During the early days of the Korean War, U.S. Army colonel Steve Janowski is one of the military advisers training the South Korean army and he's tasked with evacuating American civilians fr... Read allDuring the early days of the Korean War, U.S. Army colonel Steve Janowski is one of the military advisers training the South Korean army and he's tasked with evacuating American civilians from the war zone.During the early days of the Korean War, U.S. Army colonel Steve Janowski is one of the military advisers training the South Korean army and he's tasked with evacuating American civilians from the war zone.
- French UN Woman
- (uncredited)
- Pvt. Jones
- (uncredited)
- First Squadron Leader
- (uncredited)
- Pvt. Clark
- (uncredited)
- Pvt. Means
- (uncredited)
- Mrs. Stuart
- (uncredited)
- Lt. Stevens
- (uncredited)
- Officer, Joint Operations
- (uncredited)
- First Nurse
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Milton Krims
- William Wister Haines
- Andrew Solt(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film used 175 Korean War veterans as extras and actual Korean War footage is included.
- GoofsLive rounds are never used in movies. It puts lives in danger. But during the opening tank killing lesson, a semi-live bazooka round is used. It has live propulsion, but dud munitions. This way realistic flames shooting out of the back of the bazooka is achieved yet the crew have control over the special effect. The problem is, they did not actually figure out a way to lock the shell into the bazooka barrel. So it was actually a live firing of a dud-shell. This is why there is a huge plume of dust just prior to the tracks exploding. The marksman had to fire the dud round into the ground.
- Quotes
Sfc. Baker: [after Steve has forcibly put Linda Day on a plane to evacuate] Sir, I once got in serious trouble throwin' a dame around like that.
Col. Steve Janowski: Oh? What happened?
Sfc. Baker: Well, she almost *married* me.
- Crazy creditsOpening credits prologue: This is the story of a small detachment of American troops stationed in South Korea at the Outbreak of hostilities and their efforts to stem the surge of enemy aggression until the full force of British, American and other United Nations forces could be brought into action.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Dynamite Chicken (1971)
Of course, the film does contain one dramatic highlight that caused considerable controversy at the time, but has since proved revealing--- the intentional shelling of civilian refugees by American forces. The screenplay tries to soften the impact with North Korean infiltrators holding refugees at gunpoint, but the destruction occurs anyway. Now, that was really a pretty gutsy move on somebody's part since the war was still going on when the movie was released in 1952.
Though not publicized at the time, we now know from proved incidents such as No Gun-Ri (There was more than one eye-witness, and the only dispute is over the number killed) that such atrocities did occur on our side as well as the enemy's. And though not included in highschool history texts, there was considerable sympathy for the North from the peasantry of the South because of the landlord-dominated government of the South, many of which had collaborated with hated Japanese occupiers during WWII. As a result, considerable guerilla activity occurred in the South both before and during the war itself. Details such as these cast light on the basic accuracy of the movie's depiction. Ironically, the problem for GI's was the same here as in Vietnam--- how to distinguish friendly civilians from the enemy, while too often the solution was to kill them all. But when your own life is on the line, what do you do? That's why Mitchum's Col. Janowski is so torn.
Apparently studio honcho Howard Hughes had high hopes for the production since his name appears above the title. And even though the seams from stock footage are pretty obvious, the film is well produced with locations at Fort Carson, Colorado, where the terrain was said to resemble that of Korea. But background and special effects can hardly compensate for the general listlessness of the results or the ill-conceived Ann Blyth role. Nonetheless, the movie does remain memorable for its one revealing episode.
- dougdoepke
- Jan 30, 2009
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Operation O
- Filming locations
- Lake Success, Long Island, New York, USA(shots of United Nations sessions)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,181,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 45 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1