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The title of Raoul Walsh's film would indicate a high level of visual war action, but the action in this film is more like a television soap: Peyton Place Meets Boot Camp. Battle Cry is not a bad film by any means, but a mainstream 50's romance, and because it is Walsh, there are excellent things to be found, as long as you don't expect superior battlefield heroics; Aldo Ray and Van Heflin both turn in finely-tuned performances, Ray as a macho player evolving into a loving husband, Van Heflin as a commander who fails to maintain distance from his charges; a young Tab Hunter caught on with teens when he was cast as heartthrob Danny Forrester, and acquits himself nicely.

Three years later, Stanley Kubrick would make the stunning Paths of Glory, a WWI film that revealed the true brutality of battle, and Spielberg would change mainstream war films for all time with Saving Private Ryan; Battle Cry involves the willing viewer in an intelligent adaptation of a best-selling novel and as such, succeeds.

As I recall, our small town's prestige theater was packed, even to the back row of the balcony where I had to sit. But who cared. Word was that shapely Dorothy Malone (Elaine) did a strip tease in a chair, and just the thought of a girl bra-less on screen was enough to bring out every horny high school guy in town. Plus, the title promised all the neat battle scenes that teens in the '50's confused with real war. I don't think any of us were disappointed after leaving the theatre. Then again, a little Malone skin went a long way.

Seeing the movie again, I realize how many years have passed and how people change. Now the 2-hours-plus seem tedious and transparent, a typical Hollywood whitewash of the time, with stock characters and clichéd situations. It's like the producers wanted to touch every boy-girl base possible, and they do. I'm just puzzled the movie wasn't titled "Mating Cry" since that's where the screen time really is; only the last 10-minutes or so involve battle scenes and that amounts to either artillery explosions or fixing bayonets.

I'm sure enlistments went up following the film's release. Looks like Warner Bros. got maximal assistance from the Corps at Camp Pendleton—lots of massed troop scenes and colorful beach landings. And why not since the film's sum total plays like a recruitment poster. The trouble is this was just this type of Hollywood hokum that helped create the disconnect 10-years later between what Americans expected in Vietnam and the stark realities of what they got. And therein lies the irony of that long ago theater night—the glamorized deceptions of a Battle Cry plus its many 50's kin ended up costing a lot of folks more than what they paid at the box office.

For those of us who lived thru the War, BATTLE CRY is a splendid multi story Marines in Love and War drama, masterfully overseen by veteran Raoul Walsh, with a career perf by Aldo Ray, backed with fine work from Van Heflin, James Whitmore, Tab Hunter, Nancy Olson and others in a star cast. A huge box office hit from an equally big bestseller, marking a vast improvement on the book. Sentimental, exciting, plausible, involving and thoroughly entertaining; its 149 minute running time paced properly, unlike today's bloated epics, which seem to embrace overlength as a substitute for content and skill. Unlike Spielberg's yawner, CRY didn't need to resort to F/X bloodbaths to awaken the audience's attention.

I saw BATTLE CRY on Feb. 19, 1955 at the Laurel Theatre in San Carlos, a Saturday night at the movies in an Art Deco suburban house. Maybe you have to be 66 to appreciate this film for what it represents; and maybe you need to be 26 to swallow Spielberg's version of D-Day. I'll stick with BATTLE CRY.

This is one of the best of a whole slew of WW2 films that were made in the 50's, some others of which are also very good. This one stars Aldo Ray and James Whitmore, a young Tab Hunter and others destined to become stars. The action scenes are all done pretty well in most of these films and this one is no exception. By today's standards, there are no real special effects, but what little are in the film are state-of-the-art for the time. This film should be seen to appreciate what our soldiers, sailors and marines did for us in WW2.

It's not surprising many war veterans like this film. Dramatically framed with a voice-over by James Whitmore as the epitome of a Marine Sergeant who cares about his men but knows the mission is all, the film quickly draws us into the lives of these men and their women in a suspenseful and satisfying way. There is enough good acting by Whitmore, Van Heflin, Dorothy Malone, John Lupton and others to get us past the less well acted and more cliched moments. Some scenarios, such as the tragedy-to-triumph of the lumberjack womanizer(Aldo Ray)and the New Zealand farm widow (Nancy Olson)are superbly plotted and played. There are many memorable moments in the film and Uris' varied characters are well represented.(Please note that Navaho code-talkers are credited here.) Combat and training imagery and sound is generally high quality, but the outstanding aspect of the film is the way it explores the human qualities of those men and women who face the tests of war.