Daily Archives: June 4, 2013

The Steel Helmet
Directed by Samuel Fuller
1951/USA
Deputy Corporation
First viewing

[box] Sergeant Zack: Look, Lieutenant, you got nuthin’ out there but rice paddies crawlin’ with Commies just waitin’ to slap you between two big hunks of rye bread and wash you down with fish eggs and vodka.[/box]

This Korean War noir is an ultra-low-budget gem from early in writer-director Sam Fuller’s career.  I love Fuller’s off-kilter style.  This was made in only the sixth month of the conflict.

Sargeant Zack (Gene Evans) is the lone survivor of an attack on his unit.  A South Korean youngster unbinds his wrists and tags along and Zack tries to rejoin his regiment.  They meet up first with a medic, similarly a lone survivor, and then with a ragtag unit who are headed to set up an observation post at a Buddhist temple.  The group trades banter between facing attacks from the North Koreans.

This starts out characteristically odd but it soon turned taut and engrossing.  The dialogue is sharp and hard-boiled.  I liked Fuller’s commentary on U.S. race relations.  Fuller was investigated by the FBI for this film’s critique of the detention of Japanese-Americans in World War II and a scene showing a U.S. GI shooting an unarmed POW.  Recommended.

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