Daily Archives: April 19, 2016

Reach for the Sky
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Written by Lewis Gilbert and Vernon Harris from a book by Paul Brickhill
1956/UK
The Rank Organization/Angel Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Equipment Officer: I’m sorry, the book says I must wait three months before I can initiate the procedure for hastening new issue.

Bader: Fine! We’ll send Goering a telegram, and ask him not to come over for *three months”![/box]

This inspirational movie about a couple of different kinds of courage is based on a true story.

The setting is England in the run-up to and during WWII.  In the early 30’s Douglas Bader (Kenneth Moore) is sent to flight school for training as an RAF pilot.  The brash young man is not strong on the academics but is a great sportsman and an able flyer.  He gets into scrapes in which he crashes his car and finally crashes a plane doing unauthorized stunt flying.  In this later accident, he loses both of his legs.

Thereafter he devotes himself to a full-time effort to walk again on tin prosthetic legs without a cane.  He is proclaimed unfit to fly and leaves the RAF for a time.  When WWII starts, the military takes a different attitude and Bader gets his wings back.  He goes on to be a resourceful and courageous squadron leader.

Bader had a pilot’s arrogance, which tended to make his character annoying at times.  Moore makes him sympathetic despite that and does very well with the physical challenges of the part.  I found the film quite watchable.

Trailer

Attack
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Written by James Poe from a play by Norman Brooks
1956/USA
Associates & Aldrich Company
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Costa: Listen to me, Cooney! If you put me and my men in a wringer – -if you send us out there and let us hang – -I swear, I swear by all that’s holy, I’ll come back. I’ll come back and take this grenade and shove it down your throat and pull the pin![/box]

This ushers in a new era in war films — one where the worst enemy can be the GI’s own brass.  I loved it.

It is 1944, France.  Fox Company is fighting the Germans.  It is headed in the field by Lt. Joe Costa (Jack Palance).  Drinking heavily in headquarters is the cowardly Capt. Erskine Cooney (Eddie Albert).  He is laughing it up with his superior, Lt. Col. Clyde Bartlett (Lee Marvin) of the White Battalion.  Cooney and Bartlett were good old boys at home, where Cooney’s father is a respected judge.  As the film begins, Fox Company is under fire. When Costa calls for reinforcements, Cooney doesn’t send them.  Men are killed and Costa’s rage will fill the rest of the movie.

Col. Bartlett defuses the anger with the speculation that this will be the company’s last combat.  How wrong he is and they are sent out to capture a town.  The brass think that there is a 50-50 chance that it is occupied by Germans.  In the end, not only is it occupied but Costa and his men end up trapped amid heavy artillery fire.  Once again, Cooney is reluctant to send reinforcements.  Even Bartlett loses all patience with him.  The rest of the movie is devoted to combat and Costa’s revenge plans.  With Buddy Ebsen as Costa’s sergeant, Struther Martin as another sergeant, and Robert Strauss and Richard Jaeckel as enlisted men.

I thought this was terrific.  It has the lurid edge of a Samuel Fuller film but is more realistic.  It is brilliantly shot and edited. The acting is fantastic.  I thought Eddie Albert deserved an Academy Award nomination. It’s fast moving and builds to a devastating conclusion.  Palance is, as usual, over the top but it works so well here.  Recommended.

Trailer