"Cross of Iron" question

[askropp]

Naturally, Steiner is introduced as an Unteroffizier: "Der Tag war mit einem wilden Feuerschlag der russischen Artillerie hinter den großen Wäldern versunken. Das war gestern so gewesen und vorgestern und immer schon und würde morgen wieder so sein. Die Männer im Bunker dösten vor sich hin. Schnurrbart stocherte in seiner Pfeife herum. Unteroffizier Steiner holte sich eine Zigarette aus seiner Tasche." How the rank is translated, depends on the translator. Maybe he was a Briton. Anyway, as I said, both Corporal and Sergeant can be justified. What I objected to was the unwarranted promotion of Schnurrbart.

[Ingsoc75]

Wow. I just came across this thread that I started over 10 years ago.

Since then I've:

-Seen the HD version of COI (it's amazing the things you can pick out compared to the old VHS/DVD quality versions)

-Bought a PPsH-41 machine gun

-Watched an interesting documentary on COI called Passion & Poetry: Sam Peckinpah's War

[KOnstantin77]

Ingsoc75, in regard to your opening question, which nobody seems to have answered in the this thread, i have this ( substantiated) theory:

the scene with the truck returning to the front from the Lazarett driving over a german corpse, is a cutting mistake.
Since you have the HD version, look closely. You see Steiner and Schnurrbart boarding a truck ( opel blitz or a similar vehicle) but the vehicle crushing the corpse in the next scene is actually a halftrack. ( an american M3 posing as a SD.Kfz 251, i believe). You can see the tracks quite clearly. In my personal opinion this scene was shot in order to be used for the segment where Steiner and his men return from their recon mission in the beginning of the movie, where they capture the russian boy soldier and disable the mortar battery. There is a short scene where they are riding in an armored vehicle. The scene with the corpse originally belonged here, but by error or design in the cutting room it was moved to its present position. IMHO.

[Ingsoc75]

Could of been KOnstantin77. It would definitely fit better into the earlier part of the film.

[Patches]

For you Cross of Iron fans - surprised to find an orchestra playing the theme music from "Cross of Iron" on YouTube, here it is:



Enjoy!

[askropp]

According to media reports, "Steiner - Das Eiserne Kreuz" producer Wolf C. Hartwig died on 18 December in Paris. Hartwig made a fortune with the "Schulmädchen-Report" soft pornos in the 1970s and put much of the money into "Steiner", Germany's most expensive post-war film at the time. During WW2, Hartwig was employed as an army translator in occupied France. In "Steiner", he was supposed to appear in a cameo as a Ritterkreuz-decorated general, but his scenes were all lost in the cutting room (probably at the behest of Peckinpah, because during the shooting a huge animosity had developed between the two eccentric men).