The Steel Helmet **** (1951, Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie) – Classic Movie Review 3477

Gene Evans stars as Sergeant Zack, with Robert Hutton as Private Bronte, Steve Brodie as Lieutenant Driscoll and James Edwards as Corporal Thompson, in writer-director Samuel Fuller’s riveting Korean War action drama.

It is notable as the first Korean War movie, filmed only six months after the outbreak of hostilities. Shot in just 10 days, the film had such a low budget at only $100,000 that the Chinese tank that attacks the patrol is made of plywood. There are only 25 extras, playing both American and North Korean soldiers, all students from UCLA. The battle scenes were shot in Griffith Park.

In Fuller’s edgy story, battle-worn Sergeant Zack, aided by a Korean orphan boy, joins a small group of American soldier stragglers. They all come across an abandoned Buddhist temple and, believing it empty, decide to hold up there, but end up battling superior Communist troops.

Hutton surrendered the lead role to Evans after got a piece of shrapnel in his finger during on-set explosives. Evans plays an extension of the same tough sergeant character in Fuller’s 1951 follow-up Korean War film, Fixed Bayonets!, though with a different name of name Sergeant Rock.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3477

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