Hold Back the Night

This must be one of the best films of the Korean war ever made. Tom Payne is ususally reliably good, but here he is excellent. The whole character of the film is more than realistic, it is like having been made in the middle of the war with the war conditions constantly present everywhere. And the story is fantastic. It is about a bottle of whiskey that Tom receives from his girl before going out to war in 1942 with the instruction to use it at an appropriate occasion, many such occasions rise, but every time he decides to save it for a more special occasion. After the world war he is posted in Korea, where the Korea war offers atrocious hardships. He still has his bottle, but as conditions constantly grow worse he keeps saving it for a more significant moment. Thus he keeps saving it all the way to 1950. He brings it out occasionally as a proper moment has come, but each time he puts it down in the bag again to save it for an even better occasion. Finally he reaches safety on the coast after a long difficult march across the mountains, the remnants of his plutoon is saved and they are among their own with the marines, and the occasion seems to be at hand. He wants to share it with the survivors and offers it to one after another who really would need it, while his girl is still waiting for him at home...

Korea, 1950: the Chinese have just joined the war. John Payne's company of marines is ordered to march parallel to the main force, covering their retreat to the sea. It's a gloomy, snowy fighting retreat, no walk in the sun.

Allan Dwan's 402nd is a tough war movie shot in the wintery Sierra Nevada, with a bottle of Scotch whiskey linking back to San Francisco, where Payne's girl, Mona Freeman gave him the bottle in 1942, telling him to save it for an important occasion. It's an important bit of relief, providing some emotions to counterpoint the tough fighting scenes.

Both Payne and Dwan were near the ends of their big-screen careers. Dwan would make five more movies through 1961. Payne four more over the next couple of years, and an outlier in 1968. Payne's career had begun in the middle of the 1930s, and for a decade or so, he played the handsome leading man, often in Fox musicals starring Betty Grable. In the latter half of the 1940s, he had moved into tough-guy roles, first in film noir, then in war movies as the increasingly grizzled veteran. In this one, he has a mix of half-misfits to lead, under conditions that cut his company to a couple of dozen wounded and exhausted men; the actors certainly look the parts, including Peter Graves as a lieutenant, Chuck Conners as his leading sergeant.

Strangely, I have this one in my library since the late 80's. And I realize only now that it's really a rare film. No one has commented it yet and it is on any lists on any dealers in the USA.

What a shame.

It's a strange, weird, abashed movie. But not disappointing one. A war movie about the Korean war - till here nothing new - and the "relationship" between a soldier - Payne - and a bottle of liquor he always carries with him. And since WW2, as I remember...

Of course, through this "friend", and the "souvenirs" stuck to it, he lives everything again: friends, women, beautiful and difficult moments of his life. It's not a real actionner, but a rather solid drama.

A very strange one. Like a TWILIGHT ZONE episode. And it seems, as far as I remember, that there was an episode around this topic. But I am not sure. Sorry.

I hope this little movie will be aired again, for the happiness of gem searchers.

And this was also an Allan Dwann film.

Peters Graves ("Mission Impossible," "The Thing," and "Airplane") and Chuck Connors (the Rifle Man) are iconic television stars. John Payne, like James Cagney, and William Powell, is a song and dance man who can also play believable tough guys. Together, they make you feel confident, even as the movie shakes you to the core with great, realistic battle scenes. This group of Marines has not only to fight Korean, Chinese and Mongolian armies, but must contend with a mountainous frozen snowy Korean landscape. Here having dry socks is as important as hand grenades for survival. The only other Korean War movie that I can compare it to is Robert Altman's M.A.S.H. That was an anti-war movie that actually makes war look like fun, for the most part. This is outwardly a pro-war movie, but it makes war look like hell. It is also a little bit similar to Carl Foreman's World War 2 movie "The Victors." (1962). That too has excellent battle scenes but ultimately cares more for characters in a platoon than action.

Hold Back The Night is a Korean war film seen through the eyes of both a tough and compassionate company commander played by John Payne. The Marines in Payne's charge are on the front lines when the Chinese intervene in full force. Payne has to lead them in a fall back fighting every step of the way.

The action also centers around a bottle of scotch that Payne's then sweetheart Mona Freeman which he carries for 'a special occasion' which never quite comes. The unopened bottle becomes a company talisman.

A few flashback scenes of Payne and Freeman and one with an Australian war wife Audrey Dalton break up some of the grim action scenes from the Korean War. The battle scenes are staged well and nicely integrated with real combat footage.

Chuck Connors and Peter Graves have some good roles as a sergeant and lieutenant under Payne. But one performance that stands out is that of John Wilder as a young Marine who performs a heroic act. You'll have to see what he does.

A good and gritty war drama.