Immortal Battalion (1945)
A group of draftees are called up into the infantry during World War II. At first, they appear to be a hopeless bunch, but their Sergeant and Lieutenant have faith in them and mould them into a good team. When they go into action in North Africa, they realize what it's all about.
A Story of Today---YOU'LL REMEMBER FOREVER!
Lt. Jim Perry: You know being in the army has a lot of disadvantages, but there is one compensation - you're not alone against anyone.
Pirbright Army Camp, Pirbright, Surrey, England, UK
Houses of Parliament, Parliament Square, Westminster, Greater London, England, UK
D&P Studios, Denham, Uxbridge, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
(studio: made at D&P Studios)
Algeria
(location)
In the U.K., this was released on D-Day, June 6, 1944 with name ?The Way Ahead.?
This started life as an Army training and instructional movie, The New Lot (1943), written by Sir Peter Ustinov and Eric Ambler, and which contained many of the cast members of this film (David Niven came in later). The training movie had upset some Army brass with its frankness, and was suppressed. It has recently re-emerged thanks to a copy found in an archive.
At the time the movie was made, David Niven, who played a Lieutenant, was a British Army Major serving on operations in World War II. He was a 1930 graduate of Sandhurst, the British Army military academy.
Sir Peter Ustinov, who wrote the film and played the Anglophobic caf? owner Rispoli, was only a private in the British Army, so to explain his presence on-set to visiting senior officers, he was said to be Major David Niven's batman (officer's servant, a kind of military valet). Ustinov served with the British Army Film Unit for most of the war.
David Niven reports in his autobiography that the film was shown for many years for training at Sandhurst (the British Army's officer training school).
Continuity
Following some energetic army training, Private Bill Parsons is seen sitting on the grass at the top of a cliff, with his colleagues, exhausted. However, the action then cuts to him being helped up the cliff.
The Vickers gun used by Brewer and Luke changes from having a smooth barrel casing/water jacket, in the exterior shots, to a corrugated pattern once inside the Cafe Rispoli.