1949 - BATTLEGROUND, award winning war film is mighty dated

During World War II, the German Army makes one final large scale attack on the Allies.  The Ardennes Offensive also know as The Battle of the Bulge was designed to take the U.S. Army by surprise by overwhelming them. General Eisenhower sends in one of the toughest regiments, the 101st Airborne also known as "The Screaming Eagles" to hold a key key city in the battle, Bastogone. 

The film Battleground is based on the siege of Bastogone.  The film was originally set up at RKO studio by Dore Schary.  When Schary took over as head of production at MGM studios he brought the Battleground script with him.  MGM under Louis B Mayer was primarily a studio that emphasized wholesome entertainments and musicals.  Mayer had no interest in a World War II film.  But Schary soldiered on as it were.   

William Wellman aka "Wild Bill"  Wellman a World War I veteran directed.  The story and screenplay was by a writer named Robert Pirrosh an actual veteran of The Battle of the Bulge.  MGM's contract players filled the roles of the foot soldiers and the film was released to good reviews and commercial success.  Viewed today the film while well intended looks mighty dated with only a few good scenes that convey the intense nature of the battle fought in the freezing winter.

The film was primarily shot on a large soundstage at MGM which gives it a very phony look. The award winning screenplay has the usual foot soldier troupes.  The green kid, the tough guy tobacco chewing sergeant, the scrounger and finally the sensitive newspaper reporter turned soldier.  In an obvious attempt to humanize and identify with the soldiers there is a lot of humor in the film and talk lots of talk.  It's amazing that the 101st had time to fight with all the chatter that went on in the foxholes.

Using MGM contract players to play the soldiers turns into a spot the star viewing experience.  Look there's 40's actor Van Johnson who usually played in romantic comedies and musicals.  James Whitmore a character actor and had actually served in World War II in the Marine Corps.  A personal favorite of mine character actor Richard Jaeckel had a long career in Hollywood and had been in the Merchant Marines.  Mr. Roarke himself Ricardo Montalban covered the ethnic soldier angle.  Finally James Arness, Marshall Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke had been at the Anzio invasion.  What these actual veterans must have thought about running around big phony soundstage battle sets playing soldier boys will unfortunately never be known.

For a war veteran and veteran director William Wellman's direction isn't very good. He doesn't seem to  be able to get across the intense nature of the Ardennes Offensive.  Probably shooting almost entirely on sound stages didn't help.  The pack of war cliches that film is loaded up with from Robert Pirrosh also seriously dates the film.  Pirrosh had better luck with his screenplay Hell Is For Heroes which was a lot tougher of a war film than this.  But really the film to watch about the foot soldier is A Walk in the Sun now that's a good war film.  Battleground gets a big gold star for good intentions but a big demerit for execution.

The running time is 118 minutes.   

1951 - WESTWARD THE WOMEN , unusual but good western film

This film is about the 1851 journey of a group of women on a wagon train to meet prospective husbands in California.  The film's original story was written by Frank Capra who at one time wanted to make it.  Fortunately the film ended up with tough guy William "Wild Bill" Wellman directing.  God knows what kind of sentimental mush Capra would have turned it into.

For a film released in the early 1950's it has an unusual feminist slant which for the most part isn't compromised in the story telling.  The film was photographed in Utah on what looks to be like fairly harsh locations.  William C. Mellor was the cinematographer, he was usually associated with George Stevens. but working with Wellman he went for a very harsh look to the photography.

 

Robert Taylor is the lead and he's very good.  In one scene he dishes out some tough justice to a cowboy who has raped one of the women.  Taylor had started his career as a pretty boy at MGM.  As he got older he grew into more interesting roles.  Still the focus of the film is on the women in a series of interesting vignettes.

 

William Wellman was considered a guy's director, but he had a successful collaboration with Barbara Stanwyck and was the director on the first A Star Is Born film.  Wellman was from the John Ford school of film making.  He had a no nonsense visual style and also didn's put up with a lot of nonsense on his set.  Westward The Women is an exccellent film and one of Wellman's best efforts.

The screenplay was by Charles Schnee, the running time is 118 minutes.

1935 - THE CALL OF THE WILD, a story about a dog is a movie about Clark Gable

William Wellman's film of Jack London's story of adventure and survival in the Alaskan wilderness told from the point of view of a dog named Buck got a major redo and was turned into a story about Clark Gable and Loretta Young falling in love in the wilderness while searching for gold.

Gable teams up with Jackie Oakie an actor usually playing comedy relief.  For a third credited actor Oakie isn't too obnoxious and actually plays off of Gable pretty well.   Clark Gable had the manly man act down pretty well by 1935.  In this film he has an affair with Loretta Young whose husband supposedly died on the trail looking for gold.

 

 In real life Young and Gable actually did have an affair (she claimed date rape) which resulted in a child.  Young then went through a series of maneuvers which had her putting her birth child up for adoption and then adopting the kid herself.

Back to the film.  The Call of the Wild is another well produced Daryl F. Zanuck production.  A lot of it was filmed on location in the Mount Baker National Forest near Seattle Washington.   Zanuck never had a problem shooting on location if it benefited the film.  Macho director William Wellman directed the film and it zips along for a quick 90 minutes.

Bottom line, charismatic Hollywood stars, classy production and on location photography add up to an entertaining film.

89 minutes, written by Gene Fowler and Leonard Praskins.

1955 - BLOOD ALLEY - John Wayne vs the Chinese Commies

Sea captain John Wayne helps a small community of Chinese villagers escape from the red menace on a rickty steam boat.  Tagging along is improbable love interest Lauren Bacall playing the daughter of an American doctor working in China

Wayne produced Blood Alley but had no intention of appearing in it.  The original lead Robert Mitchum was somewhat of a hell raiser in real life and managed to get himself fired after pissing off William Wellman.  Duke reluctantly stepped in for Mitchum and finished the film.

Wayne and Bacall aren't much of a screen team.  Bacall looks like she belongs back in Los Angeles on the Hollywood cocktail circuit.  Wayne doesn't generate much heat with her, he probably had his hands full producing and acting.

Expecting the worst from yet another John Wayne anti commie rant film, Blood Alley wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It has the usual oddball 1950's stuff in it.  Western actors playing Chinese peasants, some bad model work of the steamship trapped in a storm and a couple of jingoistic rants from Wayne.  But once you get past all of that this it's a decent adventure film with good wide screen photography. 

William Wellman was winding down a directing career that went back to silent pictures.  Probably his most interesting period was during the 1930's and 40's directing films like, The Ox Bow Incident and The Public Enemy.  Wellman also directed the very weird religious drama The Next Voice You Hear, about God speaking to the world over the radio.

An interesting guy with an interesting career.

115 minutes

1953 - ISLAND IN THE SKY, good little aviation drama

The weekend John Wayne film fest ends (thankfully) with Island in the Sky, which was probably the best of the four films I viewed.

John Wayne actually looks scared for a change,  an acting emotion that was probably new for him.   The film is about the search for an air transport plane lost in northern Canada that has to be found before the survivors freeze to death.

The writer Ernest K. Gann adapted his book into a mediocre screenplay.  More importantly the director is William Wellman  a former World War I fighter pilot for the French and a guy who got his start in silent films.  Wellman knows planes and pilots and was apparently a real no nonsense filmmaker who didn't take a lot of crap from actors.  This is the kind of direction that John Wayne responded best to, working with a strong willed filmmaker who could get him to push himself a little harder as an actor and not coast on his movie star persona.  

Island in the Sky has nice on location photography where Wayne and the cast actually spent some time in the snow freezing.  This helps give the film some authenticity.  The aerial photography by William Clothier is impressive considering he actually went up in an airplane and filmed these corsairs. 

I don't want to overrate this film because what we have here is a well made decent little adventure film that is modest in scope, but tells an interesting story.

109 minutes.