Before Gilligan's Island, Tina Louise Headlined A War Movie With A Future Silver Screen Legend

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Byron Haskin's 1961 war drama "Armored Command" is largely forgotten these days, and only notable for its cast. This, despite an intriguing premise and a surprisingly dark tone. In the film, Tina Louise, three years out from "Gilligan's Island," plays a German spy during World War II who has been sent to infiltrate an American tank unit to get information about troop movements. It's clearly inspired by the real-life Mata Hari story, at least in certain vague elements. Her character, named Alexandra, is deliberately shot in the arm by her superiors and then sent over to the Americans, where they can nurse her back to health, allowing her more time to get sympathy and information from them. 

Howard Keel plays the lead character, Colonel Devlin, and it's unusual that Keel, best known for his singing voice, should be cast in a role where he doesn't sing. Earl Holliman plays a character named Mike who discovers Alexandra, and it will be the two of them who develop the most chemistry. He's listed low in the credits, but a young Burt Reynolds also appears in "Armored Command" as an American soldier named Skee. His role is small, and most certainly unsavory. He ends up sexually assaulting Alexandra. Alexandra, however, will be able to get her revenge on him before the end of the movie. It's unusual that the filmmakers of an American war thriller made the Nazi spy sympathetic and the American soldier the attacker. 

This was only Burt Reynolds' second feature film after "Angel Baby" from the same year, although it was preceded by Reynolds' big break on TV, appearing in 20 episodes of the notable TV series "Riverboat." 

Various reviews on Letterboxd point out that the Americans are kind of depicted as the bad guys in "Armored Command." The soldiers are all lazy, vicious, cowardly, or just plain wicked. The general opinion, though, seems to be that director Byron Haskin wasn't trying to make the Americans seem evil, and that he was actually just a poor director. The dialogue implies that the Americans are meant to be tough and rough-hewn rather than incompetent and uncaring. 

A lot of reviewers also noted that "Armored Command" reuses a lot of action footage, giving it a cheap feel. A book of interviews with Byron Haskin, called "Byron Haskin: a Directors Guild of America Oral History," revealed that "Armored Command" was hardly a passion project of his. "I didn't like the thing in the first place," he was quoted as saying. "I took it as a breadwinner; when you get low on dough, you've got to take a picture." For Haskin, it was just a job. He also said that he hated the script, and figured he could rewrite scenes on the fly. Whatever he did, it certainly didn't allow "Armored Command" to last into posterity. He is better remembered now for "The War of the Worlds." He also said that when shooting was completed, he was fired from the picture, and it was edited without his oversight. This is the kind of thing that typically indicates a movie is doomed. 

Luckily, many movie fans agree that Tina Louise was just fine in the role of Alexandra, and that Burt Reynolds, although playing a scoundrel, is still possessed of his natural confidence in front of a camera. One Letterboxd reviewer, however, noted that he was more smug than charming. 

According to an old article in Variety, there was already some minor scandal attached to "Armored Command" over its use of real soldiers as extras. The producers were accused of doing this as a means of getting around paying real actors. Of course, this is a common production habit in Hollywood; many studios cooperate with the military in exchange for open use of their vehicles, equipment, and uniforms, even to this day. Some union representatives may file complaints, but the practice has become common enough that it's not hugely scandalous. 

There was, however, still a lawsuit about "Armored Command," and, according to an old Los Angeles Times article, one Major General Daniel H. Hudelson claimed that Allied Artists stole the story "Armored Command" from him, after he had, some seven years earlier, sent in an audio recording of his own war experiences. According to the lawsuit, the film made about $1.5 million at the box office, and Hudelson claimed that he was owed a portion of the money. Sadly, I was not able to find any evidence of how that lawsuit turned out. If the movie only made $1.5 million, though, then it would have been kind of a bomb, seeing as it was made for $1 million to start with. In terms of Hollywood accounting, that's a loss. 

Sadly, "Armored Command" is not available on any streaming services, although resourceful internet sleuths might be able to find bootleg copies of the movie online. But given that its only notable features are performances from Tina Louise and Burt Reynolds, then maybe one can wait until it's more widely available before hunkering down.