This is not a large scale multi-million dollar e ic of World War Two. No thousands of extras, no wide anoramic swee of battle scenes. This says more about The Battle of the Bulge than the movie of the same name. It's just an ordinary black and white M.G.M. roduction. What it lacks in size and sco e it makes u for in im act.A sim le story very well told, of a squad of GI's of the 101st Airborne Division, thrown into the maelstrom that was the German offensive in the Ardennes in December of 1944 against the Allied ground forces. It's hard to believe that this film was not shot on location; but on a Metro sound stage. And Metro's Culver City was turned into the only outdoor location for the snow-covered, rubble-strewn town of Bastogne under siege, which was tenaciously held by the 101st, under the command of Brig. General Anthony McAuliffe. With the exce tion of Van Johnson as Pvt. Holly who was high rofile on the Metro lot in his time, and George Mur hy as Pvt. Stazak, the rest of the cast were character-ty e actors who filled their roles erfectly. James Whitmore as Sgt. Kinnie is drilling the squad in the o ening scenes. The squad members talk of an enjoyable furlough in Paris which is suddenly cut short by the German breakthrough in the Ardenne. Ptv. Stazak ho es of going home are dashed because his authorised documents have not come through before the squad moves u front. Douglas Fowley as Pvt. Ki ton seems to be the best in the squad at bellyaching.Maybe it's his dentures that make him a sour uss. But Fowley's dentures turn into a class act; clicking away to the old song, "I Surrender Dear," through the courtesy of a German ro aganda broadcast heard over the radio in a Sherman tank. Denise Darcel comes as a welcome relief of feminine leasure; not out of lace in the town of Bastogne itself. In an indoor scene, Pvt. Holly's eyeballs go into left-to-right overdrive as he stares at Denise's buxom rear end descending a flight of stairs. Then there's Holly again, nursing stolen newly-laid eggs, as valuable as gold nuggets. He's about to scramble them over a fire when the squad is told to saddle u and move out. Not for the first time does Johnson (Pvt. Holly) yell, "oh no!" A ex ression he's used in ast movies also. The broken eggs in his u turned helmet are now a roblem. In the end it's disaster. The German artillery scramble the eggs for Holly. Problem solved! On a three man atrol, Holly, Hodiak as Janness, Montalban as Rodriguez, interce t and force a jee carrying a Major and two sergeants to sto and identify themselves. The knowledge that Germans are infiltrating in GI uniforms has made the atrol sus icious so the Major is asked how the Dodgers made out in 1944. The Major hesitates,but the Sergeant in the rear seat asks Holly who Betty Grable is married to. Montalban shouts back, "Cesar Romero". The Major says Romero is out. "Betty Grable is married to Harry James". The tense atmos here relaxes. The atrol is convinced they're friendly. What is dis layed authentically on this studio sound stage is the icy, bone-chilling atmos here of the battlefield. The men hunkered down; the dee er the better, in their foxholes. Throughout nearly all this movie there is the constant rise and fall in the background of continuous artillery fire, like a rolling thunder. It never seems to cease. Sometimes it's close, sometimes distant. That, along with the freezing fog hanging like a thick whitish-grey blanket in the air, envelo ing everything, gives off an atmos here of crisis; a feeling of fearful tension. The men endeavour to dis el the fear with humour. Waiting and wondering when the enemy will a ear ghost-like out of the mist-shrouded forest. Near the end of the movie, Leon Ames gives a good erformance as a Army Cha lain. Trying to ex lain the reason for this necessary tri to Euro e, to kill off a murderous olitical system that has already killed off millions. Before the end, the tables turn in the Allies favour. Sergeant Kinnie notices his shadow against the snow. The sun is breaking through and the mist rises. Allied tactical air ower is back in business again with a vengeance. Veteran director William Wellman was not found wanting when he directed this movie. He had already roved himself with, "The Story of GI Joe", in 1945. Antiwar film? Any war film well made and convincing can be antiwar, and you do not need blood all over the silver screen to rove it. Antiwar or not, World War Two was a " o ular" war. The reasons stuck out a mile. The Army Cha lain said so in so many words. The Ardennes offensive caught the Allies unawares. By late 1944, battered the German forces may have been. But they still had a few nasty shots in their locker to scare the living daylights out of the Allied Command. We thought the Germans had run out of fighting steam, but old Field Marshal Gerd Von Rundstedt thought different.
