Hell is for Heroes (1962) – full review!

Hell is for Heroes (1962) – full review!

Directed by Don Siegel and co-written by Robert Pirosh (Battleground (1949)) this gritty World War II drama stars Steve McQueen Bobby Darin Fess Parker Harry Guardino James Coburn and Bob Newhart (!) among others.

Guardino plays the Sergeant of a group of veterans thinking they’re about to go home. The group includes Darin – the "free enterprise" scrounger who sells needed supplies ($5 for a pen) to his fellow soldiers; Coburn wearing glasses – the fix-it guy who’s second in command; and a couple of other actors including Mike Kellin whose character serves as a translator for a Polish refugee (played by Nick Adams) that wants to join the group. McQueen arrives as a newly assigned member of the group one that can’t seem to follow orders but who’s a "great soldier in a pinch" (battle situations). The platoon Sergeant is played by Fess Parker who’s familiar with the McQueen character’s shortcomings but also with his abilities such that he protects him from his Captain’s (Joseph Hoover) discipline.

Instead of getting to go home the group is assigned to return to the line where a lack of reinforcements means the unit will have to protect a wide expanse of real estate from a German advance. Using their heads they devise various means to appear like a larger group than they are. Newhart plays an Army clerk who accidentally drives a jeep through the volatile area that Guardino reassigns to increase their numbers. Coburn fixes the jeep to sound like a tank and drives it around out of sight. Newhart (whose comedy routine is really out of place here) is then given the job of pretending to talk to HQ on the disconnected field phone to fool the German listening station. The unit also fills empty ammo boxes with rocks and rigs them wire such that they can simulate a nighttime patrol.

*** SPOILERS ***

All goes according to plan until McQueen believes a German squad’s advance has exposed their weakness to the enemy. He convinces Guardino to seek Parker’s permission to advance on the German’s stronghold a heavily armed pillbox with machine guns which keep them pinned down. Before Guardino’s returned he asks Coburn to secure the needed explosives. The action which follows is both tense and educational but McQueen’s bravery outstrips his reason leading to tragic results. However he is able to redeem himself in the final assault once Parker has secured the necessary troops with a crazy maneuver that both impresses and horrifies his remaining unit’s members.

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