Attack! **** (1956, Jack Palance , Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, Buddy Ebsen, Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel) – Classic Movie Review 3408

Producer-director Robert Aldrich’s classic 1956 war movie, or rather anti-war film, is as uncompromising and it is powerful.

He again casts his star from the previous year’s The Big Knife, Jack Palance as US Lieutenant Costa, whose American National Guard Infantry platoon, Fox Company, sets up an artillery observation post. But tensions run high between Costa and Captain Cooney (Eddie Albert). The platoon is deserted at the Belgian front line in 1944 by the cowardly infantry officer Cooney, causing many deaths.

On their return, creepy Lieutenant Colonel Clyde Bartlett (Lee Marvin), the CO of White Battalion, refuses to condemn Cooney in the hope of gaining favours back home after the war from the man’s father. So it’s up to an avenging Costa to try to settle the score and fulfil his pledge to kill Cooney.

Based by screen-writer James Poe on Norman Brooks’s scathing play The Fragile Fox, this tough, thoughtful and intelligent action film is a riveting one to watch thanks to the intelligent writing, Joseph F Biroc’s striking black and white cinematography, Frank DeVol’s excellent score, the consistently strong, powerhouse performances and Aldrich’s attacking direction.

It’s easy to see why the US Defence Department refused to co-operate during the production, since it spares few sensibilities in its brutal portrait of military warfare in the war. The film is brave enough to show the way war really is and looks behind the glory to suggest that, on occasion, a United States soldier might be rather less than an officer and a gentleman.

One of Aldrich’s special talents was his empathy with actors. The acting throughout this finely crafted movie is spot on, with outstanding work from the always-underrated actor Palance. Also in the cast are Buddy Ebsen, Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel, William Smithers, Peter van Eyck (inevitably an SS Captain), Jon Shepodd, Jimmy Goodwin, Steven Geray, Louis Mercier, Strother Martin, Jud Taylor, Henry Rowland, Holly Bane, Ron McNeil and Leonard Bremen.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3408

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/