Grito de batalla

For some unknown reason, Joe, 3rd mate on a merchant ship, is given a spot promotion to 2nd Lt, and given a squad of Philippinos with orders to attack a Japanese sugar processing plant. This is the last we hear of the plant.

Tagging along, again for unspecified reasons, is the snot-nosed scion of an unseen mogul who falls in love with the heroine. The heroine, alas, is something of an opportunist, and ends up in bed with Joe just because. Naturally, the green-eyed monster makes an appearance.

The only thing this film has to do with war are the 17 or so Japanese soldiers who occasionally make their appearance. Most of this movie deals with the angst felt by the snot-nosed kid in his never-ending attempts to pry the heroine away from Joe.

I found this film to be a grand waste of time.

"Cry of Battle" is definitely a different sort of war movie. Clearly, it's NOT the sort of film you would have seen during WWII and even in 1963, it was pretty adult and modern in its sensibilities.

When the film begins, David is living with his rich family in the Philippines when WWII breaks out. He's nearly killed by a group of thugs--after all, law and order have disintegrated. But he's fortunately saved by some Filipino insurgents--men who have taken to the countryside to fight a guerilla war against the invaders from Japan. However, one of these benefactors, Joe (Van Heflin) is a completely amoral sort of guy. Sure, he'll fight and kill the enemy but David is horrified to find out that he's also just raped a local girl! David naturally hates him but is forced to stick with him due to the war. Over time, they fall in with another group of rebels and David's naivete about these people and war is challenged, as he finds Joe isn't the exception to the rule...there are many others with severely challenged moral compasses...to say the least. Can David manage to remain morally pure while also becoming a man who must kill? And what of his lady, Sisa (Rita Moreno)?

I am a bit surprised that Van Helfin agreed to play such a sleazy character. As a supporting actor, of course he had to play jerks now and then...but a rapist? It certainly is one of his more challenging portrayals!

Overall, a very good but strange war film...and seeing James MacArthur (Danno from "Hawaii 5-O") playing the lead makes it all the more interesting...and jarring!

Actress Rita moreno says it was an Awful film..in a recent interview (on youtube), and had to fly herself in between filming to attend the 1960/61 Academy Awards from Manilla, to Los Angeles, CA, for her previous film 'West Side Story'. She thought she had a 'slim chance' to win eventhough the industry Favorite Judy Garland was also nominated for 'Judgement at Nuremburg',,, but at the time was in the hospital. .

I'm sure that the title of this film Cry of Battle was no accident and I'm sure many a piece of change was spent on admission to this feature because folks thought they were seeing a re-release of the more well acclaimed Battle Cry. That was a big budget studio effort which had Van Heflin as a Marine Colonel during the Pacific War.

Cry of Battle also starred Van Heflin as a less admirable character and my guess is that the American players who appeared here did this as a boost to the Phillipine movie industry. Heflin shares top billing with Rita Moreno and James MacArthur with a cast of Filipino players.

The premise of this film is borrowed a bit from the ending of Stalag 17. William Holden in that film tells Don Taylor in no uncertain terms that he is helping him escape because of anticipated rewards from Taylor's rich family. James MacArthur is the rich son of an American planter who like many Americans is stranded there after Pearl Harbor and the attack on Clark Field. He meets up with Van Heflin who is a merchant seaman similarly stranded. Heflin figures there might be a big reward in helping MacArthur out.

Teaching him the facts of life involves rape for Heflin, but he's got an instinct for survival and he teaches MacArthur. They join up with a newly formed band of Filipino resistance and meet the captivating Rita Moreno who's a survivor herself. The rival gets good and heated.

I'm sure flush from her Oscar in 1961, Rita Moreno could have gotten parts in bigger pictures than this. But I do believe the Americans were just helping the Phillipines get some American dollars in receipts by appearing here. She's quite the fetching girl temptress in this film.

Van Heflin has never played a more loathsome character in his career. Yet he actually makes this guy likable, not an easy thing to do playing a rapist. But he's that skilled a player, he never gave a bad performance.

Fans of Van Heflin, including myself, would do well to see this film and see just how wide a range of characters that man could play.

I was the producer of "Cry of Battle". The production name, Petramonte,is Stein(stone)berg(mountain) in Spanish. The rape scene was with Van Heflin trying to rape Pinang, played by the Phillipina actress, Marilou Munoz, not Rita Morena. For Trivia: I shot around Rita Morena so that she could fly back to LA for the Acedemy Award. She got an Oscar that year, returned and continued shooting. The working title was "To be a man". The book called for an young adult. Making the David McVey character younger with James MacArthur, it was better contrast as a much younger man. We shot a number of days using jitneys (old cars used as buses) horse drawn carts in crowded streets. This was that start of the Japanese attack. All of that work and footage went into the trash can and we ended up with a simple line about the date.