Between Heaven and Hell ***½ (1956, Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Broderick Crawford, Buddy Ebsen) – Classic Movie Review 3,402

The 1956 war drama film Between Heaven and Hell stars Robert Wagner as spoiled Southern gentleman Sam Francis Gifford, who is called up in the US Army in World War Two.

Director Richard Fleischer’s realistic 1956 American Cinemascope and Color by DeLuxe war drama film Between Heaven and Hell stars Robert Wagner as selfish, spoiled, rich Southern gentleman Sam Francis Gifford, who is called up in the US Army. He discovers what friends are for during the war in the Pacific during World War Two, when he rescues his soldier buddy, Private Willie Crawford (Buddy Ebsen).

Sam is mobilised as a sergeant at the start of the war with his National Guard unit. But then he hits his lieutenant, who had fired at his own men, and is downgraded to private. In combat, he becomes closer to the private soldiers, the working men he despised, and he emerges a changed man.

With Harry Brown’s screenplay based on Francis Gwaltney’s 1955 best-selling novel The Day the Century Ended, this is an honest, good-hearted liberal message movie. It can be criticised for being dialogue-heavy and unsubtle with its people-before-war tub-thumping. But it certainly boasts expert handling, very decent performances and enough action (especially the beachhead battle) to satisfy war film fans. Unfortunately, a rather tepid love interest is set up for the hero with Terry Moore’s character Jenny Gifford, giving Moore some problems.

The main filming was in Southern California at the 20th Century-Fox ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains, but the beach landing was shot on the island of Kaua’i in Hawaii and the Fox film library provides some useful stock battle footage.

The underrated young Wagner gives one of his best performances, kicking up quite a dramatic storm, and Broderick Crawford has a field day as the crazed Company G commanding officer, Captain ‘Waco’ Grimes.

The resulting scenes vary in quality throughout the movie between riveting and interesting, but there are more of the former than the latter.

The cinematography by Leo Tover is in Cinemascope and Color by Deluxe.

Also in the cast are Buddy Ebsen, Brad Dexter, Mark Damon, Robert Keith, Ken Clark, Harvey Lembeck, Skip Homeier, L Q Jones, Tod Andrews, Bill Elliott, Bart Burns, Frank Gerstle, Carl Switzer, Gregg Martell, Frank Gorshin, Darlene Fields, Ilene Brown, Scotty Morrow, Pixie Parkhurst, Brad Morow, Scatman Crothers and Sam Edwards.

Arkansas-born Francis Gwaltney served with the 112th Cavalry in the 1944–45 Philippines Campaign, where his buddy was Norman Mailer, who helped him write his first novel The Yeller-Headed Summer.

Philippines war veteran Rod Serling, a paratrooper in the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division in World War Two, was commissioned as writer, but Fox rejected his draft script as too long. He recalled: ‘It was over 500 pages. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. They just said ”Here’s 1500 bucks a week – write!” It would have run for nine hours on the screen.’ In the end, the film runs a mere 94 minutes.

Hugo Friedhofer’s score, which uses  elements of the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), was nominated for an Oscar for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Release date: October 11, 1956 (New York City).

The cast are Robert Wagner as Private Sam Gifford, Terry Moore as Jenny Gifford, Broderick Crawford as Captain Waco’ Grimes, Buddy Ebsen as Corporal Willie Crawford, Robert Keith as Colonel Cousins, Brad Dexter as Lieutenant Joe ‘Little Joe’ Johnson, Mark Damon as Private Terry, Ken Clark as Morgan, Harvey Lembeck as Private Bernie Meleski, Skip Homeier as Corporal Swanson, L Q Jones as Private Kenny, Tod Andrews as Lieutenant Ray Mosby, Biff Elliot as Lieutenant Tom Thumb, Bart Burns as Private Raker, Frank Gorshin as Private Millard, Scatman Crothers as George, Sam Edwards as Soames, and Carl Switzer as Savage.

Terry Moore (born Helen Luella Koford; January 7, 1929) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952).

Robert John Wagner Jr (born February 10, 1930) is known for Prince Valiant (1954), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The Pink Panther (1963), Harper (1966), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Concorde… Airport ’79 (1979) and Austin Powers (1997).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,402

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/