1963's "A Yank in Viet-Nam" marked the very first American attempt to dramatize the brewing overseas conflict, a pet project for director/star Marshall Thompson, shooting on actual locations in South Vietnam after first scouting the Philippines. Thompson plays a Marine Corp major who survives a helicopter crash only to evade the Vietcong with female freedom fighter Kieu Chinh, the film crew apparently working under the same dangerous conditions to deliver authentic atmosphere (Thompson himself was grazed in the back by sniper fire). "Across the Mekong" was the original script title (Jack Lewis a real life former Marine and screenwriter for Edgar G. Ulmer's "The Amazing Transparent Man"), changed to "The Year of the Tiger" during filming for seven weeks into Oct. 1962 for Thompson's Kingman production company, the actor replacing Alex Nicol ("The Screaming Skull") at the helm just after its August start. While MGM showed some interest, Thompson decided that Allied Artists would be better able to promote a small picture, seeming to have long vanished well before the star's death in 1992. Ironically, its theatrical cofeature was a far better known war picture, "The Thin Red Line," starring Keir Dullea and Jack Warden.
Review of A Yank in Viet-Nam
