Two more made-for-TV sequels followed, The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (1987) and The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988). Borgnine was back, playing the same character in all four films, while Telly Savalas took over Marvin's old part. Savalas had played one of the original dozen, the memorably psychotic Maggot.

Both are included on Olive Film's new double feature Blu-ray. Having been greatly disappointed by Next Mission when it first aired, this reviewer was expecting the worst. But, in fact, they're actually not too terrible, exemplifying the very last gasps of the old-fashioned postwar World War II movie, a genre that had peaked in the 1960s with movies like The Longest Day (1962) and Battle of the Bulge (1965).

Marvin's character had been Maj. John Reisman in the movie and first TV-movie sequel, while Savalas plays a character named Maj. Wright. Nonetheless, dialogue makes it clear that they're supposed to be one and the same. When Gen. Worden (Borgnine) orders up a new dozen, Wright complains that he's already gone out twice before, and that precious few of those "Dozens" ever came back. Marvin was still living when Deadly Mission aired (though he died soon after); presumably, for one reason or another, he turned it down.

In any case, the mission this time involves infiltrating a French monastery where a deadly nerve gas is being produced, readied for dispersion over Britain via V-2 rockets. The goal is to blow up the monastery and rescue the imprisoned scientists developing the poison.

Unlike the two other Dirty Dozen sequels, Deadly Mission's first half is a veritable clone of the original movie. The dozen includes several characters similar to those in the original film, and in both the Major treats his men to prostitutes he's hired out of sympathy and despite regulations. There's a scene in both where one of the men contemplates going AWOL; the others, fearing reprisals, work together to stop him as the major, unobserved, looks on. (A nearly identical scene crops up in Fatal Mission, too.) Both films include an attempted rape and, if memory serves, in both scheduled parachute training is dropped at the last minute. Even some of the dialogue (such as in the sequence with the prostitutes) is alike.

Despite all this, Deadly Mission is the best of the three sequels for several reasons. First, there's some obvious effort to provide the condemned-prisoners-turned-crack-military-unit with backstories and to flesh them out as characters, whereas in the original movie that wasn't a major concern. Except for the Major rattling off their rap sheets at the beginning of each story, and Marvin's character briefly interviewing them in their cells, The Dirty Dozen was entirely concerned with the here-and-now of the dozen, how they'd interact and learn to help and depend upon one another so there would be some smidgen of a chance they might actually survive their suicidal mission. Audiences learn a little about some of the dozen along the way, but not very much of their backstories.

It's a bit different in Deadly Mission. One of the dozen, for instance, is a Jewish refugee named Stern (Gary Graham), whose petty theft and gunrunning Maj. Wright determines were all for antifascist causes. Another, Ferucci (Paul Picerni) is a middle-aged forger and black marketeer who claims to be in his forties but is actually 52. Others call him "Pops" and he becomes a father-like figure for the rest of the band.

Picerni was, in fact, 65 at the time, old enough to have been in the real war. (He flew combat missions with the 493rd Bomber Squadron and helped blow up the real "Bridge on the River Kwai.") Savalas, also 65, had been in the Army during World War II, though he worked for the US State Department rather than having served overseas. Vince Edwards, taking over from Richard Jaeckel in the tough sergeant role, was 59. Borgnine, 70, served in the United States Navy for ten years beginning in 1935! It's a stretch to think of Savalas, Edwards, and Picerni playing soldiers, but then again their median age is a lot lower than that found in the recent Expendables franchise.

Its TV-movie budget precluded big stars for the supporting roles, but Graham, Bo Svenson, Vince and James Van Patten (playing brothers), stand out. Filmed in what was then Yugoslavia, Deadly Mission has extremely good production values for an ‘80s TV-movie. It's nearly as elaborate as the original film, and well directed by Lee H. Katzin.

The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission isn't as good nor as elaborately appointed, but for what it modestly aspires to isn't bad. This time Gen. Worden (Borgnine again) orders Wright (Savalas) to send a new Dozen to Yugoslavia to intercept the Nazi-controlled Orient Express (not in operation for most of the war), en route to Istanbul, and eliminate twelve hand-picked Nazis planning to establish a Fourth Reich in the Middle East.

Other than the Stern character (this time played by Hunt Block), it's an entirely new dozen, even though many had survived The Deadly Mission. Jeff Conaway (Taxi) takes over from Vince Edwards this time, and the new recruits include the usual hulking giant (John Matsuzak), African-American (Ghostbusters' Ernie Hudson), an American gangster (Erik Estrada), a short-but-powerful lightweight (boxer Ray Mancini), and others.

The twist this time is that a woman, Lt. Carol Campbell (The Fall Guy's Heather Thomas, rather fetching) joins the dozen as a last-minute replacement because of her proficiency with languages and a youth spent in both Germany and Yugoslavia. Another new wrinkle is that there's a mole amongst the dozen, a spy reporting its movements back to the Germans.

A bit less lavishly filmed again in Yugoslavia, the Yugoslavian and Bulgarian settings work a little better than what masqueraded as France in Deadly Mission, though an early scene in Fatal Mission, set in Liverpool, is downright absurd, given the obviously Yugoslav architecture the filmmakers feebly attempt to disguise.

Holding both movies together is Telly Savalas, whose earlier war films Battle of the Bulge, The Dirty Dozen, and Kelly's Heroes (1970) helped establish his considerable early fanbase in Europe, laying the foundation for his later American TV stardom as Kojak. Savalas virtually defined the term "panache" on and off-camera, the actor's uniquely Greek virility and swagger exuded unpretentious confidence and a world of experience, and by all accounts he was as colorful and exotic off-screen as he was on. His (shaved) bald dome, of course, became his trademark, but it also helped hide his years; he barely seemed to age at all over his four-decade career.

Video & Audio

The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission and The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission are paired on the same Blu-ray disc, which has basic but notably striking menu screens. Each film is presented in 1.33:1 standard format, as they originally aired, though quite possibly they were shot with 1.66:1 widescreen in mind for theatrical release in some markets abroad. Both are new transfers and otherwise look great. The DTS-HD Master Audio is a surprise. Deadly Mission is in full stereo surround and is really a knockout by late-1980s TV standards but, curiously, the subsequent Fatal Mission is ordinary mono. No alternate audio or subtitles, and no Extra Features.

Parting Thoughts

It would be foolhardy to watch something like these made-for-TV sequels expecting them to match the scale and polish of its celebrated original, but on their own terms, The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission and The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission are reasonably entertaining, and the high-def transfers are good. Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is the Kyoto-based film historian and publisher-editor of World Cinema Paradise. His credits include film history books, DVD and Blu-ray audio commentaries and special features.