Événement

UCLA Festival of Preservation: Men In War

Following his brutal film noirs for Eagle-Lion and a memorable series of psychological westerns with James Stewart, director Anthony Mann made a brace of adult chamber films for Philip Yordans Security Pictures, Gods Little Acre (1958) and Men In War. What All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) were to the great world wars, Men In War is to the Korean War.

An infantry platoon becomes separated from its division behind enemy lines as their commander valiantly tries to sustain his authority and his mens morale against seemingly two enemies: unseen Korean snipers and a roustabout sergeant ferrying his injured CO across the war zone. Screenplay credit to Philip Yordan (the alleged model for Sammy Glick) is today believed to be as a front for blacklisted screenwriter Ben Maddow (Intruder In the Dust, 1949; The Asphalt Jungle, 1950). The script transposes Van Van Praags World War II novel Day Without End from the French countryside following D-Day, to the onset of the 1950 police action in Korea (deployed here amid Los Angeles Bronson and Malibu Canyons). The disconnect between battlefield reality and the imperatives of authority is delineated as Robert Ryans Lt. Benson clings to his paternal charge over his embattled men while Aldo Rays interloping non-com, Montana, worships The Colonel (Robert Keith), his shell-shocked CO and father figure, refusing to acknowledge Bensons command. Montanas uncannily prescient soldiering runs counter to Bensons by-the-book protocols. Youre always right, Montana, snarls Benson through clenched teeth. Star turns by Ryan and Ray in no way detract from the ensemble acting that is the films core.

Men In War presaged the disillusionment over the Vietnam conflict in the 1960s, making it unsurprising that the United States Army deemed the film offensive to the dignity of commissioned and non-commissioned officers. It was a failure in Eisenhowers America but a success in post-war Europe where the fable was intrinsically understood.

--- Scott MacQueen