#2,983. Battleground (1949) - The Films of William A. Wellman

 

“This story is about, and dedicated to, those Americans who met General Heinrich von Luttwitz and his 47 Panzer Corps and won for themselves the honored and immortal name – ‘The Battered Bastards of Bastogne’”.

The Battle of the Bulge, which stretched from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945, marked the final German offensive of WWII, a last-ditch effort by the Nazis to catch the Allies off-guard. And for a while, they managed to do just that, surrounding (among others) the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. With heavy fog preventing bombing runs, and cut off from supplies, the 101st and their comrades held out as long as possible until reinforcements could arrive.

It proved to be the turning point in the war, and director William A. Wellman puts us in the middle of the fighting, following a group of soldiers as they freeze, starve, and begin to lose hope. Wellman recreates the conditions and events of the Battle of the Bulge wonderfully, but as with many of his movies it’s the characters that transform Battleground into one of the finest World War II films ever made.

Battle weary and in need of a little relaxation, the 2nd squad 3rd platoon of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, which is assigned to the 101st Airborne, have been given a temporary leave, and hope to spend the next few days unwinding in Paris. The Germans, however, have other plans for them, and launch a surprise attack. With their leave cancelled, the bitter men of 2nd squad head first to the city of Bastogne, then deep into the forests of the Ardennes, where they are to await further orders.

Cut off from the outside, they have no idea they are being surrounded by the Germans, and are heavily outnumbered. Still, even with heavy fog and freezing conditions settling in, the hungry troops continue to fight, praying that the Allies will quickly come to their rescue.

No stranger to war films (having directed 1927's Wings, the first movie ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture), William A. Wellman knew how to stage a dramatic battle scene, and Battleground would also go on to win an Oscar for Best B&W Cinematography (courtesy of Paul C. Vogel). Yet before any battle is staged, and before the brilliant shots of the snowy Ardennes landscape, Battleground introduces us to its characters, and we spend a good deal of time with them prior to the skirmishes.

Van Johnson, playing the sarcastic PFC Holley, is technically the lead, yet in the end we know him about as well as we do the other men of 2nd squad. Pvt. Jim Leyton (Marshall Thompson) is the newest arrival, a raw recruit thrust into a situation for which he is not prepared, alongside a group of men he has barely met. Pvt. Donald Jarvess (John Hodiak) worked as a reporter for a local paper, and regularly praised the Allied efforts against the Nazis in his columns. Now, on the ground and part of the fighting, he has a slightly different outlook on war.

Pvt. Johnny Roderigues (Ricardo Montalban) is a native of Los Angeles, and is excited to experience the first snowfall of his life, while his good friend Pvt. “Pop” Stazek (George Murphy) has received word he is going home. Unfortunately, at the time the squad was sent to Bastogne, Pop’s official orders had not yet arrived.

Staff Sgt. Kinnie (James Whitmore) is a hardened veteran who leads the men into battle, but is also just ‘one of the guys’. Pvt. “Kipp” Kippton (Douglas Fowley), having heard that regulations state a soldier must have at least six of his own teeth to continue serving in the army, at one point knocked all of his teeth out with the butt of his rifle. Instead of a discharge, though, the army gave him a set of false choppers. Then there’s Pvt. Bettis (Richard Jaeckel), who suffers from battle fatigue.

This is just a sampling; there are more characters, and the personalities, fears, and idiosyncrasies of each and every one are front and center.

ames Whitmore was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and while he does a fine job, definitely delivering an Oscar-worthy performance, he is no more impressive than any other actor throughout Battleground, his Sgt. Kinnie no more memorable than any other soldier. If the Academy had an award for Best Ensemble, this film would have walked away with it.

The men of the 101st Airborne were a part of history, and as Battleground shows us, they had no idea just how important it was at the time. In one key scene, a dispatch has made its way through, and as Jarvess is reading it to the others, he refers to the battle they are engaged in as “Bulge”. It was the first that the men ever heard that word, not realizing that their families back home, and people around the world, knew the word all too well by this point, and were following the action intently. Yes, it was an historic battle, and Battleground does a wonderful job recreating the harsh conditions. But history would have to wait; for these men who lived through it, it was all about survival, and getting themselves and their buddies out alive. We see and feel their struggles, their suffering, and even their victories. Wellman and his crew ensured that we lived it right along with them, and that is why Battleground is damn near a masterpiece.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10

#2,910. Heroes for Sale (1933) - The Films of William A. Wellman

 

I thought I had William Wellman’s Heroes for Sale pegged in its opening scenes, which are set during World War I. Soldier Tom Holmes (Richard Barthelmess) is ordered by his superior and good friend (in both civilian life and the trenches) Roger Winston (Gordon Westcott) to accompany him, as well as a few other troops, on what appears to be a suicide mission: an assault on a German machine gun nest.

Tom and Roger are to lead the frontal assault, but once they crawl into no-man’s land, Roger chickens out and refuses to budge from the safety of their foxhole.

Left on his own, Tom moves forward, destroys the machine gun with a grenade, and even manages to take a German prisoner. Unfortunately, while returning to the foxhole, Tom is shot in the back. A wounded Tom tosses the prisoner in next to Roger, informs his friend that he’s a goner, and tells Roger to make sure the prisoner is delivered to their commanding officer.

Though ashamed of his cowardice, Roger is declared a hero. Roger knows it was his now-deceased friend who is the true hero, yet takes the credit for it anyway.

But, miracle of miracles, Tom is not dead! The bullet lodged in his back, he is taken prisoner by the German Army, who put him in a hospital tent, where his wound is treated. When, some time later, the armistice is signed, Tom is returned to the U.S. front lines. On a boat home, Tom meets Roger, who is surprised his pal is still alive, and confesses everything. No matter, says Tom, and tells Roger to continue playing the hero.

Back in their home town, Roger, son of a prestigious banker (Berton Churchill), is given a hero’s welcome, while Tom has a cozy but affectionate reunion with his widowed mother (Margaret Seddon). But Tom received more than a wound in the back during the war; the German doctor who treated him also informed Tom that there is still metal shrapnel very close to his spinal cord, and gave him a bottle of morphine to ease the pain. Now working in the very bank controlled by Roger and his father, Tom has developed a Morphine addiction, which is affecting his job performance. Though Roger pleads for his buddy once the addiction is made public, his father fires Tom and reports him to the authorities, who lock Tom away in an asylum for treatment.

This entire ordeal had me thinking about another film released that same year, Gold Diggers of 1933, specifically the musical number “Remember My Forgotten Man”, in which Joan Blondell relates the plight of the returning soldier, and how America seems to have forgotten their sacrifices. With its opening scenes, and a title like Heroes for Sale, I figured this is exactly the topic Wellman’s movie was going to tackle as well.

Boy, was I wrong!

This is not a movie about society ignoring veterans of World War I, or at least it's not entirely about that. Tom not only recovers from his morphine addiction, but also moves to Chicago and takes an apartment above a soup kitchen operated by Mary Dennis (Aline MacMahon) and her kindly father (Charles Grapewin, aka Dorothy’s Uncle Henry in 1939's The Wizard of Oz). Tom also meets and falls in love with fellow tenant Mary (Loretta Young), who gets Tom a job at the laundry service where she works.

Tom quickly becomes a star employee and moves up the ranks, even helping the laundry's owner Mr. Gibson (Grant Mitchell) automate his service using an invention developed by his neighbor Max (Robert Barrat), a self-proclaimed Communist sympathizer.

I don’t want to go any further into the film’s plot… I feel I may have revealed too much already. But rest assured that all of the above happens before the movie’s halfway point!

Heroes for Sale is, indeed, about veterans returning home, but it is also about capitalism and greed. It is about drug addiction, wrongful imprisonment, workers riots, the Red Scare (decades before McCarthy), and, eventually, the great depression. It is a movie about America, a glimpse at 14-15 years of a man’s life, and how a changing country affected him, both for the better and the worse. As Tom, the protagonist forced to endure all the turmoil, Richard Barthelmess delivers a strong performance. We feel his defeats, we cheer for his successes, and the actor’s work is a big reason why.

But the real stars of Heroes for Sale are director William Wellman and writers Robert Lord and William Mizner, who have seemingly done the impossible. They made a film that plays like a big-screen epic, a snapshot of American history every bit as grand as How the West Was Won or Saving Private Ryan, and squeezed it into a motion picture that runs for only 76 God-damn minutes!
Rating: 9.5 out of 10

#2,909. Wild Boys of the Road (1933) - The Films of William A. Wellman

 

In the DVD commentary for Wild Boys of the Road, William A. Wellman, Jr., son of the film’s director, said his father considered this 1933 movie one of the ten best he ever made. Now, I haven’t seen enough of Wellman’s work to make a similar claim, but what I can say is that this movie is something special.

As the film opens, high school buddies Eddie (Frankie Darro) and Tommy (Edwin Phillips) are escorting their dates to a dance. When Tommy is caught sneaking in without paying, they all decide to leave. Later that night, Eddie learns that Tommy’s mother hasn’t been working, and money is tight. So, Eddie agrees to talk to his father (Grant Mitchell) about finding Tommy a job.

But when Eddie returns home, le learns that his dad has been laid off, and they have to cut back. To help out, Eddie sells his beloved car, but as the weeks drag on, both Eddie and Tommy decide to try their luck at finding work in another town, in part because it would mean one less mouth for their folks to feed. Once they land a job, they will send money home to help out.

After sneaking aboard a freight train heading east, they meet Sally (Dorothy Coonan), a fellow teen who is headed to Chicago to live with her aunt. Before long, Eddie, Tommy, and Sally are part of an entire gang of kids, all of whom hang out in railway yards in the hopes of hopping a train without drawing attention to themselves. Harassed at almost every stop by the railroad police, the kids do what they can to keep moving, all the while believing the next town will be better.

A freak accident that eventually cripples one of their number leads the kids to set up their own town in an abandoned steam pipe yard. But how long will the authorities allow them to stay there?

This won’t be the last stop for Eddie, Tommy, or Sally, or for any of the kids, and one of the best things about Wild Boys of the Road is how wonderfully director Wellman and screenwriter Earl Baldwin (who was inspired by Daniel Ahem’s book Desperate Youth) bring us into the world of these youngsters. At the start, Eddie and Tommy are regular high schoolers from an average middle class town. Eddie is particularly bright and intuitive; upon learning that his dad is out of work, he convinces his mother (Claire McDowell) to cancel the new suit they ordered for him because he “didn’t want it anyway”. The scene where Eddie sells his car is especially moving, and leads to a touching moment between he and his father. All of the young actors deliver fine performances, but Darro stands above them all, and it isn’t hard to figure out why the “Wild Boys” look to Eddie as their spiritual leader.

As touching as the early scenes are, the rest of Wild Boys of the Road is difficult to sit through, as the gang (which includes a young Sterling Holloway) continually heads east, all the while drawing the ire of the railroad workers. A scene where the kids finally realize they outnumber the workers and fight back is particularly satisfying. Of course, this is one of the few high points; a scene in which a character is injured is jarring, to say the least, as in one where another girl is raped by a railroad worker.

The film’s final 5-10 minutes may come off as schmaltzy to some viewers, wrapping things up a little too neatly, but having spent time with these kids on their journey, I couldn’t help but smile, and might have even shed a tear or two in these closing minutes.

I know William Wellman has directed some classics over the years, and what I’ve seen from his filmography I have enjoyed, from the silent Best Picture winner Wings to Cagney’s star-making movie The Public Enemy, and from Beau Geste to The Ox-Bow Incident. I hope to see a lot more of his work in the coming years. That said, regardless of how strong any future film might be, it will have to go a long way to bump Wild Boys of the Road from my top 10 Wellman list!
Rating: 9.5 out of 10

#2,908. Safe in Hell (1931) - The Films of William A. Wellman

 

Plenty of pre-code films pushed the envelope, but director William Wellman’s Safe in Hell is a particularly nasty little movie.

In the opening scene, we meet the lead character Gilda (Dorothy Mackaill), a New Orleans prostitute who, after a call from her Madame, throws on a slinky dress and heads out to meet her next “client”. To Gilda’s surprise, her “date” for the evening is Piet (Ralf Harolde), a former employer who had forced himself on her. Piet is a married man, and when his wife found out what happened, she not only blamed Gilda, but made the poor girl’s life a living hell from that point on.

Gilda wants nothing to do with Piet, and when he grabs her, she breaks free, throws a bottle at him, and believes she has killed him (the incident also sparks a fire, which burns down the hotel). Now wanted for murder, Gilda is shuttled out of the country by her sailor fiancé Carl (Donald Cook), who stows her away on his ship and drops her off on the island of Tortuga, the only place in the world that doesn’t have extradition laws.

Naturally, being a safe haven for fugitives, poor Gilda must share a hotel with some pretty shady characters, all of whom intend to cozy up to their pretty new “neighbor”. Carl pays for one month’s rent and hands Gilda enough cash to live on, then hops back on his ship, promising he will send more money as soon as possible.

Alone and surrounded by a bunch of horny criminals, Gilda spends her days shacked up in her room, with only the hotel’s employees, Leonie (Nina Mae McKinney) and Newcastle (Clarence Muse), tending to her needs. Weeks pass, and Gilda, who hasn’t heard from Carl, goes a little stir crazy.

But she has bigger problems: Gilda has also drawn the attention of Mr. Bruno (Morgan Wallace), the local jailer, who has taken a keen interest in the island’s prettiest resident. But that’s nothing compared to the surprise she receives when the hotel’s newest occupant / criminal on the run checks in!

Can Gilda stay out of trouble long enough for Carl to return, or will the island’s misfits get the better of her?

It’s a sordid tale, yet is bolstered by the fine performance of Mackaill as Gilda, the fallen woman who, whenever she tries to pull herself out of the muck, seems to get dragged down into it again. We feel for her throughout the movie, and we root for Gilda and Carl (also well played by Cook) to somehow live happily ever after.

Alas, the story is not on their side. Gilda is constantly hounded by the men on Tortuga, all of whom lust after her. Try as she might to fend them off, they never give up, with Mr. Bruno being the most dangerous of the bunch. As the jailer, he attempts to frame Gilda for a crime that will keep her behind bars for six months, with the intention of keeping her safe and comfortable in exchange for certain “favors”.

Under the crisp direction of Wellman, Safe in Hell features a number of twists in the final act that will keep audiences on their toes, never quite sure which direction the story will go, or how the film will end (the conclusion turns out to be the biggest surprise of them all).

I always marvel at how far some of these pre-code films go, taunting the censors with steamy tales and characters of questionable morals (in a nice twist, two of the most likable supporting characters in Safe in Hell are played by African-Americans McKinney and Muse, who avoid stereotypes that were prevalent at the time to deliver heartfelt turns as Gilda’s only friends on Tortuga). Yet even by pre-code standards, Safe in Hell manages to shock the hell out of us!
Rating: 8.5 out of 10

#2,801. Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1995) - The Films of William A. Wellman

 

In a late scene from Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick, Bill Wellman Jr., son of the great director William A. Wellman (the subject of this film), tells a story about the final weeks of his father’s life. Diagnosed with leukemia and having refused chemotherapy, William Wellman, realizing he had a short time to live, was resting at home when he turned to his son and said “Damnit Bill, don’t feel sorry for me! I’ve lived the life of a hundred men!”

Having just watched this documentary, I feel that the late Mr. Wellman was selling himself short. A pilot who did battle in the skies over France during World War I and a skilled filmmaker who never let the studios push him around, William Wellman lived the life of 200 men!

Directed by Todd Robinson, Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick is a biopic of award-winning filmmaker William A. Wellman, whose 1928 movie Wings won the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture. Starting with his early days in Brookline, Massachusetts (where he was born in 1896) and touching briefly on his service in France’s Lafayette Flying Corps during World War I, this 1996 documentary is at its best when delving into Wellman’s Hollywood career, during which he directed over 80 motion pictures.

Featuring interviews with noted celebrities like Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Nancy Reagan, Sidney Poitier, and Clint Eastwood (among others), Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick contains clips and behind-the-scenes tales from such classic Wellman films as Wings, The Public Enemy, Beau Geste, and The High and the Mighty while also peppering in stories of the director’s infamous battles with studio executives (rumor has it he once dumped an entire truckload of manure onto a producer’s desk).

An adventurer who never backed down from a fight, William A. Wellman was a force to be reckoned with, and Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick more than does this legendary filmmaker justice.
Rating: 9 out of 10

#2,721. Beau Geste (1939) - The Films of William A. Wellman

 

The most popular film version of Percival Christopher Wren’s classic novel, director William A. Wellman’s Beau Geste opens with a mystery. A unit of French Legionnaires has crossed the Sahara to relieve the battle-weary troops at Fort Zinderneuf. Unfortunately, when they arrive, everyone inside is already dead, the bloody corpses of the deceased soldiers still standing at their post, as if continuing to defend the fort.

What happened here? And why did the relief company’s bugler, who scaled a wall to open the gate from the inside, suddenly disappear without a trace?

As opening sequences go, this one is an absolute doozy!

Beau Geste then flashes back a number of years to introduce its main characters, namely the three Geste brothers: Beau (Gary Cooper), Digby (Robert Preston), and John (Ray Milland). All were adopted at a young age by Lady Brandon (Heather Thatcher), who is also caretaker for her ward Isobel (Susan Hayward) and nephew Augustus (G.P. Huntley Jr.).

Upon learning that Lady Brandon’s absentee husband intends to sell the “Blue Water”, a valuable gem that has been in the family for generations, one of the Geste boys steals it, and the next day all three head off to join the French Legion (so that nobody will know which one actually swiped the precious jewel).

The three are eventually stationed in the Sahara Desert, where they and their fellow recruits are terrorized by the sadistic Sergeant Markoff (Brian Donlevy). When Markoff discovers that the Geste boys are hiding a priceless gem, he puts a plan in motion to steal it for himself, taking command of a battalion (which includes Beau and John, but not Digby) and marching them to Fort Zinderneuf, where the devious sergeant must fight off both a mutiny and hundreds of attacking Arabs if he’s to see his scheme through to the end.

A rousing adventure that also relates a moving tale of family loyalty, Beau Geste features strong performances by Cooper, Preston, and Milland as three siblings who are always watching each other’s backs. That said, though, it’s Donlevy who stands above the rest, perfectly convincing as the vindictive Markoff, an experienced soldier whose greed and ambition get the better of him (along with stealing the Blue Water, he hopes to win awards for his bravery, even if it means sacrificing every last soldier serving under him).

In addition, director Wellman stages a handful of exciting battle scenes; and the film’s last act, where the mystery of what happened at Fort Zinderneuf is finally solved, is as dramatic as it is exciting.

Beau Geste is a real treat, and ranks right up there with The Adventures of Robin Hood and Gunga Din as one of the finest adventure films of the late 1930s.
Rating: 9 out of 10

#2,718. Wings (1927) - The Films of William A. Wellman

 

This year marks the 95th anniversary of Wings, a WW I action / drama / romance that took home the very first Academy Award for Best Picture.

A thrilling war film, Wings stars Charles “Buddy” Rogers as Jack Powell, a young, enthusiastic auto mechanic. As the movie opens, Jack is trying to win the heart of Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston), who is already in love with millionaire’s son David Armstrong (Richard Arlen). Jack is so preoccupied with Sylvia, in fact, that he doesn’t realize the pretty “girl next door”, Mary Preston (Clara Bow), has had a crush on him for years.

When war breaks out, both Jack and David enlist with the intention of becoming fighter pilots. Though rivals at first, a friendship forms between the two. When their training is over, Jack and David become flying partners, battling the Germans in the skies over France and hoping one day to return home as war heroes. But war can be unpredictable, and there are no guarantees even for the best of pilots. Yet neither Jack nor David could possibly have guessed how their experiences together would play out in the end.

William A. Wellman, aka “Wild Bill”, was the perfect director for a movie like Wings; when he was 21, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, and was the first American to join the Lafayette Flying Corps. He was involved in several skirmishes, and shot down three enemy aircraft (with another 5 probable kills) before himself being wounded when his plane was hit by German anti-aircraft fire in March 1918.

As a veteran of World War I, as well as a former combat pilot, Wellman knew how to shoot aerial battle scenes, and Wings features some of the finest ever committed to film. Mounting cameras directly onto the planes, thus putting his audience in the middle of the action, Wellman pieced the skirmishes together in a way that keeps the excitement cranked all the way up, culminating with a stirring recreation of the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, which serves as a dramatic turning point in the story.

“We had an area there in (San Antonio) Texas that looked exactly like it”, Wellman once told writer and critic Richard Schickel about his staging of the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, “and I rehearsed it and rehearsed it. For those days, it was big. I had 65 airplanes in the air. I had over a thousand men”. And based on his grand, thrilling depiction of this famous battle, I’d say Wellman’s hard work paid off in a big way!.

Kudos must be given to Rogers and Arlen, both of whom did a fine job portraying rivals who become friends, yet it’s Clara Bow - on her way to being the “It Girl” - who shined brightest in what was essentially a thankless role. Like Jack, Mary is a car enthusiast, and volunteers to work for the Red Cross as an ambulance driver. She is herself sent off to France, but while featured in one exciting scene (when the Germans bomb a town), Mary spends most of the movie pining after Jack, both at home and even in Europe (Bow is the best thing about an extended sequence in Paris, where her Mary meets up with a drunken Jack at a night club, only to find he’s too preoccupied with champagne bubbles to even realize she’s there). Also keep an eye out for Gary Cooper, who, in an early screen role, appears briefly as Cadet White.

While some of the film’s non-battle scenes may be hit and miss (Jack’s fascination with champagne bubbles stretches on far too long, eventually losing its humorous effectiveness), Wellman’s aerial fights are as thrilling as they come, and do their part to make Wings a film that, almost a century later, is guaranteed to bring you to the edge of your seat.
Rating: 8 out of 10

#433. The Public Enemy (1931) - The Films of William A. Wellman

Directed By: William A. Wellman

Starring: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods




Trivia:  The infamous grapefruit scene caused women's groups around America to protest the on-screen abuse of Mae Clarke

Tom Powers (James Cagney) is a bad seed, and has been his entire life. From his early days hanging around pool halls with petty crook Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell) to running booze for Paddy Ryan (Robert O’Connor) during prohibition, Tom has always been a loose cannon. 

Over time, and with the help of his best pal Matt Doyle (Edward Woods), Tom moves up the ladder of organized crime, rising all the way to the top. His mother (Beryl Mercer) believes her son is a good boy, while older brother Mike (Donald Cook) knows the truth about Tom’s ‘business’, and does bis best to convince Tom to go straight.

But a rival gang has also set its sights on Tom, and are determined to bring his reign as the city's top dog to a bloody end. 

James Cagney brings a truckload of style to the role of Tom Powers. With a squint of his eye, a tip of his cap, and a soft punch from his right hand that’s nothing more than his way of saying “hello”, Tom Powers is the very definition of charisma.  Even something as heinous as smashing a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face (arguably the most memorable scene in the film), he does with plenty of panache.

An unsavory, sometimes violent gangster, Tom Powers is a character we're supposed to abhor. Because of Cagney’s cool, effortless portrayal, however, we do not hate him. In fact, from where we're sitting, Tom's life looks pretty darn good! At one point, while treating his newest girl, Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow), to a night on the town, the two walk into a restaurant, where the Maitre D acts as if Tom was a member of the royal family, immediately sitting he and Gwen at the best table in the house. 

As if this attractive portrayal of the criminal element wasn’t enough to get the censors crying “foul”, the gangsters that inhabit the world of The Public Enemy take it a step further, daring to revel in their decadence. Tom is bad, and doesn’t give a damn who knows it. When his brother, Mike, a returning soldier, confronts Tom about the life he’s chosen, Tom simply smirks and walks away. Nobody can prevent Tom Powers from doing exactly what he wants, and the way James Cagney plays him, we pity whoever tries. 

Challenging Hollywood’s production code, which favored good triumphing over evil at every turn, The Public Enemy dared to depict a gangster as a sympathetic character, even a hero of sorts. But the movie could have never pulled it off without James Cagney. The Public Enemy has been called the film that made Cagney a star, yet I'm not sure this is totally accurate. James Cagney was a natural performer, an actor destined for greatness at some point with or without this movie. It was The Public Enemy that benefited most from the pairing.