Last night we shipped off to North Africa with "Hell Squad"(1958), a hard-nosed WW2 flick set in the Tunisian desert. A title card informs us of the date and time : "June 12th, 1943. 0700 hours". The plot is simple : A squad of G.I.s are trying to make their way back to the line after being sent into German territory to blow up an oil depot. Only five men are left, their LT having bought it when he was captured post-op. Unfortunately for the remaining crew, the Lieutenant was also in possession of their only map. "Sgt. Clemens" (Fred Gavlin) is now in charge. He's a tough-as-nails noncom, barking orders with no explanations offered or asked for. The four men in his charge have no option but to trust him. They include "Pvt. Lippy" (Cecil Addis), so named because he never stops blowing his harmonica, "Pvt. Nelson" (Gregg Stewart), a green newcomer, "Pvt. Roth" (Leon Schrier), the radioman, and "Pvt. Russo" (Wally Campo), a grizzled veteran of desert warfare. Russo's a badass and a cynic; he knows you've gotta sometimes shoot Krauts in the back, an idea young Nelson finds abhorrent. "Hey, they'll do it to you, trust me", Russo tells him. This is mentioned in the dialogue as a foretelling of future action.
The terrain looks similar in all directions. The men are judging their route by sheer intuition. Suddenly they hear the buzz of an engine, getting louder, then there's a Messerschmidt on the horizon, homing in on their path. The pilot opens up, strafing the soldiers in a quick burst. Lippy is killed, and now they are four. After laying low temporarily to ensure the Messerschmidt is gone, the men resume their journey. Rounding a hill, they come across the dead bodies of five bound and gagged fellow G.I.s, stripped to their underwear. It's clear they've been tortured. The men are sickened at the sight, but also quietly furious. They vow to get the "Heinies" who did this, although it might be dangerous to seek them out. They could walk into an ambush or simply be outnumbered. Also, there's no guarantee the fighter plane won't come back. Maybe they should just keep going. Sgt Clemens sends the rookie Nelson over a ridge, to scout ahead. As luck will have it, he runs into another squad of G.I.s, who welcome him. They have a map and can get his boys back up front. "Go get your men", their Sergeant tells him. But when he scrambles back over the ridge, to report the good news, Sgt. Clemens smells a rat. "How many of them were there"?, he asks. "Uh.....five I think", says Nelson.
"Exactly", grunts the Sarge. "And there were five dead G.I.s". He's sussed out the deception; they are Germans posing as Americans in the uniforms they took from the dead soldiers. (on a side note, you may be aware that special units were trained on all sides, with soldiers who were able to speak the enemy language flawlessly, even in regional dialect. The German officer in this scene, posing as an American Sergeant, speaks perfect English in a Midwestern drawl).
Clemens quickly forms a strategy to overtake the German impostors, sending two men to flank them on either side. Nelson takes the high ground as a sniper, while the Sarge himself will approach from the front, pretending to be unaware. Roth the radioman will go in last, after the scene is secure. But everything goes haywire when the Germans wonder why it's taking so long. "Perhaps they know", one says to another. A shootout ensues, and in the aftermath, only two men are left : Pvt. Russo, the bearded American tough guy, and the German sergeant, who is in fact an intelligence officer. Russo has his rifle but the German in unarmed, having lost his weapon in the chaos. He does have the map, however. "Hand it over", Russo orders, cocking his M-1 for emphasis. To his surprise, the German refuses. "Look all around you", he sneers, in that perfect American English. "Notice the re-planted bushes. Surely you have enough experience on patrol to realise you're in a minefield". When Russo looks, his eyes grow wide. The German continues. "This map shows the position of each mine. You need me to get you out of here".
"Why don't I just shoot you and take it"?, asks Russo.
"Or I could tear it up before you do"!, retorts the officer, "Do you want to take that chance"? Russo decides he doesn't, and he and the officer enter into an uneasy truce, teaming up to get back to their respective lines. Russo declares he's gonna call the shots "since I'm the one whose armed". But he's also got a bum leg. "You might need me to carry you in the end", says the officer, demanding some of Russo's water. It's a tense standoff and a hell of a predicament, enemies being forced to trust each other to avoid death in the desert.
"Hell Squad" was directed by a guy named Burt Topper, and according to IMDB he shot it on weekends when his cast and crew were all available, meaning that many were non-professional and had jobs during the week. The budget must've been no more than five figures, and a low five figures at that, and yet despite all this, Topper turned out a gritty, well-acted war drama, featuring very credible action and situations. As mentioned, only a few events take place, but each is developed for maximum tension, as if you're watching in real time. I hadn't heard of any of the actors, and in looking them up I noticed two interesting factors. First, most of them only have five or six credits to their names, and second, almost all are still alive (maybe the two go hand in hand, lol). Wally Campo, who plays "Pvt. Russo", is now 100 years old! He's the sole member of the cast who had anything resembling a career as an actor, with 22 credits, a few of which were from Roger Corman pictures.
It all proves that you don't need millions of dollars to make a good flick, just enough to cover production costs, and some actors who can pull off your script with conviction. Of course, your script is the most important element, then what you do with it as the director. But you can do it for cheap, if you start with a good script. "Hell Squad" has that, a simple but very strong story and authentic sounding dialogue.
It gets Two Big Thumbs Up and a very high recommendation. I hope I can find more films like it. ////
The previous night we struck gold with a Youtube recommendation for "Hell's Horizon"(1955), an Air Force picture set in the Korean War, starring John Ireland as "Captain John Merrill" the pilot for a B-29 bomb crew. Earlier this year we watched a few British "bombing mission " films (to coin a genre), the best of which was "Journey Together", starring Richard Attenborough as a novice navigator in an Avro Lancaster.
The tension in that movie was created by keeping the action confined to the dimly lit fuselage of the Lancaster, cutting from one crew member to another, performing their various tasks, while the pilot guided the aircraft through flak and storm clouds, all in the dark of night. A claustrophobic feeling is generated by this method, but also a heightened sense of teamwork, including the role of the airplane itself. The men must depend on one another, each must do his job for the mission to succeed, and all must depend on the protection of the plane - with it's armaments - as their shield. Hence the name Flying Fortress for the B-17 in World War Two, which was replaced with the B-29 Superfortress for Korea. Despite the acknowledged fear the crewmen experienced before every mission, they must've felt a degree of safety behind it's armor plated hull, and confidence from it's 50mm canons and machine gun turrets to strike back with against enemy fighters.
On a side note, I should mention that in my reading about the RAF and USAAF, I became fascinated with the Lancaster and the B-17 and wanted to know which plane was considered superior. The Brits of course say it was the Lancaster, and by all accounts they might be right, if not by much. Both planes were colossal beasts that could take a pounding from enemy fire and still return to base, sometimes on only one engine, after bombing the daylights out of a target. It was a gruesome business, but if not for those bomber crews, the war might've had a different end.
In the movie, Captain Merrill's crew are selected to bomb a North Korean supply bridge on the Yalu river, which borders China. This makes the mission especially dangerous, because if they cross over into that country, or accidentally drop bombs there, it could lead to World War Three. The Captain is therefore instructed to "hit it at a ninety degree angle" and get the hell out. There'll be no fighter escort for the run, due to stacked cumulus storm clouds near the target. In another aside, my history teacher at Cleveland High School, Mr. Sprigg, used to tell the story of how his brother, a USAAF fighter pilot, was killed in World War Two. "He was being chased by some Jap Zeroes and flew into a cumulus cloud bank. His plane was ripped apart by the turbulence". Mr. Sprigg told that story to our class more than once, and always teared up as he finished, but the important point regarding the movie is that smaller aircraft like the fighters cannot safely fly through stacked cumulus thunderheads, due to the weather systems contained inside, which include wind shear and lightning. A B-29 Superfortress on the other hand, might just make it through. In getting back to the plot, the Captain asks "what do we do for cover"?, in the absence of fighters. "The clouds will be your cover", his Colonel responds. "You're to stay above or within the clouds for the duration of your mission. After you drop, turn around and come home on the double".
The danger posed by the thunderheads (and lack of fighter escort) adds an extra layer of tension to the already white-knuckle assignment, set to begin at 0300. The men pass the wait by hanging around the barracks, shooting the breeze with gallows humor or sharing photos of their girls back home. One crewman - "Trask" (played by Hugh Beaumont of "Leave It to Beaver" fame) - pounds a bottle of moonshine scotch after getting a Dear John letter from his gal that very day. This will figure hugely in the outcome. Another airman, "Jockey" - whose in-fight position is "left scanner" (which I've Googled and can't find a description) - spends the downtime blowing endlessly on his trumpet, to the irritation of some of the other men. Actually, he's not half bad (more like really good) and you already knew he would be, because he's played by the one and only Chet Baker of all people. Baker is only 26 here and still pretty clean cut (though when he smiles he's already missing a tooth), and he's a decent enough actor, even though he only appeared in two films and was put in this one for his crossover star power, and that trumpet. The crew kid one another and blow off steam, and in a great line of dialogue one man says to another, in response to a complaint : "Gimme your TS card and I'll punch it". I got a huge kick out of this because my Dad used to say it; it's Air Force slang for "quit bitching", the TS being short for "tough shit". :)
Once the mission begins, it's the focus of the rest of the movie. In addition to the storm clouds en route, the B-29 and it's crew are faced with a squadron of enemy MiG-15s when the storm clears during their return. Inside the fuselage, strong editing once again emphasizes the teamwork aspect necessary for a successful run (and survival), and the importance of regular communication between the Captain and his crew members to ensure everyone's on the same page. The interior of the plane is 99 feet long, so substantial separation exists between the men in their various positions, with the tail gunner all alone in the rear. The only light comes from small swing-arm lamps, of the type you'd see over a drafting table. Each man sits alone in his own glow, surrounded by the electronics or weaponry of his job. Snug in their compartments, it's as if each airman is integrated into the whole of the airplane, a working part unto himself. Cinematically, when they're fighting in coordination against the MiGs, this makes for one heck of a thrill ride.
For the crews in real life, it must have been a combination of trained response and pure terror. Incredible stock footage demonstrates just how fast the fighters come at the big bomber and how quickly they maneuver. They're gone from sight in a split second, only to reappear a moment later from an unexpected angle.
In the movie you're right there with the crew, the tension is palpable; it's a nail-biter just like "Memphis Belle", only better because it's less Hollywoodized. It has the same dark, tubelike environment as "Journey Together", and as in that film, the bomber becomes crippled on the way back, adding to the harrowing insecurity. Will they make it or won't they? Movies such as this often have a happy ending, but it might not be as simple as you think.
For a B-movie, this one gets knocked out of the park. John Ireland nails the laconic confidence of a bomber captain. Those guys weren't allowed to lose their cool, even when they were about to go down.
One minor complaint : there is a tacked on romance, with Marla English playing a Korean girl in love with handsome "Buddy Lewis" (Larry Pennell), one of the crew members. That's why I probably got the Youtube recommendation, because we just saw English in "A Strange Adventure", where she played Jan Merlin's moll. In that movie she was a star and an integral part of the plot. Here, in "Hell's Horizon", she's just there to put more butts in seats (both male and female) so it's a box office gimmick, but it's also ridiculous because she's about as Korean looking as Elizabeth Taylor and she's wearing a decolletage-baring blouse that no Korean peasant girl would wear (at least I imagine not). On a more authentic note, you get William Schallert (aka Patty Duke's TV Dad) playing a nervous, mild mannered radar operator, well-trained but with no previous combat experience.
All told, Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Hell's Horizon". It's the American equivalent of "Journey Together", you can watch 'em back-to-back on a double bill, or you can pair "Horizon" with "Hell Squad" and make it a Hell Night. Either way, you can't go wrong with this movie. It's very highly recommended! ////
That's all I've got for today. I'm re-reading "From a Buick 8" by Stephen King (did I already mention that?) and it's one of his scariest books, so I'm getting extra spooked. Have a great afternoon, I send you Tons of Love, as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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