Battle Circus

Battle Circus (Richard Brooks, 1953) You don't get very far along in Battle Circus before you realize that it is actually, basically M*A*S*H (the 1970 movie, the novel it was based on, and, ultimately, the television series based on it), but without the 1960's counter-culture sensibility of the Robert Altman film. As the P.A. announcements would say "Follow the exploits of some zany Mobile Army Surgeons, cutting up and cutting loose, laughing and loving their way through Korea, dodging bombs and commitments, while passing the penicillin and morphine, but not the 'Mary-Jane.' That is all" (and that last part would be "Bogarting"). 

 

There's even a little flaunting of authority to go along the way, what with Humphrey Bogart as a less-than-regular-Army surgeon, who takes a lot of pride in his meatball-surgery but not a lot of guff from the higher-in-rank. You could almost imagine Richard Hooker, Ring Lardner, jr. and Larry Gelbart writing this stuff, if not, in fact, being inspired from it. It's like there's a pool of Korean War Army hospital stories that everybody is drawing from.

But, Battle Circus came first, and was in production while the war was still going on. Focusing on the arrival of Nurse Lt. Ruth McGara (June Allyson) to the MASH 8666 unit near the front lines, she has to learn her way through the no-better-than-camping conditions, the closeness of the battles, the harrowing work on wounded soldiers on a seemingly endless supply being choppered in, and the "bailing-wire-and-spit" resourcefulness of the unit in tending to the wounded but also the Korean villages caught in the cross-fire.

Then, there's the relations in the camp. Nerves are frayed, but the only way to cure those are to drown them in alcohol. Chief among those patients is Chief Surgeon Maj. Jed Webbe (Bogart), meticulous in the OR but erratic anywhere else. Warned of his tendency to think of breaking hearts as minor surgery, McGara keeps him at scalpel's length. But Webbe, being a brilliant surgeon, has a way of getting under your skin.

When one of the village children is in need of a delicate open heart surgery, she entreats the Camp Commander, Lt. Col. Hilary Walters (Robert Keith) who refuses, due to the man-hours and supplies such a procedure would drain on the already strapped base. But, Webbe knows his way around a heart and goes against the rules and performs the surgery anyway, despite the consequences, winning McGara's regard...and her own heart.

Webbe has a way of going against the grain. When blood supplies are needed at a nearby outpost, he convinces their chief helicopter pilot (William Campbell) to risk taking him there during a bad storm, barely making it, and when they return, going on a bender that Walters tells him it may be the last straw, threatening his career in the Army and probably stateside unless he sobers up. Good thing he stays, because at some point, the colonel takes a bullet, and Webbe has to take command, in a particularly hazardous re-deployment to another site (with some pretty tricky jeep maneuvers down precipitous hills that are done for real, no dummies, and the slipperiest of brakes).

So, who's "Radar?" That would be Keenan Wynn's Sgt. Orvill Statt (nice name in a hospital), loyal, unquestioning, and extraordinarily gifted in the "mother-of-inventions" department. He makes the camp work, seemingly by himself, and if you need a jeep repaired, a route planned, a supply filled, or an orderly on stand-by, he's your man.

Nurse McGara has a tough time adjusting to the craziness, but when a North Korean prisoner is being operated on and pulls a grenade (I think that was on the TV series at least twice), she's able to be disarming, earning the company's respect...and a scar...for her efforts. She wins her stripes in the community, if not from the Army. And it makes the flirtatious banter between Allyson (who's quite good, although I've always found a bit creepy) and Bogart (never one for too light a touch, but who acquits himself well) turn more serious as ties bind and wounds heal.

Richard Brooks wrote and directed Battle Circus from a story by Allen Rivkin and Laura Kerr and Bogart was attracted to the mixture of drama, action, romance and comedy. But, he wasn't entirely happy with the result, falling out with the director with whom he made Deadline-U.S.A. Perhaps it's because Brooks has mostly been a very deliberate, even heavy-handed, director, who, when he sets out to make a joke, does so without much subtlety, and was always more successful when it was sub-text rather than front and center. His subject matter could be controversial and boundary-pushing, but his approach to it rarely was. He was good at action (as movies like The Professionals and Bite the Bullet proved), but seemed to think little of it, aspiring to bigger (and big "I" important) themes that he pushed all too leadenly. Richard Brooks could be quite good, but rarely great. It's why Battle Circus is largely forgotten, while M*A*S*H stole the play-book, and lingers on.

The Steel Helmet

The Steel Helmet (Samuel Fuller, 1951) Shot in ten days for a budget of $100,000, The Steel Helmet was the first film dealing with the, by-then, six month old Korean War. It was Fuller's third job as a director and his first established hit, but it marks a big contrast with the World War II films that were still making their way into theaters at that point.

The credits appear over a single steel helmet in the dirt. Once Fuller's director's credit fades away, the helmet begins to move. Underneath it is Sergent Zack (Gene Evans), tied and crawling out of his place in a pit where his entire captured squad was executed, he being the one survivor. He is untied and aided by a Korean orphan (William Chun), whom Zack dubs "Short Round" and while a bit of an annoyance, the kid is kept around while the soldier looks for other Americans.

Already Fuller is differentiating this film and this war from the squadron of films that came out of WW II. By the time of the film's release, movies made about the second world war were comfortably moving into the realm of myth, sanitizing the conflict and its hardships in the name of a "good war." But Zack is a different breed. He's scraggly, bearded, and a bit of a jerk, but a survivor. Suspicious of everyone and everything, he'll at least cut some slack if you're wearing the same uniform. But you have to prove yourself.

The rag-tag soldiers of The Steel Helmet

After fending off an attack from soldiers disguised as villagers praying at a small shrine, he and Short Round run into Cpl. Thompson (James Edwards), a medic, also the last survivor of his platoon. Thompson stitches Zack up and soon, they come across another group of dog-faces, lost in transit to a mission: to find a particularly strategically located Buddhist temple and establish a post. Along the way, the make-shift patrol is attacked by snipers hiding in the trees and attempt to disarm a booby-trap...unsuccessfully.

By this time, personalities have come to the fore. Every soldier is a "type," but not the usual religious and ethnic melting pot from the second World War films. Among the group is a yokel, a soldier who doesn't say much, a conscientious objector, a "green" college-educated officer, a Nisei soldier (who'd been to the West Coast concentration camps during the second world war and portrayed by veteran actor Richard Loo), and Thompson, who's black. This is stronger stuff than the Jews, Poles and Italians who provide "color" to white-washed war films of the previous decade. These guys are scruffy, too, and though typed, there's enough personality and grit to make them stand out as individuals, not tokens.

The crew makes their way to the temple, little suspecting there's a Korean sniper already entrenched there, outnumbered and biding his time, hiding in the shadows. As the soldiers set up a bivouac, the Korean takes out another of the rank and gets wounded in the process. The squad starts to squabble about what to do with their prisoner, while the whole time the huge Buddha observes mute in the background.  Eventually, Thompson treats the wounded captive, but once he's healthy again, the English-speaking prisoner starts to try to subvert Thompson and Tanaka by questioning why they would fight for America, given the racial prejudice visited on both their races.

That scene got Fuller in trouble with the FBI and the Army (who provided the film with stock footage) both for its portrayal of American troops and for bringing up American social deficiencies that might provide aid and comfort to the enemy (The Daily Worker also criticized the film for being too "right-wing"—leaving Fuller caught in the middle between idealized ideologies, something that would happen throughout his career).  

Thompson patches up "The Red."  Notice who's holding up the IV.

Warring ideologies inform the film, as well, especially over the POW. The GI's must battle between practicalities and the "better angels" of their natures over his fate. But, the point may be moot as a squad of North Koreans is advancing on the temple. Before the fight is over, more men will die and Zack will come to a greater understanding of his place in the war and rather than being hardened by his experience, learns to yield.

On an extremely small budget and a limited scope, The Steel Helmet still manages to pack more ideas and challenging points of view than most other war films, probably because there's less emphasis on battle and more on camaraderie, there's more getting along and survival skills than actual combat, which sets it apart. In typical Fuller fashion, the film is blunt, tough, practical and makes the most of its budget, while nudging insistently out of audience's comfort zones. Despite that (or maybe because of it) the film became a minor hit and launched Fuller into a Hollywood career directing and becoming a maverick doing it.