4 dans une jeep

In post-war Vienna, four sergeants, each from a different occupying power, share a jeep patrolling the International Sector at the heart of the old city. They get along pretty well -- American Ralph Meeker and Russian Yossi Yadin had actually met during the War -- but when Viennese Viveca Lindfors enters their view, matters become confused. She is waiting for her husband, Hans Putz, to be released from internment camp in Hungary. Word comes he will be in the next batch, but he fails to show up; he escaped just days earlier. It's obvious he's making his way to Vienna and his wife. Meeker, the French sergeant, and the British one are pretty easy-going about the situation, but Yadin has orders to capture him.

It's a well written, shot, and acted drama about the attitudes of the non-coms; even as the tension surrounding the Berlin Air-Lift roils international relations, Vienna is a city in which the occupying powers are still cooperating. Unfortunately, the last half hour is shot at night-time, and the print I looked at was pretty dark, so it's sometimes hard to tell what's going on during the pursuit of Putz. Still, there are plenty of good moments here, and it was time well spent watching this.

The film begins with a helpful prologue which explains the political situation in post-war Vienna. It seems like Berlin, the city was divided into four zones and each of the four Allied powers (US, USSR, UK and France) jointly govern. As part of this, a jeep goes on rounds every day with a soldier from each nation to deal with problems as they arise with the locals.

One thing the film did NOT explain is that during WWII, millions of Axis soldiers were taken prisoner. Many of them remained in the USSR long after the war and quite a few were simply never heard from again. Now, considering the death toll in the USSR during the war, I could understand them not releasing many of the soldiers...but this important part of post-war Austria isn't mentioned...as if the viewer knows about this. As a retired history teacher, I assume that most do not know about this today.

This film begins with one of the patrols coming upon a woman who has been accosted by two men. The Russian soldier tells the men to go...and the American soldier is confused why the Russian instantly sided with the men...and he soon creates a bit of an incident. After all, the four soldiers are supposed to cooperate. Later, this same woman comes into the American soldier's life. It seems her husband is among the many soldiers still in the USSR...and there's word he may have escaped and is making his way back home to Vienna.

Overall, this is an interesting curio, though not a great film. It has a lot of slow portions and although it's Ralph Meeker's film debut, I can't imagine most folks wanting to see this unless they are interested in the Cold War. It's just duller than you'd expect it to be considering the subject matter.

This movie is not exactly a household name. In fact, this movie may be one of the best kept secrets in the pantheon of movies. Has anyone ever heard of this movie besides me? I guess not. So I'm doing this critique for an audience of one - me. Oh well, might as well proceed. This movie is about four soldiers, one American, One Russian, One British and One French, patrolling in post-war Vienna, Austria, in the period immediately after the end of World War Two and how they interact with each other, and with a certain woman who wants to leave the Russian zone. The American is played by the excellent, and regrettably forgotten actor Ralph Meeker, which gets to the point of this essay. Ralph Meeker was a great actor and he proves it in this movie. Mr. Meeker is one of those stars who shown brightly for a little while and then for reasons unknown his stardom burnt out. This is an obscure movie, and perhaps does not deserve any more attention that it has received thus far, but if that's the case, it's not because of Ralph Meeker, whose performance in this movie deserves at least some consideration, even if the movie itself deserves none.

... But this is NOT "Four Jills In A Jeep". That was a musical comedy and this one is a post-WWII melodrama set in Vienna in the years just after the war. Like Berlin, Vienna was divided into fourths; American, French, Russian and British. The picture captures the tension between the four powers as well as the desperation of the Viennese, trying to get on with their lives and serve four masters at the same time.

There are some heartbreaking scenes at the train station as relatives wait for their returning sons and husbands, recently released POWs - some are waiting in vain but don't know it until the train arrives. There are also stark scenes of wrecked and ruined buildings that were bombed during the war, but are nevertheless occupied by hard-up tenants.

In the midst of this destruction Viveca Lindfors waits for her husband, uncertain whether he will be released. American MP Ralph Meeker takes an interest in her predicament, but mostly in her. Meeker is the nominal star but the acting honors go to Ms. Lindfors, who acts circles around Meeker, who was in only his second picture. All other actors are very competent but are no-names.

This is an excellent movie and holds interest throughout. Like "Decision Before Dawn" which came out the same year, there is an aura of realism about it which war pictures made during the war did not duplicate, and gives it a little more bite. My copy was poorly done, with uneven clarity and a sometimes garbled soundtrack. The website says it is coming out on DVD in Oct.'10. It is worth whatever it costs as it is a cut above many pictures, war or otherwise.

In 1941, the Jeep company was formally established, and it initially produced cars with military-specific features. The era of SUVs began with the mass production of the first four door vehicle, the Jeep.

Because the government chose a vehicle based on the style of the Bantam Car Company, this Jeep was given the name Willys. Due to a lack of manufacturing capacity on Bantam's part and a need for suppliers on the part of the military, this variant of Jeep was built by Willys in the late 1940s.

Jeeps are incredibly robust and long-lasting automobiles. They are capable of navigating both paved highways and the roughest off-road terrain. Jeeps are very easy to maintain; they don't require a ton of time or effort to stay in tip-top shape.

On Armistice Day (also known as Veteran's Day), Willys-Overland gave the prototype "Quad"-named for the 4x4 system it possessed-to the American Army. Incredibly, the design was finished in under 75 days.

The Army chose the larger Humvee in the late 1980s, which is when a Jeep vehicle served its final military duty.

As a Jeep Fan loved the depiction of the Military Jeeps.