Operation Bottleneck (1961)

Sardonic but courageous Lieutenant Rulan Voss (Ron Foster) leads a small task force of GIs who parachute into the jungles of Burma behind Japanese lines on a daring mission to destroy a strategic roadway.

Five pretty girls – liberated from the Japanese and somehow still looking pristinely neat and tidy after their presumably arduous trek – are providentially provided with soldiering garb and armaments so they can be trained as substitutes for the men lost in rescuing the Lieutenant.

At one point it looks as if everybody might burst into song, musical comedy style, as the young ladies blaze away at target practice while the enemy is conveniently elsewhere.

Earlier, Japanese patrols had quickly detected the parachute drop and were even more alert in pinpointing the radio communication of a British martyr (Ben Wright).

Naive and amateurish, this may not be the worst war movie ever made, but it’s definitely up there, complete with bad acting, a ridiculous storyline, hokey jungle set, stock footage, and terrible production values.

Operation Bottleneck was apparently based on scriptwriter Orville H Hampton’s personal experiences in World War II.

Lt. Rulan H. Voss
Ron Foster
Ari
Miiko Taka
Cpl. Lester ‘Merc’ Davenport
Norman Alden
Sgt. Marty Regan
John Clarke
Mander
Ben Wright
Matsu
Dale Ishimoto
Atsi (Ari’s Mother)
Jane Chang
LoLo
Lemoi Chu
Tai
Tiko Ling
Sawbu
Jin Jin Mai
Danue
June Kawai
Benjy
Ben Bennett
Tom
Marc Eden
Koju
George Yoshinaga

Director
Edward L. Cahn

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