Fide sed cui vide
Friday, April 10, 2026

Black Brigade (1970)

Director George McCowan
Rating Rating
MPAA PG
Run Time 70 min
Color Color
Aspect Ratio 1.33 : 1
Sound Mono
Producer Thomas/Spelling Productions
Country: USA
Genre: Drama, War
Plot Synopsis

A racist officer is put in charge of a squad of black troops charged with taking an important bridge from the Germans.

Quotes

[reading from Pvt. Brightman's notebook]
Lt. Edward Wallace: "July 25. We have been assured by Major Wallace that there will be a rest for us when we reach Berlin. The fighting has been hard, the strain almost unbearable. I will receive the Medal of Honor from General Eisenhower but the heroism of 'B' Company will be preserved by the men who have seen us fight and die."

Filming Locations

Mount Pinos, Frazier Park, CA

On the General's sleeve in the beginning, you can see the patch of the 1st Infantry Division, a.k.a. "The Big Red One".

Originally aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on 1/27/70.

The knife Capt. Carter (Stephen Boyd) throws into a tree looks like a Marine Raider Stiletto. The knife Pvt. Lewis (Billy Dee Williams) has and throws looks like a Ka-Bar fighting knife, or one of its many clones.

At the very start, one is informed that these events occur in Germany in 1944. The first day that allied troops got into any German territory was Monday the eleventh of September, 1944. This was the work of one Staff Sergeant Warner Holzinger, under the command of Lieutenant Vipond of B Troop of the 85th Reconnaissance Squadron, part of the Fifth U.S. Armored Division. It was 97 days after D-Day, Tuesday the sixth of June, 1944.

Revealing mistakes

The Messerschmidt BF 109 that strafes the squad on the road is actually a P40 Warhawk with Luftwaffe markings applied to the wings.