Up Front | |
---|---|
Directed by | Alexander Hall |
Screenplay by | Stanley Roberts |
Produced by | Leonard Goldstein |
Starring | David Wayne Tom Ewell Marina Berti |
Cinematography | Russell Metty |
Edited by | Milton Carruth |
Music by | Joseph Gershenson |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Universal-International |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1.95 million (US rentals) [1] |
Up Front is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Alexander Hall and starring Tom Ewell and David Wayne very loosely based on Bill Mauldin's World War II characters Willie and Joe . Mauldin repudiated it and refused his advising fee; he claimed never to have seen it. [2] It takes place during the Italian Campaign of World War II.
Based on the famed W.W.II cartoons: Lowbrow G.I.s Willie and Joe, on the Italian front, are good soldiers in combat, but meet the antics of gung-ho Captain Johnson and other military snafus with a barrage of wry comments. On a 3-day pass in Naples, Joe's penchant for wine and women involves the pair with luscious Emi Rosso and her moonshiner father, whose tangled affairs land them in ever deeper trouble.
William Henry Mauldin was an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the archetypal characters Willie and Joe, two weary and bedraggled infantry troopers who stoically endure the difficulties and dangers of duty in the field. His cartoons were popular with soldiers throughout Europe, and with civilians in the United States as well. However, his second Pulitzer Prize was for a cartoon published in 1958, and possibly his best-known cartoon was after the Kennedy assassination.
Wardell Edwin Bond was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and starred in the NBC television series Wagon Train from 1957 to 1960. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert the cop in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Captain Clayton in John Ford's The Searchers (1956).
Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His expressive face was his stock-in-trade; and though he rarely carried the lead role, he had prominent billing in most of his film and television roles.
Allen Curtis Jenkins was an American character actor, voice actor and singer who worked on stage, film, and television. He may be best known to baby-boomer audiences as the voice of Officer Charlie Dibble in the Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series Top Cat (1961–62).
David Wayne was an American stage and screen actor with a career spanning over 50 years.
Jesse Kenneth Tobey was an American actor who performed in hundreds of productions during a career that spanned more than half a century, including his role as the star of the 1957-1960 Desilu Productions TV series Whirlybirds.
John McGuire was a film actor during the period from the 1930s to the 1950s. In many of his early films he was a leading man; however, later in his career he played bit parts. McGuire appeared in Steamboat Round the Bend (1935); Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936);The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936); Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), sometimes thought Hollywood's first film noir; The Invisible Ghost (1941); Sands of Iwo Jima (1949); and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950).
John Francis Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.
Robert E. Bray was an American film and television actor known for playing the forest ranger Corey Stuart in the CBS series Lassie, He also starred in Stagecoach West and as Mike Hammer in the movie version of Mickey Spillane's novel My Gun Is Quick (1957).
Up Front or Upfront may refer to:
John M. Pickard was an American actor who appeared primarily in television westerns.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, sometimes called The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1985 to 1986 and on the USA Network from 1987 to 1989. The series is an updated version of the 1955 eponymous series.
James William Flavin Jr. was an American character actor whose career lasted for nearly half a century.
Willie and Joe are stock characters representing United States infantry soldiers during World War II. They were created and drawn by American cartoonist Bill Mauldin from 1940 to 1948, with additional drawings later. They were published in a gag cartoon format, first in the 45th Division News, then Stars and Stripes, and starting in 1944, a syndicated newspaper cartoon distributed by United Feature Syndicate.
James Michael Burke was an Irish-American film and television character actor born in New York City.
Todd DePastino is an American author and history professor.
Douglas Richards Kennedy was an American actor originally from New York City who appeared in more than 190 films from 1935 to 1973.
James Millican was an American actor with over 200 film appearances mostly in western movies.
Back at the Front is a 1952 American comedy film directed by George Sherman and starring Tom Ewell, Harvey Lembeck and Mari Blanchard, very loosely based on the characters Willie and Joe by Bill Mauldin. It is a sequel to Up Front (1951). Mauldin repudiated both films, and refused his advising fee.
Hal Harvey Fieberling known professionally as Hal Baylor, was an American actor, probably best known for his role as Pvt. 'Sky' Choynski in the film Sands of Iwo Jima.