action scenes and an array of weapons that are from the 1960's , come on every war film still manages to get the correct uniform and weapons ( besides tanks ). Don't even watch this film sober otherwise you will go to a neighbouring farm and shoot yourself with the farmers shotgun. A poor movie in every aspect and i am shocked that TCM were the ones who showed this on TV.

This film is a total waste of celluloid. It's the story of a German Tiger tank caught behind US lines during WW 2. There is no one in this film that you will recognize.The acting is terrible, period. The German part of the soundtrack is dubbed in English, so the mouth movements don't match the words. The musical score doesn't match the film at all. It bears a strong resemblance to the score of many of the early spaghetti westerns. Errors abound...the Nazi "Tiger" tank is, in fact, an old US M-48. The Germans keep talking about needing "gas". All Tiger tanks were diesel-powered. There are errors in the small arms on both sides. About the only thing that kept me watching was the sexy blond wife of a local restaurant owner shows plenty of leg and provides a bit of eye candy. She bears a distinct resemblance to Nancy Sinatra back in her "These Boots are Made for Walking" days. The dialog is poorly written, cliché-ridden and woodenly delivered. Some of the acting is so poor that I found myself laughing when there is no humor in the film. It's difficult to believe that this director had already done a half dozen films prior to this tripe and actually did several more afterwards. Don't bother with this one - at all.