The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell *** (1955, Gary Cooper, Rod Steiger, Ralph Bellamy, Charles Bickford) – Classic Movie Review 11,792

Director Otto Preminger’s 1955  American CinemaScope Warnercolor film The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell [One Man Mutiny] stars Gary Cooper, Rod Steiger, Ralph Bellamy and Charles Bickford, with Elizabeth Montgomery in her film debut.

Rod Steiger steals the show as the unctuous prosecuting counsel Major Allan Guillion in Otto Preminger’s impressive, real-life courtroom drama about an American general Billy Mitchell (Gary Cooper) who forecast a Japanese invasion and is court-martialled for saying that the US War Department committed criminal negligence.

Showy performances from the sturdy players bring life to producer Milton Sperling and Emmet Lavery’s heavyweight, Oscar-nominated screenplay and the trial sequences are sizzling enough to make the movie a sure-fire success.

It is based on the notorious 1925 court-martial of General Billy Mitchell, founder of the US Air Force.

Aerial sequences were shot by second unit director Russ Saunders and aerial coordinator Paul Mantz at the Fletcher Airport in Rosamond, California.

Sperling began work on the story in 1938 two years after Mitchell’s death.

The first 10 days of principal photography took place in Washington, DC on the sites involved in the story, including the old War Department Building, Army-Navy Club and State Department buildings.

The cast are Gary Cooper as General Billy Mitchell, Charles Bickford as Major Gen. Jimmy Guthrie, Ralph Bellamy as Congressman Frank R Reid, Rod Steiger as Major Allan Guillion, Elizabeth Montgomery as Mrs. Margaret Lansdowne, Fred Clark as Col. Sherman Moreland, James Daly as Lt. Col. Herbert White, Jack Lord as Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Lansdowne, Peter Graves as Capt. Bob Elliott, Darren McGavin as Capt. Russ Peters, Robert Simon as Adm. Gage, Charles Dingle as US Senator, Dayton Lummis as General Douglas MacArthur, Tom McKee as Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, Steve Roberts as Major Carl Spaatz, Herbert Heyes as General John J. Pershing, Robert Brubaker as Major H. H. Arnold, Phil Arnold as Fiorello LaGuardia, Ian Wolfe as President Calvin Coolidge, and Will Wright as Admiral William S. Sims.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,792

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Gary Cooper.

Rod Steiger.