BEYOND GLORY (1948)

Rocky Gilman (Alan Ladd), a senior cadet at West Point, is called before an investigative board looking into complaints of bullying and hazing lodged by former cadet Raymond Denmore and his wealthy father. Rocky, who had seen action as a draftee in World War II in Tunisia before enrolling in West Point, had accused Ray of lying which led to his expulsion, and, though the Denmores' complaint is against West Point as a whole, their lawyer is essentially holding Rocky responsible and putting him on trial, though he is reminded time and time again that the panel is not a court of law. The panel becomes the frame story through which we see a series of flashbacks, out of chronological order, about Rocky. Something happened in Tunisia which led to the death on the battlefield of Rocky's close friend, Henry (Tom Neal), and though Rocky got the Distinguished Service Cross, he insists that he was a coward and disobeyed an order, which led directly to Henry's death. He spends time in a hospital suffering mostly from what we would call post-traumatic stress syndrome, and when he gets out, he finds Henry's widow Ann (Donna Reed) on V-E Day and confesses his guilt to her, but they wind up bonding and he decides to enroll in West Point as a way of making up for whatever happened in Tunisia. Eventually, they even plan on marrying when Rocky graduates. But now, with Rocky confessing to cowardice, all bets are off. Rocky sees Ann the night after his first appearance at the panel and writes a resignation letter. But the next day, an eyewitness to the Tunisian incident arrives who might be able to clear everything up.

I hunted this down because the author of Reinventing Hollywood, David Bordwell, devotes a fair chunk of space to this movie in his discussion of the use of flashbacks in films. This movie does use flashbacks in a fairly extreme way, mostly to create suspense by dragging out the answer to the question of what actually happened in Tunisia, but the story is not hard to follow—though jumbled in chronology, the flashbacks are marked clearly as to when they take place, and the present-time investigation remains a touchstone throughout. The biggest disappointment is the rationale for leaving us, and Rocky, in the dark about Tunisia—Rocky's friend Eddie (Dick Hogan) has known the truth all along but never said anything because Rocky never wanted to talk about it. That aside, this is a solid melodrama with a mystery frame. Some may think Ladd, in his mid-30s, too old for the part but I think he easily passes for mid-20s. His somewhat wooden acting style fits here—it makes Rocky stoic, with intimations of deep, possibly dangerous waters in his psyche. Donna Reed isn't given much to do, but she does make Ann's acceptance of Rocky believable. Good support comes from Tom Neal and Dick Hogan who make the most of their limited screen time. George Coulouris is especially good as a snarky lawyer you love to hate. Audie Murphy plays one of the cadets, and the sweet, grandfatherly Henry Travers (pictured with Ladd) is Rocky's adoptive father. The wrap-up, which ends with an actual excerpt from a speech by future president Dwight Eisenhower is a little too speedy, not letting us feel warm and fuzzy for too long. [YouTube]