Retreat, Hell! (1952)

RETREAT, HELL! - 1952 This film, one of several that more or less, tell the same story about the U.S. Forces retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.The film starts in the States with ex-Marine officer, Richard Carlson being called back to active service. Carlson is not all that happy with the recall but reports. His commanding officer is hard as nails, Frank Lovejoy. It is the job of the few World War Two veterans to train the fresh recruits and whip them into combat ready soldiers.Training is somewhat rushed because of the desperate situation going on in South Korea. The Reds have overrun most of the country and pushed the few surviving forces into a pocket on the southern end of the country.U.S. Forces launch a counterattack by landing at Inchon and flanking the North Korean Army. The Reds soon cave and the chase is on all the way up the peninsula. Just as it looks like the war might end, the Chinese Red Army comes boiling over the border from China. This catches the U.N. forces by surprise forcing, shall we say, a rather retrograde manoeuvre.The film follows Lovejoy's Marine battalion from training, through the Inchon landing, up through the North, and as they make their way back south.The Marines are badly outnumbered, low on ammo and poorly supplied with winter equipment. The Chinese Reds throw massive human wave attacks at the unit. This causes a dangerous run on medical supplies, and further depletes the already low ammunition reserves.It is only the odd air supply mission and constant air support that gives the Marines a chance to make their way to safety. Soon their trucks are out of fuel and they are forced to carry their growing collection of wounded. The Marines work their way through several more Red attacks and ambushes. Lovejoy gets wounded and Carlson must take command.They are joined along the way by various other retreating units, including some British Royal Marines. Needless to say they manage to make it safely to the coast and are evacuated by sea.The film, like, Alan Dwan's HOLD BACK THE NIGHT, Sam Fuller's THE STEEL HELMET, FIXED BAYONETS and Anthony Mann's MEN AT WAR all deal with this same retreat. This Joseph H. Lewis directed work is quite watchable, by not quite as good as these others. Alan Dwan directed the superb WW2 Marine film, SANDS OF IWO JIMA.The acting is fine, and the look of the film is quite good with ex special effects man, Warren Lynch at the cinematography controls. The film's director, Joseph Lewis is best known for several cracker-jack film noir such as, SO DARK THE NIGHT, MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS, THE BIG COMBO and of course, GUN CRAZY.

Reteat hell is a great movie for those that enjoy the old black and white war classics. Frank Lovejoy plays a good role as all the actors are in this movie ,and the battle scenes are great. What i can't understand is why this movie is not on DVD it seems that the studios are finally starting come around and starting to release the movies that are worth watching and putting in your collection two other movies that should be on DVD are PT109 with Cliff Robertson from 1963 and Merrill's Muraders with Jeff Chandler from 1962. Sam Fuller's Steel Helmet is in a box set with some other films by Fuller but what gets me is that you figure that you could buy Steel Helmet bye its self but you can only get the movie by buying the whole set.

This is a war movie which focuses more on the feelings, emotions and insecurities of the platoon as well as providing a shed load of action & explosions. For this to work, you have to care about the characters. The hard edged Colonel is well portrayed and you can see the humanity leaking out of him as the pressure intensifies. The Captain who is centre of attention early n, fades into the background somewhat. The real star is young, fresh faced McDermid. You feel as if you are with him every step of his journey, you feel his nerves, pain & bravery. Although in black and white, you can almost see the red mist descend in one poignant scene. There are loads of explosions and plenty of action for the late night viewer but this is a war film with a deeper than average plot line.

Now, don't get me wrong, `Retreat Hell' is an action-packed film, full of tension and combat, with the expected heroism and violence.It's just that it has a...sensitive side. It somehow seems out of place for its time, more suited for the 70's than the '50s.Richard Carlson is an unlikely hero for a war picture, particularly one from the hard-edged, patriotic 1950's. He's such a sensitive, nice fellow, and, to those of us accustomed to seeing him portray science-nerds (as in `Creature from the Black Lagoon' and `It Came from Outer Space') he may seem a tad intellectual for a leader of a Marine company. Even more unlikely is baby-faced Russ Tamblyn (who was still billing himself as `Rusty' at the time) as a rough-necked Marine Corps grunt. But that's the kind of picture this was: a war movie that dealt with the human face of war, even to the point of making `our boys' seem downright sentimental, but without being even remotely a vehicle for pacifist sentiments. It's an unusual, even eccentric approach, and at times it doesn't work, while at others it surprises with effectiveness.There aren't very many war movies about Korea, today called `the forgotten war' in America. The most well-known one, `MASH,' was an unabashed allegory for Vietnam, and one quickly loses sight of the distinctions. `Retreat Hell' is much more specific, and accurate, in its portrayal of a war most Americans don't really know what to make of. It was the war we didn't quite lose, but certainly didn't win, and for the post-WWII generation, that was a perplexing legacy. Many of the more extreme patriots of the day chose to rationalize it by asserting we had been railroaded into the war by the UN, possibly as part of a Communist conspiracy. `Retreat Hell' avoids political uncertainties by focusing on the lives of brave but sympathetic soldiers, who did their duty as the American leadership saw fit to define it.The title, which sounds like a statement of defiance (`like Hell we'll retreat') is actually a somber quotation from General MacArthur. At the time the forces in Korea had overextended themselves, and become surrounded on all sides. The order was given to break through the enemy lines to the sea. When asked about the retreat in Korea, the general replied `Retreat Hell, we're advancing in the other direction.' A retreat normally means falling back through your own lines to reach a stronger position, but this was an advance, through enemy lines, to a position that would allow a retreat.Unlike many WWII pictures that were being made at the time, actual Asian actors were used to portray Asians, and not all of them were evil. The filmmakers evidently thought enough of their audience to remind them that the war was being fought for our Asian allies, not as a racist war against a generic enemy. In light of recent political developments, it is interesting to note that the British also make an appearance on our side. The Communist soldiers are portrayed as devious and callous, but not beyond the realities of the war (obviously Bad Things committed by our side are not shown) - they are not inhuman, merely the enemy.This movie gives us both action and drama, and probably was a precursor to `Saving Private Ryan' in more ways than one.