Iron Angel (1964)

"Iron Angel" features a decent cast saddled with a poverty row budget and a low energy script. Seriously, typical episodes of the TV shows "Combat!" and "Rat Patrol" had more oomph, and better props, scenery and photography, and I wished I was watching either of those two shows rather than this movie before it was over.Any chance the movie has to immerse the audience in the characters and their quest in the early scenes start is sandbagged by three completely jarring flashbacks to "party scenes" (featuring strippers and coochie girls) that look like they were subcontracted to Coleman "Beast of Yucca Flats" Francis. They completely blow the mood and just seem to be there to let L.Q. Jones do his "Red Skelton" impression.The movie improves a bit when the soldiers come across an unconscious nurse and her ambulance, but not much, and the rest of movie is just your basic by-the-numbers.I'm sure the audience of the day didn't pay too much attention to "Iron Angel" even while the members were watching in a matinées or in a drive in. It was there, some actors got to pay their rent because of it, and that's about all you can say for it.

First, a note about the rankings. So far, this movie is at about 3/10 from IMDb viewers, even though this is clearly a perfect representation of an average film, an obvious 5/10, which we'll get into later.In fact a plurality of voters rate it 5, but the next highest numbers are those who rated it 1 and 10, and maybe 2, which is clearly voting to change the statistics. I don't blame the 10 voters. They may really like it. It is an okay film, and they probably felt a need to counter what were votes for subversive purposes only. We know that many people on IMDb are in the movie business, or related to current directors, actors, etc, and have interests that aren't fair representations. Maybe someday, this will change. I can prove this, because older films, like this one, get lower rankings from these 1 and 2 voters, and newer movies get too many 9 and 10 rankings. When this is brought up, those voters will come up with obvious lies for the reasons why. Explanations that don't make a bit of sense when one is familiar with the films.So lets be fair to this movie.It's more of a gung ho war film than many people like, but not overly so. It's set in the Korean War, and the Koreans are the enemy. Those people brainwashed by MASH may not like it, but believe it or not, during the Korean War we actually had some Americans who were on our side, even nurses like the one in the film. That may hit some modern day people below the belt. Don't get me wrong. I had fun with the MASH TV series, too, I'm liberal, and anti war, and I won't be a gung ho camp follower. Still, there's a definite line between liberal and outright Treason and Treachory.Jim Davis gets to be the main main here in a five man unit without an officer. They have an objective, and come across the nurse.There aren't any over-dramatizations here. The people act very normal. It probably would have been a better movie if it wasn't for the goofy video of nurses as described by the group's malcontent. I understand why the director did it, but it was a bad call. It looked as silly in the twentieth century as it does today.Other than that, the characters are very believable, except for the final gung ho self sacrifices that result in only two casualties.So the good and bad balance each other out, with nothing spectacular, but nothing horrendous. Aside from the goofy "soft porn nurse" scene, it flows pretty well. 5/10 solid.

In a similar vein as Beach Red, there are flashbacks to time spent partying with women, a not unrealistic activity for the troops to be engaged in. But it doesn't make for a good war movie. Beach Red is somewhat better and it has Rip Torn. There is a much too long flashback scene of a stripper which is quite disturbing. The director's wife/girlfriend maybe. Why those scenes were in there is anybody's guess. One showed that Reb liked his parties and that might explain why he got busted down to a private but that's the closest the flashbacks come to adding to the story.This movie is about a patrol behind enemy lines, looking to knock out an enemy mortar which is cutting a supply road. The story is pretty good, the action is fair, the combat stuff is not so great. I guess none of them ever heard the term 'flank'. It does the job though. There's some humor but nothing you can't live without. Overall the whole movie is quite tepid. It is a rare movie about the Korean War but it's no Pork Chop Hill or Men in War. Well, maybe they aren't that rare. I have seven or so Korean War movies.Anyway, worth a watch. 5/10

**Spoilers** Sent behind enemy lines to knock out a North Korean gun emplacement, that kept critical supplies from being trucked to the front lines, the squad of GI's lead by the fearless but not too on the ball Let. Collins, Joe Jenckes, walk right into a Commie ambush! During the fire fight it was Let. Collins who ended up getting the worst of it by ending up dead. With Sgt. Walsh (Jim Davis), whom the late Let. Collins hated like poison, now in command the bloodied and rag-tag group of GI's continued on their mission.Coming across a shot up, by North Korean MIGS, US Army combat ambulance Sgt. Walsh finds the only survivor being Nurse Laura Fleming, Margo Woode, a lieutenant in the US Army Medical Corps. By having Let. Fleming tag along with them, in her combat ambulance, makes Sgt. Welsh and his men a tempting target for the Communist North Koreans in that they stick out in the barren Korean landscape like a sore thumb. It also creates a lot of tension between Sgt. Walsh and his men in that they haven't seen a woman, and American at that, since they left Japan to fight in Korea. ****SPOILERS**** What's the most shocking surprise of all is that it's later found out that the late Let. Collins was engaged to be married to Nurse Fleming, small world isn't it, who had nothing good to say, even with his last dying breath, about her rescuer Sgt. Walsh! Even though there was rough going in finding the North Korean gun emplacement with half of Sgt. Walsh's men getting picked off by Commie snipers it was the very fact that Nurse Fleming's combat ambulance, in the North Koreans trying to knock it out, that exposed the gun's position. that made it possible for Sgt. Welsh and what was left of his patrol to finally put it out of action. The acting lifts the film "Iron Angel" a notch above the material in it that at times makes you forget just how crummy it is. There's also a number of confusing flashbacks having to do with Sgt. Welsh and his men in better times outside the Korean war-zone where they did nothing but party drink and make out with what looked like a bevy of busty looking hookers who, in them being stationed in Japan & Korea, were anything but Oriental! There's also-for reasons I couldn't quite figure out-the theme music of the Ed Woods bad movie classic "Plan Nine from Outer Space" which was played in its entirety twice during the film!