Les feux de la bataille

The kind of film that will be erased from my memory in a few minutes. Nothing exceptional here, it is destined to theaters and double feature program, and for movie buffs interested in this period, early sixties or late fifties, or simply war yarns die hard fans, maybe is it worth? You have the young Robert Blake, Scott Brady and a couple of other grade B pictures figures. We have seen this scheme one thousand times, and Korea war has inspired many films, great source of inspiration. But besides PORK CHOP HILL or MEN IN WAR, maybe a handful of others, it is question of ordinary features to entertain war movies buffs. Nothing more. RG Springsteen is however a director whose films are always on my list. By principle.

This movie is not bad as long as you don't expect much. It was obviously shot on a very limited budget and was mainly done indoors with a lot of backdrops to make it look like the scenes are taking place in Korea during both the summer and winter.

The battle scenes have very little action involving the actors. Much of it is actual newsreel footage shot during WW II and The Korean War. There is so much newsreel stuff that it looks like the filmmakers were trying to flesh out the movie to make it long enough.

Scott Brady speaks his lines as though he were reading them from cue cards. Elaine Edwards gives a very wooden performance with little or no emotion at all. The best acting is done by Robert Blake, who is very good as one of the platoon members. He definitely makes the viewer take notice every time he appears in a scene.

The plot is an unusual one for a Korean War movie, with the U.S. Marines trying to rescue five Navy nurses taken prisoner by the Chinese. The senior nurse (Edwards) is the former lover of the Marine commanding officer (Brady) and that adds spice to the story. Part of this movie's problem is that all that newsreel footage gets in the way of the plot.

As long as the viewer does not require excellent production values and great acting, Battle Flame is an OK little Korean War film that can be enjoyed for its 78 minutes in black and white.