How do I put this. Here we have a film where Abe Lincoln sends John F. Kennedy to meet Alfie and then attack a Japanese base with a squad of English character actors. All I have to ask is where the heck was Sean Connery and Marlon Brando.
As a war movie it is all right but those funky scenes of British troops watching the poor suckers who had to go out on this and other patrols run through a gauntlet of enemy fire to get in and out of the base are just too much. Are the troops bored? Not as much as you will be. I wonder what they did when they found some dog crap somewhere?
Then you have the "war is hell" attitude of the squad, the endless suspense of waiting for someone to do some acting before they get killed by the Japs, and then trying to figure out who installed the Public Address system in the jungle. Attention K Mart shoppers!
The only other thing I remember about the making of this film is that PT 109 Robertson got stuck working in the hot and miserable Phillipines on this rather standard war flick the night he won the Oscar for "Charley!" How often do you win an Oscar and get to be on national TV and then party all night? Although I think that film "Charley" sucks, apparently he missed the highlight night of his career over a movie that resembles an episode of "Combat!"
Note: Later in his career Cliff uncovers an embezzlement by his boss (Begalman or something) and never gets a good part again until the movie "Spiderman!" if you call that a good part! Please note that Michael Caine never gets a good part again but it didn't make a difference cause all those films sucked no matter who was in them and the people who went to see them didn't have any taste anyhow. Henry Fonda would save the uniform from this film and use it and his acting talent in the movie "Midway" later in the decade.
I can recommend this for a viewing but I wish you to know I bought it a video store that was going out of business for a buck. It is worth a watch but it will drive you crazy! Oh the horror! The horror! Opps, thats another film made in the Philipines!
As a war movie it is all right but those funky scenes of British troops watching the poor suckers who had to go out on this and other patrols run through a gauntlet of enemy fire to get in and out of the base are just too much. Are the troops bored? Not as much as you will be. I wonder what they did when they found some dog crap somewhere?
Then you have the "war is hell" attitude of the squad, the endless suspense of waiting for someone to do some acting before they get killed by the Japs, and then trying to figure out who installed the Public Address system in the jungle. Attention K Mart shoppers!
The only other thing I remember about the making of this film is that PT 109 Robertson got stuck working in the hot and miserable Phillipines on this rather standard war flick the night he won the Oscar for "Charley!" How often do you win an Oscar and get to be on national TV and then party all night? Although I think that film "Charley" sucks, apparently he missed the highlight night of his career over a movie that resembles an episode of "Combat!"
Note: Later in his career Cliff uncovers an embezzlement by his boss (Begalman or something) and never gets a good part again until the movie "Spiderman!" if you call that a good part! Please note that Michael Caine never gets a good part again but it didn't make a difference cause all those films sucked no matter who was in them and the people who went to see them didn't have any taste anyhow. Henry Fonda would save the uniform from this film and use it and his acting talent in the movie "Midway" later in the decade.
I can recommend this for a viewing but I wish you to know I bought it a video store that was going out of business for a buck. It is worth a watch but it will drive you crazy! Oh the horror! The horror! Opps, thats another film made in the Philipines!