The Young Warriors

The Young Warriors is a war film filmed in 1966 by Universal Pictures based on Richard Matheson's 1960 novel The Beardless Warriors that was the working title of the film. The novel was inspired by Matheson's own experiences as an 18-year-old infantryman with the 87th Infantry Division in Germany in World War II. The film was directed by John Peyser who had directed 27 episodes of Combat! and would later direct 10 episodes of The Rat Patrol. It was filmed cheaply by Universal on their backlot using many of its contract players, with Matheson asked to do a rewrite of his screenplay in order to utilise the battle sequences from Universal's To Hell and Back. When Universal wished to "lighten" Matheson's screenplay, they had Jonathan Daly write a comedy relief scene of chasing a duck through a minefield. The film was released as a double feature with Rosalind Russell's Rosie!.