Sam Fuller Films - Part II

320. Fixed Bayonets (1951) - Fuller. Co-stars Gene Evans and Richard Basehart B&W 92 minutes. Korean war movie. In the freezing snow of North Korea, a small US army platoon must protect the Division's retreat. The story is predictable and characters are generic but Fuller adds some realistic banter/grittiness and Evans shines as tough guy Sgt. Rock. Some memorable action scenes (the minefield and the final attack) -but the movie is hampered by a low budget and sound stage look. Rating ***

321. Steel Helmet (1951) - Fuller. Co-stars Gene Evans and Robert Hutton B&W 85 minutes. Fuller's first Korean war movie. Led by Sargent Zack (Gene Evans), several stragglers, a lost patrol, and a Korean orphan hole up in Buddhist Temple and await a Chinese attack. Costing less than $150,000 - it made him famous and led Zanuck to hire him at 20th Century Fox. Given the low budget, the film is surprisingly good, and Fuller does an excellent job through close-ups, fog, etc, in disguising the cheap sets. Fast moving with a gritty script -Evans' portrayal of Sargent Zack is the highlight. The final attack scene is a let down due to budget constraints. Fuller shows an American shooting, cuts to a Chicom shooting back, then cuts back to the American, etc. and occasionally spices in some old WW II film But overall the film is enjoyable. Rating ***

322. The Big Red One (1980) - Fuller. Co-stars Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill Reconstructed Version - 162 minutes. The Reconstructed version includes over 40 minutes cut from the original release and is digitally restored and remastered. In a series of episodes, focusing mainly on combat, the story follows 4 GI's in US rifle squad (1st US Infantry Division) led by Lee Marvin from North Africa to Czechoslovakia (VE day). Wrongly described as "Fuller's masterpiece" or a "Gritty realistic war picture", the movie is really a hodgepodge of melodrama, fantasy, realism, and variations on "Fixed Bayonets". "Big Red One" has one big positive - Lee Marvin - but otherwise suffers from several major problems, including:

• A weak, obscure, charisma free, supporting cast, Marvin is great of course, and Mark Hamil is adequate, but everyone else is bad or barely adequate. Most of them have faded into oblivion.


• Underdeveloped characters. Lets see, there's Lee Marvin, some guy who smokes Cigars, Hamill, who doesn't like Killing, an Italian guy, a blond guy who doesn't say much. Plus, a bunch of faceless replacement nobodies who get killed and a really evil Nazi Sargent, who wandered in from a DC Comic. Except for Marvin none of the characters seemed real.


• Bad special effects. The battle scenes reminded me of the TV series "Combat". People get hit, grab their stomach and fall down. The Germans speak English, and while there are few explosions here and there - its mostly like "Combat" with Americans on the right side of the screen shooting at Germans with rifles on the left hand side. The Germans always miss our 5 main characters, but the Americans always hit.


• Low budget. It looks like an over-lighted TV movie. Omaha Beach has 20 guys and 1 ship. Fuller uses the same 3 Tanks, sometimes as Shermans other times as Panzers. No scene has more than 20 people in it. Usually its just Marvin, the 4 main GI's, and a couple Germans or civilians. .


• Lack of Realism. Filmed mostly in Israel, many European scenes look phony. The Omaha beach scene, for example, was filmed on a hot, sunny, Israeli beach. We rarely see an officer, or anyone from any other outfit and Mortars, machine guns, Trucks and jeeps don't seem to exist. Incredibly, Marvin and the 4 main characters get through 2 1/2 years of combat with nothing more than flesh wounds.


• Badly done fantasy - an attack on an insane asylum, a mother giving birth in a tank, a German soldier hiding in Gas Chamber, the French Calvary riding to the rescue, a German infiltrator eating lunch with the rifle squad.

Finally, critics claim the movie is based on Fuller's personal WW II experiences but that seems doubtful. Based on Fuller's autobiography "The Third Face" he wasn't in a rifle squad after North Africa. He was assigned to the Regimental HQ Company as a writer/clerk. and was close to Col. Taylor, the Regimental Commander.

And Fuller comes off as a bit of BS artist. He claims to have talked to Hitchcock - as a US Corporal - in London in '44. He claims John Wayne begged him twice to play the lead in Big Red one - but Fuller turned him down. He claims he told off Adolph Menjou in front of Douglas MacArthur. He claims he was big pals with famous WW II Photographer Robert Capra. He claims the Regimental commander begged him to be the Regimental historian with a commission to go anywhere and see anything, but Corporal Fuller turned him down.

I've never read a critical analysis of Fuller's book, but I think the guy stretched the truth a little. It should be noted Mailer claimed all his life to a US Infantry vet, but was just a cook. And Hellman's memoirs were full of made up stories.Rating **