A Walk in the Sun -- May 26, 2025

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I thought this was a good day to write about Lewis Milestone's 1945 film A Walk in the Sun. It is set during Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion of Sicily during World War Two. It follows a platoon of infantry who land on the beach near Salerno and have to fight their way to a farmhouse on a hill. They don't know what is in the farmhouse. Men die, are wounded and suffer from shell shock along the way. Robert Ryan is a sergeant who has to assume command when the officer leading the platoon is seriously wounded on the beach. Ryan is surrounded by a team of excellent actors, including Norman Lloyd, Richard Conte, Lloyd Bridges and Sterling Holloway. Even Huntz Hall of the Bowery Boys has a small part. Eventually they make it.

In Harm's Way -- May 27, 2024

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I thought this was a good day to write about Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way, which was the last big World War Two epic shot in black and white. It starred John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal and a host of others. Critics didn't like the movie and Kirk Douglas thought the special effects in the final battle were amateurish, but I enjoyed. It starts in Hawaii before Pearl Harbor and shows how the US Navy adjusted to war. I assume that Saul Bass designed the poster.

Lawrence of Arabia -- May 29, 2023

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. 

Peter O'Toole played TE Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence did not die during the war, but he probably died because of his experiences during the war.

The Great Dictator -- May 30, 2022

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I thought this was a good day to write about Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. On 15-October-1940, United Artists released what was expected to be a controversial movie from Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator.  Chaplin played two characters for the first time since "The Idle Class" in 1921.  He played a nameless Jewish barber who had been shell-shocked during the First World War.  After twenty years, he wandered away from the hospital and no one wanted to look for him.  He returned to his barbershop in the ghetto.  Chaplin also played Adenoid Hynkel, the cruel dictator of Tomania.

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I always enjoy Jack Oakie's performance as Napoloni, the bombastic dictator of Bacteria.  I think he captured the way people had come to perceive Benito Mussolini.

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Paulette Goddard was spunky as Hannah.

My favorite part of the movie is the final speech.

La Grande Illusion -- May 31, 2021

 

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. 

World War One veteran Jean Renoir made La Grande Illusion in 1937. A group of French POWs wants to escape, but class differences get in the way. Pierre Fresnay is an aristocrat and Jean Gabin is a working man. They land in a prison commanded by a crippled German officer, played by Erich von Stroheim.

I watched it several times on our local PBS station, KQED-Channel 9. 

Johnny Got His Gun -- May 25, 2020

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. 

One summer while I was in high school, I read Dalton Trumbo's book Johnny Got His Gun, the story of a wounded soldier who lost his limbs, his eyes, his ears and his mouth. It scared the heck out of me.   Later, I saw the 1971 movie adaption, starring Timothy Bottoms, on television.  It scared me, too. 

The Lost Battalion -- May 27, 2019

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I thought this was a good day to write about the 2001 made-for-cable-television movie The Lost Battalion. Rick Schroder played Major Charles Whittlesey, who led nine companies of the 77th Division forward as part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The Germans surrounded them. On the sixth day, the Germans sent a blindfolded prisoner to ask them to surrender. Major Whittlesey responded "Go to hell." Major Whittlesey and seven others received the Medal of Honor.

Since I have always been interested in World War One, I made sure to watch when it premiered on the Arts and Entertainment network. I thought it was realistic and convincing.

Paths of Glory -- May 28, 2018

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I thought this was a good day to write about the 1957 film Paths of Glory, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas.

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Kirk Douglas played Colonel Drax, who is ordered to lead his men on a suicide mission.  The first wave is nearly wiped out.  The second wave refuses to leave the trenches.  A French general decides to try 100 men for cowardice and execute them.  A higher-ranking general, played by Adolphe Menjoy, tells him to select three men.

Three men, one from each company, are chosen, each for no good reason.  Dax tries to represent them at their trial, but it is a farce.  The men are shot the next day.

Paths of Glory is a painful movie to watch.  It was not shown in France until 1975.

Glory -- May 29, 2017

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  I thought this was a good day to write about the 1989 film Glory, which told the story of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first Union Army units made up of African-American soldiers. Matthew Broderick played idealistic Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Morgan Freeman played Sergeant Major John Rawlins. Denzel Washington played Private Silas Tripp, an escaped slave. Andre Braugher played educated Corporal Thomas Searles, a friend of Gould's.

The regiment fought against discrimination by the Union Army during its training and initial deployment to South Carolina.  Gould fought for permission for them to fight in the line.  After applying a little righteous blackmail, he succeeded.  The regiment fought well, and wound up leading the charge against Fort Wagner near Charleston.  The attack failed and many in the regiment died, but they removed all doubt that African-Americans could fight.

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Happy 100th birthday to President John F Kennedy.  He was a World War II veteran, who had served on PT boats in the Pacific Theater.  He loved boats.  One of my earliest memories is of my mother crying while watching his funeral on television.  When I grew up, many homes that I visited had a photo of him hanging on a wall.  Later reports indicated that he was not always a nice person, but he deserved to live and watch his family grow up.  Many people see his murder as the beginning of a very bad decade.  I enjoyed PT 109. 

The Fighting Sullivans -- May 30, 2016

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  I thought this was a good day to write about 20th Century-Fox's The Fighting Sullivans, the story of the five Sullivan Brothers from Iowa.  They enlisted in the Navy in early 1942, and all served together on the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52).  On 13-November-1942, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the Juneau was sunk by torpedoes.  All five brothers died in the sinking or in the eight days before the ten survivors were found.

The Navy named a destroyer after the brothers, USS The Sullivans (DD-537).  After serving in World War II and the Korean War, the ship was preserved as a memorial in Buffalo, New York.

At the end of the movie, the Sullivans' mother christens the new destroyer.   As it slides down the ways, she says to her husband, "our boys are afloat again." 

The Story of G.I. Joe -- May 25, 2015

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  I thought this was a good day to write about William Wellman's The Story of G.I. Joe.  The movie is the story of Ernie Pyle, a war correspondent who paid attention to the infantrymen.  I cry every time I see the death of Captain Bill Walker, played by Robert Mitchum. 

All Quiet on the Western Front -- May 26, 2014

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  I thought this was a good day to write about Universal's 1930 film All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the novel by German veteran Erich Maria Remarque.  Director Lewis Milestone made it into one of the great early talkies.  It follows a group of boys who listen to a teacher's speech about the importance of going to war.  They volunteer and go through training with a tough sergeant.  Then they get sent to the front and learn what war is like.  Paul, the main character, played by Lew Ayres, gets a furlough to go home and finds that people there do not know what war is like.  The ending is tragic, but I won't spoil it. 

The ad is from the 09-November-1929 Universal Weekly.