the Germans with Rabinoff's gun. Only Ennis, Technical Sergeant Stimmler and Private Movie make it back and deliver intelligence about the Germans' new defense line. The film ends with Ennis publicly questioning the competence of the Allied commanders and man's willingness to kill each other. Cast Robert Mitchum as Dick Ennis, war correspondent Peter Falk as Corporal Jack Rabinoff Robert Ryan as Lieutenant General Carson Earl Holliman as Technical Sergeant Abe Stimmler Mark Damon as Private Wally Richardson Arthur Kennedy as Major General Jack Lesley (loosely based on John P. Lucas) Wolfgang Preiss as Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring Reni Santoni as Private Movie Joseph Walsh as Private Doyle Thomas Hunter as Private Andy Giancarlo Giannini as Private Cellini Wayde Preston as Colonel Hendricks Arthur Franz as Major General Luke Howard Anthony Steel as Major-General Marsh Patrick Magee as Major-General Starkey Venantino Venantini as Captain Burns Response The film opened to mixed reviews in the US; many felt it did not work as well as Dmytryk's early war films. The New York Times film review was generally dismissive, and describes the film as "a very ordinary war movie with an epic title, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, the Italian producer... who thinks big but often produces small". In contrast, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert had a more favourable opinion of the film, described it as "a good war movie and even an intelligent one". Production Riz Ortolani scored the film with a ballad called The World is Yours with lyrics by Doc Pomus that was sung beneath the credits by Jack Jones. Luigi Scaccianoce was the production designer. Peter Falk thought that the script he read was clichéd and wanted off the film. At the last minute, Dino De Laurentiis put Falk's name above the title billing and gave him his choice of writer for his character's dialogue. Falk stayed and wrote his lines himself. The production saw De Laurentiis bring in for the first time another actor who made a debut, Giancarlo Giannini, who would later do international films and would work with director Lina Wertmüller. Rabinoff is based on a real 1st Special Service Force soldier, Sgt John L. "Jake" Walkmeister, who ran an illegal brothel of Italian prostitutes in a stolen ambulance. Walkmeister was killed by shrapnel at Port Cros during Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. See also List of American films of 1968 References External links