During WWII, the infantry company known as Fragile Fox is pinned down near a small French town. When Jack Palance radios for back-up, his captain (Eddie Albert), cowardly and a bit befuddled by alcohol, doesn't send help, leading to the deaths of several men. Palance,who survives, holds it against Albert and wants something to be done about him; at the very least, he (and most of the other men) wants Albert booted upstairs into a bureaucrat job. However, Albert has the protection of the battalion commander (Lee Marvin)—Albert and Marvin grew up together, and there's the promise of a cushy job back home with Albert's father when the war's over, so Marvin is reluctant to do anything drastic. As a sop to Palance, Marvin tells him that the word is that the war is practically over and their company is essentially done with combat. Unfortunately, the Battle of the Bulge is right around the corner and history soon repeats itself, with Palance and his men in trouble, and Albert paralyzed by booze and doubt. Many men die, but a badly wounded Palance makes the trek back in order to exact revenge.
This is an atypical studio war film for the era, closer in tone to one of Samuel Fuller's idiosyncratic movies (THE STEEL HELMET), and directed by Robert Aldrich, who was known for his own unusual takes on genre films (WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, KISS ME DEADLY). Basically a psychological character study, it was based on a play and shows at times, but there are a couple of battle sequences that open the film up. The performances are excellent throughout. Albert, mostly known as a comic actor and best remembered today as the bumbling rural husband on the Green Acres sit-com, does extremely well as the drunken villain. Palance, not one of my favorite actors, is good, though in true Palance form he tends to go melodramatically over-the-top. [SPOILER: his death scene at the end is particularly drawn-out.] Marvin is fine as are supporting players Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel and, in a central though down-played role, William Smithers. Buddy Ebsen (Jed in The Beverly Hillbillies) appears as a soldier, and it was a little weird to see he and Albert, both of whom would become stars in rural sitcoms of the 60s, together in serious roles here. The staginess of some of the scenes is enlivened by some interesting camera shots and setups. Highly recommended. Pictured are Albert and Palance. [TCM]
1 comment:
Check out Palance as the good guy in another WW2 movie (sort of) in Aldrich's Ten Seconds To Hell, which is actually a co-production between German studio UFA and Hammer. He and Jeff Chandler - who is much better as a villain than he usually is as the hero - play competing German bomb-disposal experts in a tontine (a lottery where the last survivor scoops the pool) helping the British clear their zone of occupied Berlin.
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