The Comic Reviews "Stalag 17"

A common question asked about Stalag 17 is, “Did it come from a book?” No, it didn’t come from a book, but from a fairly successful play. But like many scripts that arrive in Hollywood, it received heavy rewriting. Perhaps the reason the movie envelopes audiences is the great care Billy Wilder took to make sure the authenticity of the camp was captured as accurately as possible. You can feel the texture of the shabby barracks with its weathered walls and mud-slogged yard. Your skin tightens with the thought of the cold the prisoners are huddled against. And very prevalent is the dark humor flowing from crass mouths struggling to find cheer in a cheerless environment. Wilder takes us to a situation so true-to-life that, when the story starts and character motivations are revealed, we’re also made prisoners of the stalag and unfolding events. He worked to keep an air of suspense amongst the cast as well by filming the movie chronologically. He hid a key plot element from most of the cast until the last few days of shooting. Wilder so masterfully maintained the illusion that more than half a century later, Stalag 17 can still take viewers back to a frigid WWII P.O.W. camp as effectively as when it was released. And just as effectively capture new audiences with its story. It remains one of the best prison escape stories of all time.

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Won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

The Comic Critic Reviews "Kelly's Heroes"

Kelly’s Heroes was a successful movie despite the studio’s meddling. It was meant to be a vehicle for Clint Eastwood to increase his growing stardom. Indeed, his star would continue to rise with a series of successful films that would leave a trail of iconic characters and oft-quoted lines. But Kelly’s Heroes didn’t spotlight Eastwood as well as it could have. For one thing, a fair portion of the script was either thrown out or ended on the cutting room floor. For another, all of the other actors did a terrific job with their characters and kept stealing scenes. Eastwood ends up playing straight man Abbott to every other actor’s Costello. The magic of Kelly’s Heroes is that this level field amongst the actors created a sense of camaraderie that radiated off the screen. You end up empathizing with this band of shysters, thieves, and hooligans. Even after editing, enough war commentary was still left in the story to make it relevant to an audience still in the throes of dealing with the impact of the Vietnam War. Kelly’s Heroes was warmly received by an audience enjoying a wave of WWII films. War movies seldom have an enduring charm, but this one does. You’ve got some great acting portraying unique characters, very good writing, non-CGI battle scenes, and a soundtrack that you will be humming for a few days. It’s well worth a viewing.

The Comic Critic Reviews "The Longest Day"

I’ve seen The Longest Day over a dozen times. But I’ve only seen it uncut a few times. Most of my viewings were via broadcast television where its three-hour-length jostles was compromised by commercials. The Longest Day is a docudrama about the Allies’ invasion of Normandy. A docudrama is just what it sounds like. Parts of it do a pretty good job of providing details of that fateful day, like names and locations. The drama part is everything else. The scale of production for The Longest Day was huge. So large, in fact, that three different directors were assigned to different countries at the same time to meet the production deadline. And there was no shortage of stars for this film. Both Richard Burton and Roddy McDowall flew over from the stalled production of Cleopatra to participate. The Longest Day would receive five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. But there were a lot of great films that year and the Best Picture win went to Lawrence of Arabia.

The Comic Critic Reviews: The Dam Busters

Back in 1955, The Dam Busters was the biggest movie in Britain. One of my fans reminded me about this film when I asked you for Blockbusters. I’d forgotten nearly all of the details, so I watched it again. The importance of this film, and the book that inspired it, was the accuracy of the facts reported. Some of them were withheld for national security reasons, but the book got nearly all of them right. What few historical flubs there were in the movie (such as a plane crashing on the wrong side of the river) were criticized. You won’t see it played very often on television anymore because of the dog’s name, which is repeated at surprising frequency. You might think that they would just change the name of the dog. But that wouldn’t be the British thing to do. I wonder how it will be dealt with if there’s a remake.