La patrouille infernale

This particular war movie has its fine moments, implementing the good, old-fashioned "never-a-dull-moment" bravura common of the numerous World War II B-movies of its type. However, I find a few aspects baffling. The Marines assigned on secret missions such as those played by Curtis and Lovejoy should not be armed with standard rifles; hard-hitting weaponry like Thompson 'Tommy' .45 caliber submachine guns would have been more appropriate. There was one prop that was also questionable, like the immobile one-dimensional Type 95 Japanese tank they were taking shots at, which if memory serves me well, appeared to be a well-tailored but hilariously-obvious cardboard cutout!! But, aforementioned criteria aside, the film is indeed enlightening and I recommend it as quintessential entertainment for a late Saturday night. (I myself last saw this movie with my brother back in 1986 on a Saturday night/Sunday morning 2:00 a.m. time slot, on ABC Channel 7's well-renowned Late, Late Show.)

If the U.S. Marines had not put a few diversionary landings on the small island location of this film, Mary Murphy and Eduard Franz might have had to spend the rest of the war playing tag with the Japanese.

As it is their island as per the strategy of MacArthur is being hopped over for a landing on nearby Bougainville. But Franz knows where the minefields on Bougainville are located and he sends out a message. Of course it has to be confirmed so Frank Lovejoy is given a special mission for his squad to find Franz and verify.

Easier said than done, especially with the other men of the squad, Tony Curtis, Alan Wells, and Skip Homeier hating Lovejoy's guts over some business back at Guadalcanal. But they're going to have to get over it if the mission is to be accomplished.

Not usual for war films, but Mary Murphy in a tight blue dress is a nice diversion for the audience. She sure is a nice diversion for Tony Curtis who has to keep his mind on the war.

Beachhead does have some nice location photography on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a very realistic setting in a film about the Pacific War.

It's not the greatest of war films, but passably entertaining enough.

One of Tony Curtis' early starring roles is this war film of a detachment of Marines sent out to locate a planter and verify a message he sent concerning the location of Japanese minefields on the island. Because of the danger surrounding their mission, tempers are frayed and old resentments surface as the platoon makes its way through the jungle while trying to avoid detection by Japanese soldiers who seem to be all around them. The film has several tense moments as the Marines find a way to slip through the tightening Japanese noose and face even more danger after locating the planter and his daughter. Curtis is the marquee name here and his Hollywood hunk appeal is displayed to good effect while trying to spark pretty Mary Murphy. Frank Lovejoy is solid as always as the Marine sergeant leader with something to prove after a disastrous result at Guadalcanal. John Doucette, a great character actor in his time, has a cameo role as a major who sends the platoon out on its mission impossible. Technicolor is lush and realistic and the music score is also very nice.

The other reviews pretty much cover the ground. The premise is pretty hokey. What was a French planter doing on islands that were never controlled by France. How could he have lived his whole life on those islands when he must have been born before the British, not the French, made them a protectorate? How did a planter living on an island occupied by the Japanese learn the location of sea mines planted around the island of Bougainville, 30 miles away?

One more complaint. Why do so many movies have the heroine trip and hurt her ankle. So many have silly scenes like that: "'help I've fallen and I can't get up."

I will next limit my comments to a few corrections.

One review refers to the scene of the action as an "atoll". Wrong, atolls are low islands built up from coral. This was obviously filmed on one of the high volcanic islands that dot the Pacific Ocean, Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands.

Another comment call it a "wartime movie". Filmed in 1953, it was far too late for that. After all WW II ended in 1945.

One review mentioned similar movies, described as those with

"American soldiers battling Japanese on the Pacific islands during the WWII are the following: ..... Objective Burma by Raoul Walsh with Errol Flynn"

Sorry, but Burma is a whole country all its own on the Asian mainland. It is not an island in the Pacific or any other ocean. The only coastline it has faces the Indian Ocean. The movie really frosted the Brits when it came out in 1944 since they knew full well that Burma was the objective of the British XIVth Army which re-conquered it from the Japanese. The Brits angrily objected to Americans claiming that victory in the movies. Ironically the XIVth Army was made up largely of divisions from the Indian Army.

"Beachhead" is an okay war film but it certainly could have been a lot better. It's a shame, as with a few changes, it would have been a dandy film.

The film begins with a small group of men (including Frank Lovejoy and a young Tony Curtis) in the Pacific are sent on a reconnaissance mission just before a huge invasion during WWII. They need to find a Frenchman and determine if the information he's relayed to the military about the Japanese is accurate or not. Not surprisingly for a clichéd film, when they finally find him he turns out to have a hot daughter--one who really bogs down the film and does nothing to advance the film. Again and again, the guys seem to forget that their goal is to get the information and get back as soon as possible--as they REALLY want to score with this cute young lady! In the end, I assume they didn't have enough money to complete the spectacular battle sequence--so they superimposed a lot of fake explosions over the enemy soldiers and a ship that seemed to have nothing to do with this battle scene! While it's not a terrible film (there are a few taut moments), there are just too many plot problems and silly dialog to make it a film you need to see. Also, it did seem very strange that the Frenchman's hot daughter had no French accent whatsoever. Odd, to say the least.