Operation Dames

Before writing this review, there were two others, one a rave, one a pan. The truth is, of course, in between. It is actually a decent movie, and the pan makes less less sense than the rave.

The title, and even the first few minutes of the movie, suggest an old Mickey Rooney type fun during a war movie. This was no doubt deliberate, and was a good ploy to fool us into a drama.

It is a war drama, mixed in with much action. Most of the action is not to be taken too seriously, as when one character takes out an entire outfit with a suicide pack of grenades, not even leaving a wounded man left.

This is probably the only over the to incident, and it pales in comparison to most of today's extremely goofy war scenes. Much of what is said and done is credible.

The best part of the movie is that it deals with real life war wounds, as opposed to other movies in which people just die and their troubles are all over. The main incident in this movie is about permanent damage inflicted during the conflict, damage that a character must live with. That is what makes this movie superior to most.

You can tell it had a small budget, and not many effects, which will turn off the special effect dorks, but the story is there, and the characters are multi dimensional. Even the crass, unlikable character show redeeming qualities. A few characters are one dimensional, such as the lead NCO. Yet a few scenes are added to show a lighter and more realistic side of him which makes him more believable.

The movie shows real life consequences, and doesn't get a bit preachy. Characters aren't killed because they are too good or don't fit the profile of a dork's favorite (but one dimensional) characters. They are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time (except the suicide guy, in the scene that takes this movie down a few notches.) This won't go over well with MASH disciples, because the Americans are the good guys. MASH was a good story, and has good lessons, but it is very one sided to the point of silly, and it is refreshing to see another side to the story, which has been silenced since this era. I don't know that either side is completely right, but to silence either side and only let one have a voice would be extreme bigotry. So I recommend a few movies like this for a counter balance. Add to that the story of the wounds one must live with, and you've got a movie that has value.

Relentlessly stupid, no-budget "war picture" made mainly to show off the attributes of the spectacular Eve Meyer--not a bad idea in itself--but that should be an embarrassment to everyone connected with it. Laughable "script", performances that wouldn't pass muster in an elementary-school Christmas pageant, inept "action" scenes, confused direction by the normally competent documentary director Louis Clyde Stoumen--who is apparently not quite sure if he's making a comedy, a philosophical treatise on the futility of war or a leering T&A (by early 1960s standards, anyway) travelogue of Eve Meyer's magnificent body--and a general air of shoddiness and incompetence. Worth seeing in order to watch Eve Meyer strut her stuff, but that's pretty much it.

Operation Dames was allegedly released for the drive-ins back in the day! When I had an opportunity to by a 16mm print of this picture I didn't know what to expect? Turns out for a low budget flick, it's way better than some of the stupid reviews that some of the fools gave it here! First off the typical drive-in flick that we grew up with in the 1970's were all pieces of trash! They were not even a quarter as good as this old picture is. The acting over all was pretty good, I felt that Chuck Henderson as Jeff did a great job of acting! Turns out he was in the cast of one of my favorite detective / cop shows "Manhunt" 1960 in which he played Detective Dan Kramer! It's a damn shame he didn't do more pictures! The character he plays is has the kind of personality we need now in leaders! It's no wonder that we can't get this Covid-19 thing behind us, I mean look at the list of snowflakes we have as leaders, here in California, for example we have Governor Gavin Newsom, Barbara Ferrer, look at her, she looks and sounds like she's on Quaalude's! Who gonna take her seriously? We need a man like the character "Jeff" in the movie! Then our orange colored skin President Donald Trump! He's a huge snowflake, how about Dr. Fauci? He reminds me of Mel Brookes! How about the up and coming snowflake Uncle Joe Biden? Or Kayleigh McEnany? Did Trump have sex with this woman? (We can only hope!) But come on, we need a man to tell us what to do, not a bunch of pussies! Okay so Big Duke Wayne is missing from this picture, but I bet he even liked it! Killing those dirty little Korean reds! There's nothing wrong with this picture! So drink a beer, and enjoy a great little "B" flick from the last golden era of Hollywood! Oh yea, Louis Clyde Stoumen the films director did a damn good job there may have one or two shots that he could have made better, but for a guy who only made a few feature pictures, he also did a damn good job! Eve Meyer wasn't that attractive but she gave it her all! Some of the other chicks were cute! Love it when Byron Morrow's character Benny blows up the reds with a backpack full of hand grenade in revenge for killing his woman! Blow those dirty reds to smithereens! (Toss in Kim Jong-un another snowflake! - Love his flattop!) It's 74 minutes of good solid entertainment! The black and white makes it! Best part, there are no idiots covered with tattoos, no dumb women with colored hair, no cell phones, computers, car chases foul language, horrible recorded "Rock" "Rap" "Country" music! The last year of one of the best and last good decades America had! We all know about the 38th parallel, and the fact that the Korean War was a bunch of B.S. But it sure made for some damn good war pictures, didn't it! Ten Stars from me, just because! Gotta find my M1918 Browning automatic and my Covid-19 mask, and I'm set! Now where did I put that map of North Korea? Damn it!

In the late 1950s, American International Pictures specialized in cheaply produced films aimed mostly at the drive-in theater audiences. Many were teen-oriented films, such as juvenile delinquent films. Many were cheap war films, such as "Operation Dames". Some of these war movies are pretty good, such as "Submarine Seahawk" and some certainly aren't! Is "Operation Dames" one of these bad war films?

The story is set during the Korean War though most of the women look like they stepped right out of 1959. The hair styles and fashions actually changed a lot since the war....and the women (particularly the one who looked like she was channeling Jayne Mansfield) looked out of place.

A group of USO performers are entertaining troops during this war. Unfortunately, the North Koreans are on an offensive and this acting and singing troop are stuck behind enemy lines. Despite the brilliant title, they are not all women...though most are.

So is this any good? Not especially...though I think the title pretty much tells you the film is not going to be an Oscar contender. With better Korean War epics like "The Steel Helmet" and "The Bridges at Toko-Ri", you certainly shouldn't waste your time on this silly and inconsequential film. The worst thing about it are the 'dames'...they just don't fit in the film and their acting isn't especially good.

I don't think I'm too far off base saying that this is possibly the worst movie I've ever seen. I've been working on a list of my favorite war movies: "The Longest Day," "To Hell and Back," "Bridge on the River Kwai," (all black and white) which all have good plots, rich characters and great acting. I've seen better dialog and acting in student-written high school one act plays. The plot, however isn't a bad premise - just poorly implemented. It's kind of like a traffic accident, though, I couldn't seem to turn it off! A movie doesn't need big money or great sets i.e. "Twelve Angry Men" and "Lifeboat" to be good... so budget is no excuse. What were they thinking?