Durchbruch auf Befehl

"This is not the best war movie I've ever seen, but it is certainly not the worst. (I prefer Sam Fuller's The Big Red One myself.) It certainly uses most of the movie clichés of the day.

For me, the film is a sentimental favorite more than anything else. My father served with the Marauders in Company "L" and we always enjoyed watching it together.

Probably the best thing which I could say about it is how Fuller sets the emotional tone of the life of the soldiers. Watch this movie if you want to see what it was like to fight in the jungles of Burma without enough food or rest."

Post Battle Of Britain there were two campaigns of the second world war that were almost exclusively British led and British fought . One was the North African campaign and the other was the Burma campaign , and unlike the inaccurate American flag waver OBJECTIVE BURMA the production team of MERRIL`S MARAUDERS have taken the time and effort to point out the British contribution of the campaign . A British patrol is spotted " A five hundred mile hike and the eighteeneth Japanese imperial army are waiting for them , I`m glad I ain`t in that British Army - Amen to that " and later General Stilwell points out " That the British have been fighting alone here for three years " , so a big thank you to Sam Fuller and co for pointing out a few truths that American didn`t win the war single handed . If only Spielberg , Hanks and Ambrose had done the same with BAND OF BROTHERS

Just as Clark Gable died from the strain of doing those roping scenes with wild horses in The Misfits, Jeff Chandler died because of the work required in the Phillipines location for Merrill's Marauders. What a terrible tragedy and a terrible waste at the same time.

The story of Jeff Chandler's death could almost be the subject of a black comedy. He was injured while participating in a pick up baseball game among the cast and crew. According to Marilyn Kirk's biography of him, while playing first base he stretched for a throw to his position and pulled his back out.

With about six weeks of shooting left and not wanting to either run up the cost while on hiatus or having the film shelved altogether, Chandler continued in pain as his back got worse and worse. When the film wrapped he went for a needed operation and that was botched.

Chandler had just finally got free of his Universal contract and had signed a multi-picture deal with Warner Brothers of which Merrill's Marauders was to be the first. It was an important film to him. Maybe under other circumstances, he might have tended to health issues first.

Too bad he didn't live to see it because as Brigadier General Frank Merrill he gives one of his best screen performances. In fact in a crazy way the pain he was enduring in real life probably helped his performance because Chandler in the film is supposed to be under a physical and mental strain.

Merrill's Marauders was a picked group of GIs from the Pacific Theater who were on a volunteer mission to be a part of the retaking of Burma. The bulk of the fighting done in the China-Burma-India Theater was done by British and Commonwealth forces. The Commander of the Theater was Lord Louis Mountbatten, but the military genius over all was a very unsung British hero named General William Slim. Joseph Stilwell, the American General in China, is played here by John Hoyt. Stilwell may have been Merrill's commander, but Slim was running the show.

Warner Brothers provided a trio of their TV cowboys, Ty Hardin, Peter Brown and Will Hutchins in support of Chandler. And he got good support from Claude Akins and Andrew Duggan as well.

Merrill's Marauders is a fine film, but I'm not sure it was worth Jeff Chandler's life.

Merrill's Marauders isn't the best WWII film by a long shot. However, it does have several things going for it. Director Sam Fuller had plenty of army infantry service under his belt from his own WWII experiences. That in itself makes it difficult to argue with his portrayal of the trials of Merrill's foot soldiers. I notice this movie turns on the breaking point of the Marauders, especially how these American infantrymen transcended it in order to win. this is a hallmark of the special forces tradition, but I think Fuller is less interested in the origins of the US special forces than in defining the qualities of physical and mental fortitude necessary for successful soldiers. There is more than the stoicism of normal Hollywood heroes here, these characters do reach the end of their ropes, but fall in for another fight, time and again. The other noticeable production element is the apparent use of active duty personnel as extras. This shows in scenes like the assault on Wallabum, with the men charging in squad rushes (one of the best battle scenes of the movie). Other parts of that same battle scene, and others, aren't so impressive, but This flick isn't about the action. It is Fuller's biggest war production, if not quite his best, and while it may not be his best film, a close viewing may redeem the effort.

Myitkyina, pronounced "Mitchinah"--remember the name. this is the objective in this gritty, tough-minded, mostly-authentic and unforgettable war movie. There is little Hollywood gilt about the film, as many viewers have noted; it was not made to be thrilling, event-filled or filled with speeches. Its theme is the limits men have, and how approaching or exceeding such limits of mind, body and emotions can affect men in an emergency or wartime situation--in this case the volunteers of Frank D. Merrill's unit in world War II fighting in the jungles of Burma.The unit is first discovered in the midst of a nasty and fatiguing jungle combat with Japanese soldiers; credit, as several reviewers have noted, is given to the brave British troops are carrying the main battle. But this unit has a single mission--to take Myitkyina, crawling there over mountains and through malarial jungles, fighting fierce opposition all the way. Not your average war film, this is the dramatic story of men in combat told by a man who had been there, and whose films are always short on gimmicks and long on the demand for courage--and made about the man who can answer that call the best. Writer-director Samuel Fuller used other writers, notable Charlton Ogburn III and Milton Sperling, but the main part of this late war film is his own. Jeff Chandler, wearing steel-rimmed glasses, played Brigadier General Merrill . He had died of a botched operation in hospital by the time the film was out, at the end of an illustrious career than should have had many more years to run. This is an award caliber performance in any year. As his second, there is Ty Hardin, good enough in the best role of his career as a strong young soldier. Andrew Duggan narrates and plays the unit's doctor with his usual skill; others in the nearly-all-male cast include dependable Claude Akins, Peter Brown, Will Hutchins, John Hoyt as General Stilwell, and Pancho Magalona. William Clothier gets the credit for the very atmospheric outdoor cinematography, and Howard Jackson for the music, which used additional older works by Max Steiner and Franz Waxman. There are prettier war films, and films about war with a more of a varied choice of scenes. But this Spartan production is among the most harrowing looks at the harsh realities of war ever put onto the screen. "They took Myitkyina", says the narrator simply at the end; cue the closing music. Some few films tell us what men are capable of achieving by showing them being tested to the limit. This films tells us that there were men once in British and United States uniforms who passed a severe test with flying colors. And that is quite a lot for any film to accomplish, especially one as engrossing as is this unrelenting narrative of combat.