5 Movies | November 11th
Films made during wartime or about current events often serve a purpose. During World War II, it was often to honor those serving, bolster support, or boost morale and patriotism. With films like Mrs. Miniver (1942), the goal was to show U.S. audiences what life was like in England during the war. Other times, films could be made in protest, like The Steel Helmet (1951) made about the Korean War, protesting all wars and how they seemingly have no end.
Turner Classic Movies celebrates Veterans Day with four films depicting the World War II conflict, though none were produced during the war. A fifth film is airing, depicting a World War I hero but was released with World War II in mind.
Prelude to war
While Sergeant York (1941) was a film about a World War I hero, its goal was to shake up the mindset of isolationist Americans who wanted to stay out of World War II, which had been raging in Europe since Sept. 1939.
In the film, York, played by Gary Cooper, drinks and acts recklessly. After a near-death experience, he changes his ways and finds religion. When York is called to arms in World War I, he’s reluctant to kill, as the Bible says “Thou shalt not kill.”
Sgt. Alvin York was one of the most decorated soldiers in the United States Army during World War I. In October 1918, York killed 28 Germans and captured 132 German prisoners. Film producer Jesse Lasky approached York in 1919 about making a film about his life. York turned Lasky down. With Lasky continuing to ask York, he relented in 1940 to have a film made, citing that they needed to combat Hitler, according to director Howard Hawks’s biographer, Todd McCarthy.
York had stipulations about who was cast in the film. Gary Cooper had to play him, and the role of York’s wife, Gracie, had to be played by an actress who didn’t smoke, according to the documentary, Sergeant York: Of God and Country (2006).
“The Yorks had a lot to say about picking me,” said actress Joan Leslie, who played Gracie. “They didn’t want a glamour girl or anyone with a reputation.”
The film had other issues. Everyone who was represented in the film, from York’s family to people he served with in World War I, had to sign a consent form. Many refused — including some of his siblings and York’s father-in-law — so they were eliminated from the film. Others who served with York wrote letters to Warner Bros., trying to discredit his heroic claims, according to the book “Celluloid Soldiers: The Warner Bros. Campaign Against Nazism.”
While the film focuses on events that occurred 23 years prior, Sergeant York was designed to be a wakeup call for isolationists in the United States. Film historian Robert Osborne compared Sergeant York to films like Mrs. Miniver (1942) or Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) that provided a “patriotic spin” to what was happening in the world at their release.
Dignitaries attended the New York City premiere on July 2, 1941, including Mrs. Roosevelt, Wendell Wilkie, General Pershing and Sgt. Alvin York himself. At the premiere, York wanted the film to contribute to the “national unity in his hour of danger,” according to film critic Bosley Crowther’s New York Times review.
"Millions of Americans, like myself, must be facing the same questions, the same uncertainties which we faced and I believe resolved for the right some 24 years ago,” York said.
While the film was largely well-received, the war message was not popular with everyone. Some politicians in Washington, D.C., demanded an investigation into the film, because it violated the United States neutrality. However, soon the United States would be actively discussing their involvement in the war after the attacks on Pearl Harbor.
Returning from war
While soldiers were away serving in World War II, they dreamed of home. But their return wasn’t as easy or as carefree as they daydreamed. Director William Wyler had returned home from World War II feeling different about his life and career. “No one could go through that experience and come out the same,” Wyler is quoted by his biographer, Gabriel Miller.
While looking for his first post-war film project, Wyler turned to a verse novel, “Glory for Me” by MacKinlay Kantor. The novel follows three men as they travel to Boone City. Before the war, the three never would have known each other, but now have formed a post-war bond as they return home.
The project was originally considered when producer Samuel Goldwyn’s wife, Frances, read a 1944 Time article about Marines experiencing “the strange embarrassment of coming home.” The story was shelved until Wyler expressed interest. He liked the story because it focused on ordinary soldiers, rather than top military brass and heroes. The title eventually shifted to The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
Casting served to be an issue for the story. Then Wyler was at a fundraiser for disabled veterans and saw the documentary “Diary of a Sergeant,” which told about Sgt. Harold Russell, a paratrooper who lost both of his hands when an explosive detonated prematurely during maneuvers in North Carolina. Russell was cast as Homer, a young sailor returning home. The cast was rounded out with Fredric March as Sergeant Al Stephenson, a banker in civilian life, and Dana Andrews as Lieutenant Fred Derry of the U.S. Air Corps, a soda jerk in civilian life. Al returns home to a wife, Milly (played by Myrna Loy), and grown children Peggy (Teresa Wright) and Rob (Michael Hall). Fred returns home to a wife he barely knows, played by Virginia Mayo, and Homer is back next door to his sweetheart, Wilma, played by Cathy O’Donnell.
Each returning serviceman is in a socioeconomic level that contrasts his military rank, showing that rank and leadership abroad doesn’t equate to importance back home. Each man has their own issues adjusting. Fred has trouble finding work, experiences night terrors about battle, and also realizes his wife is a stranger who fell in love with his uniform. Al drinks too much and butts heads with bank leaders about the value of former servicemen requesting loans. Homer has adjusted physically to the loss of his hands but is self-conscious about how his family reacts to the hooks he uses. He avoids and shuts out Wilma, because he doesn’t think it’s fair to marry her now.
The story took some risks during Production Code-era Hollywood. Wyler said they had to delicately film the scene where Homer shows Wilma his bedtime routine so she will see what life is like after they marry, if they marry. “There were delicate problems in bringing a boy and a girl to a bedroom at night, with the boy getting into his pajama top, revealing his leather harness, which enables him to work his hooks, and finally taking the harness off,” Wyler is quoted by his biographer. “We solved the problems without the slightest suggestion of indelicacy …”
Reflecting on his own time at war, Wyler directs a sensitive, poignant film about readjusting to life. While the film has a happy ending, you still know there is a long road ahead in adjusting to civilian life.
Reliving the war
When author and former war correspondent Cornelius Ryan set out to write his book, “The Longest Day,” he put an ad in European and American newspapers. Wanting to tell the story of D-Day, June 6, 1944, he asked for anyone involved to write him so he could talk about their experiences, according to the documentary “History Through the Lens: The Longest Day.” Ryan received hundreds of letters, said his daughter, Victoria Ryan Bida.
In his novel, Ryan wanted to tell the story of the everyman in battle, not just the generals and heroes, and also made the decision to include the experiences of the Germans, along with the Allied Forces.
For former 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck, he was drawn to the patriotism of the story and also saw it as a way to revitalize his career after a series of failures. Zanuck wanted to independently produce the film. It would be a large undertaking to recreate D-Day in the film version of The Longest Day (1962). Zanuck and his units scouted all over the world for realistic uniforms and equipment.
Zanuck cast 43 international stars and sought out some who served in D-Day, like Richard Todd. Todd was cast as Major John Howard who led Todd’s battalion and was a friend of his. Red Buttons, who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, portrayed a real person, paratrooper Private John Steele. Steele was in the group of ill-fated paratroopers who land in the town square of Sainte-Mère-Église. Steele is caught on a church tower and watches as his peers are killed below. Buttons met Steele later, who told Buttons that he was glad he played the role so he didn’t have to relive that moment again.
The Longest Day features a star-studded cast from top Hollywood leading men like John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan to teen heartthrobs like Paul Anka, Tommy Sands and Fabian. If you blink, you’ll miss appearances from Roddy McDowall, Ray Danton or Steve Forrest.
Despite this line-up of stars, The Longest Day is different than other war films. Filmed in black-and-white, Zanuck wanted to create a documentary-like atmosphere. The film is void of romance, subplots or an overall hero.
But even with the documentary type of storytelling, there are vignettes giving a personal touch to some characters. We see Richard Beymer, who’s lost and hasn’t once fired his gun to Jeffrey Hunter, who talks about home to a soldier he doesn’t know.
“The intimacy wasn’t lost in the huge panorama of it,” said actor Roddy McDowall.
The film starkly depicts the hours leading up to June 6, as leaders determine if the invasion will be pushed back or not. Everyone is frustrated and anxious waiting for the invasion to begin. Then the deployment of the invasion from the land and sea are detailed. Through the use of subtitles, we see each side of the story with the Germans, French, English and Americans. Zanuck had to work with the government of each country in order to accurately depict the invasion, according film historian Peter Lev.
New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the black-and-white cinematography gave the film’s battle scenes “newsreel authenticity.”
“They avoided any inclination to go behind the scenes, to indulge in incidental flash-backs or establish characters,” Crowther wrote in his Oct. 6, 1962, review. “Thus all that one sees in the three hours are the fighting men (and a few women) and the things they do in the course of one deadly, terrifying and most momentous day. No character stands out particularly as more significant or heroic than anyone else.”
Zanuck had four directors working on the film — Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald and Bernhard Wicki — often filming in different areas simultaneously, according to a “Backstory” featurette produced in 2000.
The US Department of Defense initially supported the film but wanted to remove some scenes, including when German soldiers shout, “Bitte! Bitte!” (Please, Please) and a solider (played by Tommy Sands) shoots them saying, “I wonder what bitte bitte means?” 20th Century Fox president Spyros Skouras objected to the film, because it focused too much on the Germans and should be more focused on the United States. The British government also objected to the English representation in the film, according to Zanuck’s biographer.
But the biggest hurdle Zanuck had was being up against Cleopatra (1963). The board of 20th Century Fox threatened to shut down the production of The Longest Day because Cleopatra was so far over budget. Zanuck fought to continue making the film. When it was finally released in Paris and then New York City, the film was a success, not just financially but for war veterans.
After the book and film were released, wives and children of those who served in D-Day finally understood what their loved ones had experienced and why they didn’t want to talk about it, said Cornelius Ryan’s daughter.
A different look at storytelling
Even in the late-1960s as the world was changing with race riots and Vietnam War protests, World War II movies were still told on screen. But similar to the changing world, so were the stories. Technicolor films like The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Where Eagles Dare (1968) featured more blood and violence than films made under the Production Code previously allowed.
Where Eagles Dare is more traditionally patriotic and heroic. Written especially for the screen by adventure author Alistair MacLean, the film follows a group of British spies and an American. The group is trying to raid a castle where a United States general is held hostage by Nazis. The group is led by Major Smith, played by Richard Burton, who realizes that the mission isn’t exactly what it seems, especially as members of his group are murdered. Major Smith and the American, Lt. Schaffer, played by Clint Eastwood, investigate to complete the mission.
The story takes many twists and turns, but follows the theme of most adventure MacLean stories. Filmed at the difficult-to-access Hohenwerfen Castle in Austria, Clint Eastwood joked that the film should have been called “Where Doubles Dare” due to the dangerous feats, according to Richard Burton’s biographer, Michael Munn.
Though Burton and Eastwood had different screen personas, the two stars hit it off. Eastwood, still early in his film career, praised Burton for being “something special,” according to Munn. “I enjoyed making that film with Clint,” Burton is quoted by his biographer. “I did all the talking and he did all the killing; it seemed a very good match. He was very easy to work with and we got on well.”
The film was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s biggest film of the year. While Eastwood would proceed to stardom in his career, Where Eagles Dare would be one of Burton’s last successful films.
The Dirty Dozen is opposite to the good vs. bad heroics of Where Eagles Dare. The film is based on a novel by E. M. Nathanson. Major Reisman, played by Lee Marvin, receives orders to lead the top-secret raid at a château where several high-ranking Germans are located. But the commandos who will join him are condemned U.S. Army prisoners that he has to train. Those who succeed in the dangerous mission will receive a pardon. Major Reisman struggles to get the men to obey orders from an Army who also put them in jail. They get their label of “dirty dozen” for defying leadership and refusing to bathe or shave when their quarters doesn’t have hot water.
The “dirty dozen” that Marvin leads is a star-studded cast including, Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, John Cassavetes, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, George Kennedy, Jim Brown, Robert Webber, Richard Jaeckel, Ralph Meeker, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker and Trini Lopez.
Marvin saw action in World War II, later saying that the war had a lasting effect on him, according to his biographer Dwayne Epstein. Marvin enlisted in the U.S. Marines. In the invasion of Saipan, Marvin was one of six out of 247 men in his unit who wasn’t killed, according to a Sept. 27, 1968, LIFE magazine article. Marvin was wounded in June 1944 at age 21 in Saipan’s “Death Valley.” He was blown off his stretcher and was on the beach during a counter attack, watching his fellow Marines die.
“The war really had an effect on me,” Marvin is quoted by his biographer. Marvin’s father, Lamont Waltman Marvin, said that the war changed his son. “He came home from that half dead, totally broken. He was never the same,” his father said.
The finale of The Dirty Dozen is violent and brutal and was met by criticism. Crowther of The New York Times described the film as, “A raw and preposterous glorification of a group of criminal soldiers who are trained to kill and who then go about this brutal business with hot, sadistic zeal.”
Recognizing the changing times, director Robert Aldrich had issues with the initial screenplay. The screenplay written by Nunnally Johnson “would have made a very good, very acceptable 1945 war picture. But I don’t think that a 1945 war picture is necessarily a good 1967 war picture,” Aldrich said in a 1974 interview with Harry Ringel. Aldrich brough on Lukas Heller who created a new concept for the film.
The Dirty Dozen was the highest grossing film of 1967. The success of the film could be attributed to the changing attitudes in the United States, Aldrich said
“The commercial success of The Dirty Dozen is reputed to be that it caught the wave of anti-authoritarian attitudes which were dormant, but became full-flown in 1967-68,” Aldrich said. “I’d love to say we sat back there and knew that was going to happen during the release period of the picture. We knew the attitudes were there. But nobody knew people were going to identify with The Dirty Dozen so much as they did as a manifestation of their disagreement with the system … Young people by the bushel thought it was an anti-establishment picture.”
