Hell Is for Heroes is a 1962 American war film directed by Don Siegel and starring Steve McQueen. It tells the story of a squad of U.S. soldiers from the 95th Infantry Division who, in the fall of 1944, must hold off an entire German company for approximately 48 hours along the Siegfried Line until reinforcements reach them.
Montigny, Meurthe-et-Moselle, 1944: Squad leader Sergeant Larkin and his men are taking a well-deserved rest behind the lines after conducting front-line combat operations for several weeks. Rumor has it the unit will be rotated stateside and the men are almost giddy in anticipation. During an interlude at a church and later at a tavern, the senior non-commissioned officer, Platoon Sergeant Pike, happens upon acquaintance Private John Reese, who has been assigned to his platoon. Reese was a former master sergeant, demoted to private after a court-martial, who walks around armed with a distinctive M3 submachine gun.
Reese is the quintessential troubled loner, managing to alienate almost everyone in the squad right from the beginning. Unlike his jubilant comrades, the prospect of a long break from combat, perhaps the end of the war itself, renders Reese morose. The company commander, Captain Loomis, is worried because Reese, although already having won a Distinguished Service Cross, acts irresponsibly when there is no fighting, but Pike comments that he is a good soldier in combat.
Pike informs the men that they will shortly be going back into the line rather than home. After much bitter complaining, the men get ready to move out. The remaining members of 2nd Squad include con-man and scavenger Corby; Corporal Henshaw, a mechanic who can fix anything; the easy-going, somewhat-naive kid, Cumberly; and family man, Kolinsky. The squad has their own mascot, a young Polish displaced person Homer Janeczek, who is not a soldier, but stays with the squad in hopes of accompanying the men upon their return to the United States. The morning after they arrive at their appointed post and dig in, the men realize that an unannounced overnight withdrawal of the main American force has left them spread dangerously thin. Finally, Pike arrives to explain the situation, which only heightens everyone's awareness that any reconnaissance by the Germans across the valley will quickly reveal how weak the American defenses are there.
One stroke of good luck is the sudden and mistaken arrival of an army company clerk, Private First Class James Driscoll. Larkin quickly puts Driscoll's Jeep to use by having Henshaw drive it back and forth behind their lines after rigging it to backfire and sound like a tank, in an attempt to fool the Germans. Driscoll himself is put to use by improvising misleading radio messages for a hidden microphone discovered by Corby and left by the Germans in an abandoned pillbox. Additionally, Larkin has his men run wire to three empty ammunition cans partially filled with rocks and hung from trees, and distributed along gaps in their front lines, which they can use to create noise to make the Germans believe a much larger American force is conducting their standard patrol routine.
A German raid results in Cumberly's death, but Reese manages to eliminate three Germans in close combat. Worried that the German survivors will report on the understrength of the American lines, Reese recommends attacking a large, opposing German pillbox flanked by a minefield and barbed wire, to make the enemy pause and convince them the Americans are at normal strength. Larkin, fearing an overwhelming enemy assault on their positions, decides to find Pike and obtain his permission for the pillbox attack. Unable to locate Pike because he has gone to the rear, Larkin returns and berates Reese when he finds out Henshaw, whom Larkin had put in charge in his absence, had been convinced by Reese to go to a supply dump to obtain satchel charges. After a heated argument with Reese, Larkin is killed in an artillery barrage. Reese decides to proceed without orders, and two others, Henshaw and Kolinsky, go along. Shortly after they set out, Sgt. Pike and the rest of the company begin to return to the line.
The squad's attack fails when Henshaw accidentally sets off an undetected S-mine, fatally burning with the exploding flamethrower tanks he carries, as well as illuminating the battlefield. Reese and Kolinsky retreat, covered by smoke from the company mortar squad. As they run back to their lines, Kolinsky is struck by shrapnel through the back and abdomen, and finally dies, screaming about his guts as a medic and others attend to his wounds.
A furious Captain Loomis berates Reese and promises him a court-martial for defying orders to hold the line, but only after the American assault at dawn. The dominant German pillbox fires on the advancing Americans, who press on despite heavy casualties. Determined to eliminate the pillbox, Reese gets within striking range, aided by Corby, manning a flamethrower. Reese throws a satchel charge into the pillbox, but in the process, is wounded in the back and stomach. When the unexploded satchel charge is tossed out by the alert defenders, the wounded Reese retrieves it and carries it back through the pillbox opening, blowing up the fortification's occupants and himself. Corby, at Pike's command, directs his flamethrower at the blown-out pillbox window until it is engulfed with fire, as the Americans continue to advance, and fall, to other unseen German weapons.[2]
Writer Robert Pirosh was a former master sergeant with the 35th Infantry Division in World War II. He gained a reputation after writing the script for the 1949 film Battleground, about the American 101st Airborne Division paratroopers’ defense of Bastogne, then writing and directing Go for Broke!, a 1951 war film about the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Soon after Hell Is for Heroes, he created the World War II TV series Combat!. Pirosh based some of the events in his film on his unit being withdrawn from the Vosges area to move towards the Battle of the Bulge, with their former positions in the line held by a small force in a then-classified deception operation. Pirosh based Nick Adams' Polish character on an actual displaced person who followed his unit around.[3]
Originally, Pirosh was also to have directed and produced the film, but he walked away from the project after trouble with McQueen.[4] Pirosh's screenplay was originally entitled Separation Hill, but the title was changed by Paramount's publicity office as being too close to the 1959 Korean War film Pork Chop Hill (which Harry Guardino had been in).[5]
Many of the cast were angry over the studio's budget restrictions, which resulted in phony-looking props, malfunctioning firearms and the same German having to be killed three or four times. In the last battle scene, McQueen can be seen experiencing multiple failures firing the M3 Grease Gun. These malfunctions were due to problems with the blanks used.[citation needed]
McQueen was reportedly furious with his agent for having induced him to sign onto the film and not securing up front the fee that he had been promised, and for passing on another movie he wanted. Thus, his angry, detached appearance might not have been entirely due to his method acting. Columnist James Bacon visited the set and said that "Steve McQueen is his own worst enemy". Bobby Darin overheard the remark and replied, "Not while I'm still alive."[6] Bob Newhart said he had been offered the film the previous year and noticed the script had changed when Steve McQueen came on board; Newhart believed the original script had been set to feature Darin as the main star of the film.[7]
McQueen and Siegel were continuously at odds during the production, with the two nearly coming to blows several times. In one scene, when McQueen was unable to cry while on camera, Siegel resorted to slapping him hard and blowing onion juice into his face, before administering eye drops that ran down the actor's face.[8]
Parker, Coburn and others in the cast were working on other projects during the making of the film and would repeatedly show up in the nick of time to do their lines without makeup and little or no rehearsal.[citation needed]
Due to the intense heat of the 1961 summer in Cottonwood and Redding, California, many of the scenes were shot at night for the comfort of the actors.[9]
During the production, Newhart's comedy albums were selling unexpectedly well, resulting in higher fee offers for stand-up comedy nightclub appearances. As a result, he sought ways to have his character killed off so that he could leave the production. The director consistently told him that he would be in the film until the end.[10]
Both Newhart and Parker[11] recalled that the film ended abruptly due to Paramount shortening the production of the film for financial reasons.
A novelization of the screenplay was written by Curt Anders.
Theme
Biographer Judith M. Kass commented on the film's central protagonist Reese (Steve McQueen). His homicidal tendencies find an outlet in combat and establishes a measure of camaraderie with his fellow soldiers.[12]
In Hell Is for Heroes Don Seigel delineated the most futile of man’s occupations and the kind of person who flourished in this milieu. Steve McQueen is a psychopath, licensed to kill in the Second World War. In this situation he can unleash his natural anti-social instincts. McQueen can’t exist as a normal human being outside the war and its opportunities for regimented murder, but he loses his life at the moment of his triumph.[13]
Kass also noted that Seigel offered no social context that located the origins of McQueen's psychotic behavior: "No attempt is made to explain his behavior in terms of either an unjust society or a cruel environment."[14]
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Several of the guest characters in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Siege of AR-558" are named after characters and actors from this film. These include Patrick Kilpatrick's character Reese, Annette Helde's character Larkin and Bill Mumy's character Kellin (named after the actor Mike Kellin). Unseen characters named after characters from the film include Captain Loomis and Commander Parker. The episode has a similar plot, where Starfleet troops have been holding off repeated attacks from enemy forces for five months.
Battleground is a 1949 American war film that follows a company in the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division as they cope with the siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, in World War II. It stars Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalbán, and George Murphy, features James Whitmore, and was directed by William A. Wellman from a script by Robert Pirosh.
Lawrence Neville Brand was an American soldier and actor. He was known for playing villainous or antagonistic character roles in Westerns, crime dramas, and films noir, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his performance in Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954).
Sands of Iwo Jima is a 1949 war film starring John Wayne that follows a group of United States Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. The film, which also features John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker, was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant, and directed by Allan Dwan. The picture was a Republic Pictures production.
Charley Varrick is a 1973 American neo-noir crime film directed by Don Siegel and starring Walter Matthau, Andrew Robinson, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon. Charley Varrick was based on the novel The Looters by John H. Reese and is the first of four consecutive films Matthau appeared in that were not comedies.
To Hell and Back is a Technicolor and CinemaScope war film released in 1955. It was directed by Jesse Hibbs and stars Audie Murphy as himself. It is based on the 1949 autobiography of the same name and is an account of Murphy's World War II experiences as a soldier in the U.S. Army. The book was ghostwritten by his friend, David "Spec" McClure, who served in the U.S. Army's Signal Corps during World War II.
Too Late the Hero is a 1970 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Ian Bannen and Harry Andrews.
Combat! is an American television drama series that originally aired on ABC from 1962 until 1967. The exclamation point in Combat! was depicted on-screen as a stylized bayonet. The show covered the grim lives of a squad of American soldiers fighting the Germans in France during World War II. The first-season episode "A Day in June" shows D-Day as a flashback, hence the action occurs during and after June 1944. The program starred Rick Jason as platoon leader Second Lieutenant Gil Hanley and Vic Morrow as Sergeant "Chip" Saunders. Jason and Morrow would play the lead in alternating episodes in Combat!.
Go for Broke! is a 1951 black-and-white war film directed by Robert Pirosh, produced by Dore Schary and starring Van Johnson and six veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The film co-stars Henry Nakamura, Warner Anderson, and Don Haggerty in its large cast.
Two Mules for Sister Sara is a 1970 American-Mexican Western film in Panavision directed by Don Siegel and starring Shirley MacLaine set during the French intervention in Mexico (1861–1867). The film was to have been the first in a five-year exclusive association between Universal Pictures and Sanen Productions of Mexico. It was the second of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968). The collaboration continued with The Beguiled and Dirty Harry and finally Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
Madigan is a 1968 American neo-noir crime drama thriller film directed by Don Siegel and starring Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda and Inger Stevens.
The Mountain Road is a 1960 war film starring James Stewart and directed by Daniel Mann. Set in China and based on the 1958 novel of the same name by journalist-historian Theodore H. White, the film follows the attempts of a U.S. Army major to destroy bridges and roads potentially useful to the Japanese during World War II. White's time covering China for Time magazine during the war led to an interview with former OSS Major Frank Gleason Jr., who served as head of a demolition crew that inspired the story and film. Gleason was later hired as an uncredited technical adviser for the film.
The Boys in Company C is a 1978 war film directed by Sidney J. Furie about United States Marine Corps recruits preparing for duty and their subsequent combat in the Vietnam War. It stars Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, Craig Wasson and Michael Lembeck. It was among the first Vietnam War films to appear after the Vietnam Era, and was also the first role for R. Lee Ermey of Full Metal Jacket fame. It is the first in Furie's Vietnam War motion-picture trilogy, followed by Under Heavy Fire (2001) and The Veteran (2006).
Mike Kellin was an American actor.
Robert Pirosh was an American motion picture and television screenwriter and director.
Richard Bakalyan was an American actor who started his career playing juvenile delinquents in his first several films.
Roger Perry was an American film and television actor whose career began in the late 1950s. He served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force during the early 1950s.
The Duel at Silver Creek is a 1952 American Western film directed by Don Siegel; his first film in the Western genre. It starred Stephen McNally, Audie Murphy and Faith Domergue. It was the first time Murphy had appeared in a film where he played a character who was good throughout the movie. The working titles of the film were Claim Jumpers and Hair Trigger Kid.
Lane Nakano was a former American combat soldier turned actor.
Stranger on the Run is a 1967 American made-for-television Western film directed by Don Siegel and starring Henry Fonda, Anne Baxter and Michael Parks. In some countries it premiered in cinemas.
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