JackFavell wrote: ↑May 11th, 2012, 7:28 pm
Yesterday I watched
Battle Cry, a movie I knew only from having read that James Dean was somewhere in it. I watched because I have an unreasonable liking for Aldo Ray.
The movie really struck me, because it didn't actually seem to be about war at all. It was more like some of the glossy soaps from the fifties. I enjoyed it very much, especially after I realized that it was kind of like a male version of
The Best of Everything, with war substituting for the work world of a New York magazine empire.
BATTLE CRY SPOILED
Tab Hunter gets the Hope Lange lead from TBOE, trying to make it through basic training, becoming a good soldier instead of a business exec. He comes complete with love interest back home and complications involving the older but maybe not wiser Dorothy Malone, who managed to be trampy, overblown and sympathetic all at the same time. But in this film, Tab ends up going back to the home girl.
A cute actor that I liked a lot named John Lupton played the bespectacled Diane Baker type virgin, with a lovely Arlene Francis underplaying as his partner, who hides her past as a B-girl.
Hunky (not quite hulky yet) Aldo Ray was the Suzy Parker of the soldiers... a womanizer, too cool for school, and never going to let a woman get the best of him. He of course, falls hardest of them all for Nancy Olson, who is a war widow with issues, never planning to fall in love with anyone again. She makes lines like "Oh Andy! I'm afraid!" sound realistic. Olson seems to have always been a good actress, no matter how stupid her dialogue. Of course, her standoffishness makes her the perfect mate for commitment shy Aldo. Though Aldo doesn't do a nosedive from a skyscraper, he does lose his legs.
There was even a tough, hard driven boss who finally sees the light and connects with his young underlings.... Van Heflin in the Joan Crawford role.
James Whitmore is along to make it all seem a lot classier than it really is.
I was surprised when looking it up, that it's a Raoul Walsh film (!!!). I think he did fifties soap opera quite well.
In all fairness though, it looked like it was made for less than $10,000. It's not like they thought they were making a good movie!
