Ten Seconds to Hell

To put this in context, I saw this in an outdoor theater at the Marine base at Camp Pendelton, California in 1959. I can't tell you how many movies I have seen in my life time, and how very few I remember. This is the movie that came to my mind when I read of Jack Palance's death. It was a guy film all the way, I mean Jeff Chandler and Jack Palance in the same flick? Too much. After nearly 50 years, I still remember so well how the film had me sitting on the edge of my seat. The suspense related to "will this bomb go off and kill the guy" was tremendous. Remember that in it's original form the film was black and white. I can still remember the details of the defusing of the bombs, and how sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. A fine movie in it's time.

I watched this in a colorized version (shudder, I know!), but I guess it's better than nothing!! This is yet another war-themed film for Aldrich but a novel one, dealing with a six-man bomb-disposal unit in Germany after the end of World War II.

As such, it's much closer in spirit to the stark (and often hysterical) ATTACK! (1956) than the sweeping blockbusters - THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) and TOO LATE THE HRO (1970; see review above) - of the next decade. Indeed, here, Jack Palance is again given a sympathetic role - while Jeff Chandler, uncharacteristically, essays the villainous type. Interestingly, the film was made by Britain's House of Horror - Hammer Films (in association with United Artists) - with shooting taking place at Germany's celebrated UFA studios!

Plot-wise, however, the film is somewhat contrived: Palance and Chandler hate each other's guts but still lodge together and, of course, fall for their attractive - and lonely - French landlady (Martine Carol); by the end, only they have survived their dangerous line of work and the two face-off in a literally explosive climax! While no classic, it's professionally handled and has undeniable moments of power (one of the deaths is filmed in a way that we never see the man's face but, when the remaining members of the group are reconvened, we realize that Wesley Addy is missing; Chandler's story about his uncle teaching him to always look out for himself first and how the latter was the first to suffer for it).

The answer to that question is, "You can't!" I saw this film when it first came out in 1959, and I recently had the opportunity to see it again after 49 long years on Turner Classic Movies. I think the thing that makes this film so memorable to me is that the two leading actors Jeff Chandler and Jack Palance were given the opportunity to "break the mold" so to speak. Chandler who always played "the good guy" and "Palance" who always played "the bad guy" got the opportunity to switch roles. Earlier in their careers Chandler played a Roman Soldier (good guy) opposite Palance's Attila (bad guy) in "Sign of the Pagan". Chandler appears to be having a ball with the role of Karl Wirtz. His speech about how his Uncle Oscar taught him how to "look out for number ono" is reminiscent of the Burt Lancaster (Joe Erin) speech about the man who raised him (Ace Hannah) and how he double crossed him as well in "Vera Cruz". Interstingly enough, both films "Ten Seconds To Hell" and "Vera Cruz" were both directed by Robert Aldrich. The film's plot is about a German Bomb Disposal Unit working for the British after WWII which make a pact that the survivors will split the spoils of their labor after the job is finished. The texture and mood of the black and white film adds to the suspense of the film. One of both Chandler and Palance's best films.

Director Robert Aldrich had his name removed as producer because the studio cut 40 minutes from "Ten Seconds to Hell." He felt without the 40 minutes, the film made no sense. Actually it does, but possibly some of the footage would have added to the suspense.

After the war, German soldiers out of favor with the Reich for a variety of reasons were sent to Berlin to attend to British bombs that hadn't gone off but could if not defused. Interestingly, in 1979, the show Danger UXB covered the exact plot, but with British soldiers working in London.

It's a very dangerous mission, as the bomb could go off in your face.

The team is made up of six people, the main men being a pre-war architect, Koertner (Jack Palance), and an arrogant jerk, Wirtz (Jeff Chandler). Wes Addy, Robert Comthwaite, David Willick and Jim Goodman make up the rest of the team. The men bet half their salaries on staying alive, and anyone standing at the end of the mission win the purse. Koertner is the head of the team, and he and Wirtz both compete for the affections of their landlady, Margot, played by a somewhat overwrought Martine Carol.

This is a predictable story but, given the volatility of the bombs, a lot of suspense. Palance had worked several times with Aldrich and is actually the lead and the good guy rather than the normally heroic Chandler. Both of them are very good.

Sobering, and definitely worth seeing.

TEN SECONDS TO HELL belongs to the short list of movies dedicated to deminers, besides of course Kathryn Bigelow's HURTLOCKER. Maybe there are other ones, but I don't know them. Anyway this is a pure Aldrich high testoterone film as were ATTACK, EMPEROR OF THE NORTH, DIRTY DOZEN, TOO LATE THE HEROES. And the Jeff Chandler-Jack Palance choice was the best one for such a topic. It is gritty, tense and helped by an excellent character study and Martine Carol's presence. Also a bittersweet film but brilliant where American actors play German POWs, very rare and unusual. Among best of Aldrich "men" war, because the director also "women" movies. And I won't say that in this movie Jeff Chandler is the villain, but he is the less "sympathetic", compared to Jack Palance, who used us to less sympathetic roles; see what I mean? So the roles could have been reversed.