BREAKTHROUGH (1950)

We are with American troops in England in 1944, training for the upcoming D-Day landing at Normandy. Top dog of the company is the seasoned Captain Hale (David Brian); the newbie is former teacher Lt. Mallory (John Agar), fresh out of officer's training at Fort Benning and resented a bit by Hale. Sgt. Pete Bell (Frank Lovejoy) likes Mallory and tries to run interference between the two. Some of the other men in Agar's platoon include Dominick, a brash young man who is fixated on a career in politics; Hanson, the platoon clown who likes to do impressions of Bogart and Edward G. Robinson; Muscles, the strong, slow kid; gawky nerd Nelson whose nickname is "4F"; Uncle Roy, the oldest guy in the group; Jimbo, a country boy with a soft spot for dogs; and Rojek, a working-class guy from the Bronx. We follow the group from England across the Channel to Omaha Beach, through the French hedgerows to their designated mission of taking the town of St. Lo as the men bond and squabble and fight and die, all in predictable Hollywood war-movie ways.

Made almost 50 years before Stephen Spielberg's D-Day movie SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, this will disappoint anyone wanting a graphic and realistic recreation of the Normandy invasion, but it will surely satisfy any fans of classic-era war pictures. As I've noted, it's nothing if not predictable—as soon as one of the soldiers pulled out pictures of his wife and kids and said how lucky he was, I knew the poor bastard wasn't long for this world—but much of the pleasure of watching these movies, or any genre movies, is to see watch the formulaic pieces fall into place, and to see when things go against the grain. Other predictable moments include some brief flirting with a sexy French woman, a tank attack, a troublesome sniper (in a scene which would be echoed in PRIVATE RYAN), and the eventual mutual respect built between Agar and Brian. Some surprising elements [mild spoiler]: none of the three main stars dies—I was sure that the middle-ground Lovejoy was being set up as a sacrifice, but they all survive; the acting is nicely low-key—no one exhibits the intensity of a John Garfield or the laconic star power of a John Wayne, which is all to the good here, letting the focus stay on the ensemble and keeping the stereotypes in check a bit. There is a fair amount of newsreel footage from the actual operation used which is both a plus (it adds realism and helps cover up the B-budget) and a minus (its use is obvious so they're not fooling anyone). The only troublesome plothole I saw was that the outcome of Brian's story (mild spoiler: his command is taken away from him because his superiors worry he's on the verge of going a little nuts) comes out of nowhere. The supporting cast is fine, with the best performances coming from Dick Wesson as Hanson (his impressions really are good) and Edward Norris as Uncle Roy. Some may fault this for a lack of intensity but I enjoyed its somewhat more laconic charms. Pictured are Lovejoy and Agar. [TCM]