Hell is for Heroes (1962) - full review!
Directed by Don Siegel, and co-written by Robert Pirosh (Battleground (1949)), this gritty World War II drama stars Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, James Coburn, and Bob Newhart (!), among others.
Guardino plays the Sergeant of a group of veterans thinking they're about to go home. The group includes Darin - the "free enterprise" scrounger who sells needed supplies ($5 for a pen) to his fellow soldiers; Coburn, wearing glasses - the fix-it guy who's second in command; and a couple of other actors including Mike Kellin, whose character serves as a translator for a Polish refugee (played by Nick Adams) that wants to join the group. McQueen arrives as a newly assigned member of the group, one that can't seem to follow orders but who's a "great soldier in a pinch" (battle situations). The platoon Sergeant is played by Fess Parker, who's familiar with the McQueen character's shortcomings, but also with his abilities such that he protects him from his Captain's (Joseph Hoover) discipline.
Instead of getting to go home, the group is assigned to return to the line, where a lack of reinforcements means the unit will have to protect a wide expanse of real estate from a German advance. Using their heads, they devise various means to appear like a larger group than they are. Newhart plays an Army clerk, who accidentally drives a jeep through the volatile area, that Guardino reassigns to increase their numbers. Coburn fixes the jeep to sound like a tank and drives it around out of sight. Newhart (whose comedy routine is really out of place here) is then given the job of pretending to talk to HQ on the disconnected field phone to fool the German listening station. The unit also fills empty ammo boxes with rocks and rigs them wire such that they can simulate a nighttime patrol.
*** SPOILERS ***
All goes according to plan until McQueen believes a German squad's advance has exposed their weakness to the enemy. He convinces Guardino to seek Parker's permission to advance on the German's stronghold, a heavily armed pillbox with machine guns which keep them pinned down. Before Guardino's returned, he asks Coburn to secure the needed explosives. The action which follows is both tense and educational, but McQueen's bravery outstrips his reason, leading to tragic results. However, he is able to redeem himself in the final assault, once Parker has secured the necessary troops, with a crazy maneuver that both impresses and horrifies his remaining unit's members.
Purchase this DVD now at
Most Recent Additions:
Casanova Brown (1944) - full review!
I Want You (1951) - full review!
A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review!
Patterns (1956) - full review!
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review!
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review!
Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review!
To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review!
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review!
The Actress (1953) - full review!
Mannequin (1937) - full review!
All My Sons (1948) - full review!
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review!
State Fair (1945) - full review!
Billy Budd (1962) - full review!
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review!
The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review!
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review!
The Southerner (1945) - full review!
The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)
Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!
The Arrangement (1969) - full review!
A Summer Place (1959) - full review!
Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review!
Love Letters (1945) - full review!
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review!
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Come and Get It (1936) - full review!
The Prize (1963) - full review!
This Is the Army (1943) - full review!
Home from the Hill (1960) - full review!
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review!
The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review!
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review!
A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review!
This Happy Breed (1944) - full review!
Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review!
Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review!
Baby Face (1933) - full review!
Titanic (1943) - full review!
Cover Girl (1944) - full review!
Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review!
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review!
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
Pocket Money (1972) - full review!
Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
Judge Priest (1934) - full review!
[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]
