SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

writers_reign I've no real idea why Alan Ladd shot three films in England in 1953 and 1954 though I guess my speculation is as good as that of the next guy. He shot to stardom in 1942 and, under contract to Paramount, appeared in a string of box-office successes throughout the decade. He was never going to give us his Hamlet, Macbeth, Hotspur etc, but he did have a nice line in effortless charm and knew how to carry a gun authentically. By the early fifties his kind of thick-ear melodrama was on the wane (yet ironically his greatest role, in the finest film with which he was ever associated (Shane) came right after Red Beret. I don't know whether it was written into his contract but his was the highest profile by a country mile and the Producers surrounded him with whatever members of the Second Eleven - Leo Genn, Donald Houson, Stanley Bker, Patrick Doonan, Harry Andrews et al who weren't working at the time and, for good measure, gave him a charisma-free non-actress with all the sex appeal of a wart hog. The plot? Don't ask. A natural leader Ladd consistently refuses to become an officer and the reason is, of course, that he blames himself for the death of a friend whilst both were serving in the US armed forces. Just about passes the time.

wildwoodmusic Don't know why this movie appeals to me this much except for the excellent Leo Genn who makes any movie better. It is one of those that I can watch over and over. I think it is that there are so many great British character actors and Allan Ladd isn't bad but his usual self. The story line is simple but then I was a small child at the beginning of the war and all the movies were very simplistic. I think that is what I enjoy. Not a lot of side drama, just a straight forward telling of men at war in the old idealized style. The editing is a bit choppy in places and the old blue screen is obvious in odd places but "Sorry for the man who hears the pipes and was na born in Scotland."

Steve Crook This is the thinly disguised story of real life hero John Frost. Portrayed in this film by Leo Genn and called Maj. Snow (I said the disguise was thin).Lt Col John Frost led the small group of paratroopers who actually got to the bridge in A Bridge Too Far (1977) (where he was played by Anthony Hopkins). Despite only having a few hundred men instead of the whole brigade that they expected to get there, they still held out for four days against an S.S. Panzer group. John Frost got his knees damaged by a mortar bomb so spent the rest of the war in a P.O.W. camp. In this film Maj. Snow gets wounded in the legs by a grenade but is carried to safety by his men.But Arnhem was just the final move in an amazing wartime career. Frost was one of the earliest volunteers in the newly formed parachute regiment at the start of the war. As a Major, he led the successful raid on the German radar station at Bruneval where radar specialist Sgt Cox (Sgt Box in this film) dismantled the German unit and brought it back to Britain along with some of the operators so that the British could understand the limits of the German radar system. This happened in a very similar way to the raid portrayed in the first part of the film.The next raid Frost led was on an airfield in Tunisia, just like the second raid in the film. In real life, as in the film, the raid on the airfield was a success but they had some problems getting back to their own lines.Frost then led the parachute drop on Sicily and a further raid in Italy before his wartime career finished at Arnhem.This film is quite well made and adapts the story well to fit Alan Ladd in without making it too obvious that he's only there to attract an American audience. The real heroes of this story are John Frost and the men of the Parachute Regiment.

JSPrine In real life, Alan Ladd was scared to death of flying (he preferred trains), but you'd never know it in this exciting action adventure set in early World War II.The old English method of training paratroopers by jumping from balloons is accurately depicted, as is the result of landing with an unopened parachute (the British, like the German airborne, eschewed the use of reserve parachutes).It's actually a pretty standard war movie, though the score is exciting and memorable, and the combat scenes, though dated now, are pretty well done, considering this movie was shot in 1953.Definitely worth watching!