Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/832212
14 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2017 THIS QUARTER IN FILM HISTORY 12 Anti-Authoritarian Men by Edward Landler MGM's The Dirty Dozen, directed by Robert Aldrich, had its world premiere at Loew's Capitol Theatre on Broadway in New York City 50 years ago, on June 15, 1967. Based on the novel by E.M. Nathanson, it depicts 12 court-martialed American soldiers sentenced to death or long-term prison sentences. Offered amnesty if they survive a top secret mission, they train as a commando unit to kill high-ranking Nazi officers gathered in a French chateau on the eve of the D-Day invasion. At the film's conclusion, reacting to an American general's praise, a survivor at a military hospital mutters, "Killing generals could get to be a habit for me." This is followed by a voice reading an official commendation over a montage of the namesake dozen — a motley crew representing a full range of motivations for their original crimes from understandably justified and sympathetic to utterly despicable and psychopathic. The day after the premiere, The New York Daily News reported that the end of the movie was greeted by "the loudest burst of applause ever heard on Broadway." Earning over $20 million in its first The Dirty Dozen. MGM/Photofest