Review: Attack

Set in Belgium in WWII and concerning the infantry company of Capt. Cooney (Eddie Albert), and said soldiers’ growing realisation that their Captain isn’t fit to lead. Most enraged by the situation is Lt. Costa (Jack Palance), who is angered that Cooney didn’t provide the backup he assured Costa was coming during a mission that saw several men killed as a result. Costa believes Cooney is a coward, and indeed he is. Hell, Cooney’s superior Col. Bartlett (Lee Marvin) probably even knows it, but being a lifelong friend of Cooney’s, and wanting to curry favour with Cooney’s important father, he has been looking the other way. Costa decides he’ll give Cooney one more chance. If anyone else in their company dies unnecessarily, Costa will take Cooney out himself! William Smithers plays Lt. Woodruff, who tries to keep the peace between Costa and Cooney, Buddy Ebsen is Costa’s reliable good ‘ol boy right-hand man Sgt. Tolliver, Robert Strauss plays wise-arse Pvt. Bernstein, and Richard Jaeckel plays another Private. Peter Van Eyck appears briefly as a captured German soldier.

 

Before he made the excellent war film “The Dirty Dozen”, director Robert Aldrich (Whose other terrific films include “Flight of the Phoenix”, “Emperor of the North Pole”, and “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte”) made an earlier film about war that is every bit as cynical. Scale-wise, this 1956 film is kind of like what a Sam Fuller version of “The Dirty Dozen” might be like, but its critique of military leaders is definitely all Aldrich. It’s a pretty disgusting display of humanity in some parts of this film, not entirely removed from the later POW film “King Rat”.

 

Eddie Albert has never struck me as much of an actor before, but here he’s a perfect coward (Ironically, he was a war hero in real-life!). If you can stop yourself from thinking of the theme from “Green Acres” for 90 minutes watching the film, he’ll really surprise you. The film really does show how some people just aren’t equipped for war, some aren’t equipped to be leaders of men, and hell, some just don’t know how to man the fuck up. Albert’s character is the very last person who should be in his position, it’s quite scary to ponder actually. If you’ve seen Sidney Lumet’s military prison camp movie “The Hill”, try to imagine the Roy Kinnear character in charge of a platoon, and that gives you an idea of how useless Albert’s character is as a leader. Lee Marvin could just as easily have played the lead role here, but the only thing wrong with him here is that he’s not in the film nearly enough. He’s terrific as the Colonel who knows Albert is useless, but is long-time friends with the man and more importantly, is trying to keep on good terms with Albert’s powerful father. In some ways, he may be even easier to dislike than Albert, who probably can’t help being the way he is. It’s amazing that Marvin could tackle this part, the much more heroic lead in “The Dirty Dozen”, and terrorise Gloria Grahame in “The Big Heat”. A very versatile actor. The lead role is given to Jack Palance, in one of his rare good guy turns. It’s one of his best-ever performances, as a man who has contempt and barely concealed rage for his cowardly superior and frustration that he is allowed to go on as leader of the unit. I had never considered Palance an actor with much range before, but he’s really good here and his narrow but intense eyes nearly burn through the screen.

 

Truth be told, there isn’t a bad performance in the whole film, with the future Jed Clampett Buddy Ebsen the perfect good ‘ol boy soldier, and Robert Strauss also making an impression as the resident wise-arse complainer amongst the soldiers. Those are two pretty familiar stock characters but Ebsen and Strauss do solid jobs nonetheless. It’s a shame that the perfectly cast Peter Van Eyck is gone within five minutes of turning up as a German, as next to Anton Diffring and Gunter Meissner, he’s one of the best at this sort of Nazi baddie part. Look sharp early on for weasely character actor Strother Martin as a soldier, his is just a virtual walk-on, unfortunately.

 

One of the chief assets of the film is the stunning yet stark B&W cinematography by Joseph Biroc (“Forty Guns”, “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte”, “Emperor of the North Pole”). With its bombed-out scenery, it’s a really terrific-looking film for something that probably didn’t cost a whole helluva lot and isn’t one of the more large-scale war films. It’s more in the vicinity of John Sturges’ “Hell is for Heroes” in terms of look and budget. One of the few major debits of the film, in fact the only really detrimental flaw here, is the hideously loud Frank DeVol (“Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte”, “Flight of the Phoenix”, “The Dirty Dozen”) music score. It’s bizarre and at times, sounds really amateurish and out of place. At one point it sounds like a child is banging on random keys of a piano. How did no one notice this before it was viewed by the public? I’d be embarrassed if it was my film.

 

This may be a B-movie in some ways, but it’s a first-rate one that has something to say about people chosen to be leaders of men. There’s also one truly harrowing moment involving a tank that you probably won’t forget anytime soon. Scripted by James Poe (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “Last Train From Gun Hill”, “The Bedford Incident”), it’s definitely worth seeking out, especially for war movie buffs, though the U.S. military hated it at the time, for obvious reasons.

 

Rating: B-