A WALK IN THE SUN (1945)

The plot of this World War II film can be summarized in just a few sentences: In 1943, a platoon of American soldiers makes a beach landing at Salerno, Italy, their mission to trudge five miles inland, occupy a farmhouse, and blow up a bridge. Over the course of one morning, from sunrise to noon, they carry out their task. Some men are killed in skirmishes, some are wounded and left behind for reinforcements to care for, and the leader, Sgt. Porter, who had to take command when their previous leader was mortally injured during the landing, has a meltdown and is left behind, crying and helpless. But much more happens here, even if little of it is exciting or consequential. Based on a novella, this is much more a character study of the soldiers, and a look at the reality of what everyday life was like for fighting men in WWII—lots of complaining, walking, digging, and bonding with men who might save your life eventually.

Lewis Milestone, director of the WWI classic All Quiet on the Western Front, made this movie on a relatively low budget, leading to only one full-scale battle scene at the film's climax and lots of intimate dialogue scenes consisting of 2 or 3 men in medium close-up. But for the most part, Milestone made his liabilities into assets; this is one of the more memorable and best-acted war movies of the 1940s. Dana Andrews takes center stage in a low-key way as the sergeant who has to step in and take control when Porter cracks up. Herbert Rudley is good as Porter who slowly and realistically comes apart over time. My favorites are Richard Conte (Rivera) and George Tyne (Friedman) as two buddies who chat, boast, insult each other and occasionally get philosophical. They have a scene, a minor marvel shot in one take, where they eat beans out of a can and keep talking the whole time. Sterling Holloway (later the voice of the Disney Pooh) is cast against his country bumpkin type as the medic, Norman Lloyd is a bellyacher whose refrain to the comments of others is "You kill me," and who is certain that by 1956, he'll be fighting the Battle of Tibet. John Ireland has the toughest role as a dreamer who is constantly, in his mind and occasionally out loud, writing letters home to his sister—he's good but the character never feels real. Lloyd Bridges, Huntz Hall and James Cardwell are standouts among the large supporting cast.

Though there is not a lot of action, the scenes of conflict (the climactic taking of the farmhouse and an earlier shorter scene of the ambush of a German armored car) are pulled off well. It feels like the Italian countryside even though it was shot on the Fox backlot in California—no beach, hence the beach landing at the beginning is not seen, only the men on the landing boat. The medium shots of men talking are interspersed with occasional horizontal panning shots of movement or action, which effectively varies the look of the film enough that things don't get too repetitious. "Nobody dies" is a refrain taken up by some of the men; though people do die here, we don't see dead bodies, just occasional hands thrusting up into the scene from below. We also never see a German face up close, though there is a short scene where the men meet two Italian soldiers (the Italian army has officially turned against the Germans at this point) who want to travel with the platoon. I’ve been running across a lot more poorly done audio commentaries—including editions of Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, Murder in the Blue Room, Return to Peyton Place, Drifting—but the commentary here in this 2022 DVD, done by Alan K. Rode, is quite good. The only strong negative I have about the film is the distracting use of a couple of war ballads sung off-camera; luckily it's not done too much. It can raise expectations unrealistically to highly praise a low-key film like this, but I do heartily recommend it for viewers looking for something a little different in a war movie. Pictured are Tyne and Conte. [DVD]