M37s in the movie "Play Dirty"

[Pawnshop]

The Military Chanel is showing the movie "Play Dirty" with Michael Caine, made in 1969, about British commandos in North Africa in WWII. I guess the studio could not afford real German trucks so they fabbed some up from M37s. Pretty good film too...

 

[AN/GRC-46]

It looks like everything from the firewall back is pure M37. The Hood and radiator could have just been dummied up but I'm wondering about those front fenders. They're certainly not M37 modifications. Makes me wonder if the whole front end wasn't part of another real vehicle?

 

[Pawnshop]

They made several of them, I think I saw three together in one scene. They rolled one down an embankment and the front did not come off or fall apart, so it was real steel (at least the "fall guy" was), they bashed them pretty hard. There were also some MBs, halftracks and various assorted commercial vehicles. One scene had some sweet MBs kitted out with twin Lewis guns in front and a water cooled Vickers in the rear. The story was that a small squad of convicts, led by a pompous ass Brit officer (Michael Caine), posing as Italian troops, go 400 miles behind enemy lines (through the desert) to blow a fuel depot. The ending was as un predictable as the rest rest of the movie was predictable...

 

[mkcoen]

Don't read the Wikipedia posting for the movie unless you like spoilers.

 

[Oldfart]

It looks like everything from the firewall back is pure M37. The Hood and radiator could have just been dummied up but I'm wondering about those front fenders. They're certainly not M37 modifications. Makes me wonder if the whole front end wasn't part of another real vehicle?

The inner front fender panels are stock M37 and if you look inside the front fender from the rear photo, you can see the stock M37 front fender line. I would guess they welded the front fender flares onto the stock fenders and used lots of bondo. The grill/hood thing is harder, but the hood line seems stock right up to the grill. I would guess again that grill was attached to the hood and probably lifts with the hood.

 

[natem]

Those front fenders look like Halftrack fenders. The grill I don't know.

 

[Pawnshop]

They appeared to have a LOT of halftracks to play with. Here are some more vehicle pix from the movie:

 

[Oldfart]

Here are some more vehicle pix from the movie:

The M37 has a bent right front fender that is bent right at the stock M37 fender line. Zooming in on the grill, you can see the stock hood behind the screen used on the grill. It looks like decent rolled edges to the fender add on's. The headlights look like stock M37 cans and mounts with painted headlight lenses. Removing the headlight protectors and stock grill make for a different look for sure. Add a stick on grill and widen the fenders to look something like the half tracks makes them look more like the same country of origin. I notice one of the tool boxes is built around the slave plug and zoomed in on that looks to be made out of plywood. The Mercedes hood emblem is a nice touch to make one think German, but not the sort of thing you would find on a tactical vehicle.

 

[AN/GRC-46]

One more pix. It's clear that the blackout lights and brush guards were simply removed and stock fenders were cleanly widened. It's still not clear whether the add-on grille was attached to the front of the hood or, possibly, the front of the hood was cut off to more cleanly match up to the grille. It might have been slightly more convincing if the bumper had been replaced or at least widened to match the fender width

 

[M813rc]

They appeared to have a LOT of halftracks to play with. Here are some more vehicle pix from the movie:

The trucks in pic 3 with the Jeeps are Bedford Type O's. They look like OY's, but can't see enough of them to be sure.

Cheers

 

[Pawnshop]

Whatever they were, they all got blowed up

Where did the flat wheel on the MB come from?

 

[Oldfart]

Speaking of those wheels, it looks like someone is hedging his bets about which direction the tread goes.

 

[Pawnshop]

The left one looks smaller than the right one too. They were trying to show that the vehicles were bodged together from spare parts, I think they succeeded.. In one scene they found some bombed out vehicles and went scrounging for tires because they had no spares left

 

[GUNHEEP]

Good ol' hollywood....that is how we pulled off d-day, with their help and a few little rubber props for gen patton...

 

[nattieleather]

I like the sceen where they have to get the trucks up the cliff so they hook one to the other with a cable and pull it up. It was cool to watch anyway. I fell alseep watching it so I didn't see the ending....don't tell me the good guys win and the bad guys loose right?

 

[Pawnshop]

I like the sceen where they have to get the trucks up the cliff so they hook one to the other with a cable and pull it up. It was cool to watch anyway. I fell alseep watching it so I didn't see the ending....don't tell me the good guys win and the bad guys loose right?

Not really, the ending is a bit of a surprise, you should watch it again...