A US Marine patrol is attempting to hold a snowcovered mountain pass during the Korean War when their Lieutenant dies, leaving his inexperienced black Sergeant, Eddie Towler (Sidney Poitier) in charge of the squad of belligerent and racist white men.
Towler takes over a Korean farmhouse, inhabited by an elderly woman, her Eurasian daughter, Maya (Ana María Lynch), and the latter’s small son, and determines to hold it until the main body of Marines arrives.
Towler’s men include Kincaid (Alan Ladd), a demoted sergeant; Bracken (Paul Richards), a negro-hating Southerner; Wade (Glenn Corbett), a medical student; Crane (Mort Sahl), a corporal, and Torgil, a Swede (Swedish heavyweight boxing world champion Ingemar Johansson).
Bracken forces his attentions on Maya but Towler intervenes. During all this, Red snipers get cracking and pave the way for a tank attack.
The Marines destroy the tank, but Kincaid’s leg is badly crushed. Wade amputates it and a transfusion of Towler’s blood saves Kincaid’s life. The racial war is over.
Marine reinforcements appear and Towler and Maya look longingly at each other as the curtain falls.
Alan Ladd never pushes himself as Kincaid while Paul Richards makes a thoroughly nasty piece of work as Bracken and Mort Sahl introduces a couple of laughable monologues as Crane.
Sgt. Kincaid
Alan Ladd Sgt. Eddie Towler
Sidney Poitier Pvt. Cotton
James Darren Pvt. Wade, Medic
Glenn Corbett Cpl. Crane
Mort Sahl Maya
Ana María Lynch Pvt. Bracken
Paul Richards Pvt. Casey
Dick Davalos Pvt. Dean
Lee Kinsolving Pvt. Jackson
Joseph Gallison Pvt. Lazitech
Paul Baxley Lt. Earl D. Toland
Charles Quinlivan Cho
Michael Davis Hunter
Mario Alcalde Pvt. Torgil
Ingemar Johansson
Director
Hall Bartlett
Related Posts
None But the Brave (1965) A very unusual anti-war war film co-scripted by an American and a Japanese. It's a sad story about the slender…
Price of Silence, The (1960) Richard Fuller (Gordon Jackson) is an ex-convict who - after serving his sentence for embezzlement - has changed his name…
13 West Street (1962) Mild-mannered aeronautical engineer Walt Sherill (Alan Ladd) is brutally attacked and injured by a gang of well-dressed teenage thugs but…
Lilies of The Field (1963) With nothing better to do, and hoping to get paid, travelling handyman and ex-GI Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) helps out…
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967) Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are unforgettable as the perplexed parents in this landmark 1967 movie about mixed marriage. Joanna…
Joey Boy (1965) Featuring a legendary comedy line-up, Joey Boy charts the wartime misadventures of a gang of London spivs who decide that…
Amazing Colossal Man, The (1957) US Army Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan) is exposed to radiation after a plutonium bomb test in Nevada and…
Hill, The (1965) Tensions mount at a British army stockade in the North African desert during World War II when a sadistic guard…
Towler’s men include Kincaid (Alan Ladd), a demoted sergeant; Bracken (Paul Richards), a negro-hating Southerner; Wade (Glenn Corbett), a medical student; Crane (Mort Sahl), a corporal, and Torgil, a Swede (Swedish heavyweight boxing world champion Ingemar Johansson).
