Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

MARIO GAUCI A good war drama adapted by George Seaton from a literate Maxwell Anderson play is given the typical Fox polish and an experienced director to counter a cast peppered with new young talent (notably Anne Baxter, William Eythe, Michael O'Shea, Henry Morgan and Vincent Price).Of course, the film was intended as a morale-booster but, thankfully, the propaganda element (usually abetted by racist jibes) is kept at bay here; on the contrary, it strives to depict the characters as normal human beings who are thrust into extraordinary and often painful situations. Still, the expected doses of comedy (supplied by O'Shea) and romance (not only does country-boy Eythe become engaged to neighbor Baxter, but the whole gang gets to entertain a couple of lonely bar-room girls once in uniform) are present and accounted for; incidentally, it is odd seeing Price (looking quite youthful and serving as the butt of his buddies' jokes for his cerebral superiority being offset by perennial pennilessness!) amid this environment.The last act involves the war action proper, and even this is largely taken up by two of the men (Price included)'s bouts with malaria; the finale, then, sees the squad who had been cornered in a cave effect a fortuitous escape by sea (apparently, the ending of the original play was more downbeat)…followed by the voluntary conscription of Eythe's younger brother. By the way, the title is a reference to an obscure Catholic feast where, it is said, that one can see the figures of those about to die upon entering a church(!) – hence making for an ideal wartime metaphor.

tieman64 "War in perpetuity is neo-liberalism gasping for survival. It is a gasping that necessitates paying for such folly forever." - Jozef Hand-Boniakowski"The Eve of St Mark" is a 1944 war film directed by John M. Stahl. Stahl removes the bleakness of Maxwell Anderson's Broadway play, upon which the film was based, and instead ops for some low key flag waving. When he's not drooling over various trinkets of Americana – squeaky clean, fresh faced American boys, farm folk who support war with a heavy heart, mothers nobly offering their sons to the state, big breasted lovers at home waiting for their hunks to return, cosy farm houses and bible belt corn fields, sexy foreign chicks who are thankful to brave American GI's – the film treats us to long speeches which covertly nail home the virtues and necessities of war, whilst bemoaning how unfair it is for a poor and victimised Uncle Sam to have been attacked at Pearl Harbour by evil slant eyed Japanese."Why are we fighting foreigners here in 1944 when we have no food on our tables at home for ourselves and our families?" one character asks. "So American boys in 1954 will have food on their tables," another replies. And that's what the film endorses; the manufacturing of war in the search for surplus value, bloodshed as a necessary component of fiscal growth.The film is notable for staring Vincent Price in a rare "good guy" role. It's quite odd seeing such an iconic face, one oft associated with scifi and horror, in a war movie. Today "The Eve of St Mark's" brain-dead jingoism and gore glorification can be found in such films as "Black Hawk Down", "We Were Soldiers", "Saving Private Ryan", "300", "Zulu" etc. The tech's changed, but the story's the same.6/10 – For war buffs only.

writers_reign There's something nicely symmetrical in the fact that this movie was adapted from a play by Maxwell Anderson. Almost forgotten today Anderson began his career with the Broadway hit play What Price Glory (co-written with Lawrence Stallings). Produced in 1924 and twice filmed it was, of course, set in World War One and was a comedy about the love-hate relationship between Flagg and Quirt, sergeant and private. Twenty years on Anderson was more philosophical as perhaps befits someone with a penchant for writing in blank verse. He also turned his hand to writing lyrics and collaborated twice with composer Kurt Weill on Knickerbocker Holiday and Lost In The Stars, neither exactly laff riots though the former did produce the evergreen September Song. By 1944 the was was definitely swinging in the favour of the Allies but this didn't guarantee that no blood was spilled. Farmboy William Eythe is the main protagonist but both his family, sweetheart, and his platoon get plenty of screen time and equit themselves well, not least Ray Collins, usually a belligerent banker/politician but here subdued as Eythe's farmer father. Ann Baxter may be wasted as Eythe's girl back home but there is a nice ensemble feel to the whole thing. Dated, perhaps, but still worth a look.

rleather Run of the mill war time drama centering around the training and combat experiences of a small town farm boy.The cast of characters are a block of defaults from every war movie ever created. Only the over dramatized, over the top performance of the hugely over written script really lower this into a cinema play of the worst kind.The scenes in the nightclub when Vincent Price quotes Shakespeare are just dreadful.First victim of war is Vincent Price's accent. But the time they are going to war he's lost his Southern drawl! Amazingly, the C.O. in Mash turns up when he's in his 20's and HE SOUNDS THE SAME! It's amazing.Is it worth watching, well... if there's nothing better on. Otherwise, give it a miss.