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surf66ocbp
Army Aviator 68-71
married w/ 3 kids
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood; lead on to fortune. Omitted: all the voyage of their lives are bound in shallows and in misery and we must take the current when it serves or lose our ventures." Richard III
Reviews
Combat! (1962)
Combat !...none better
Combat ! It came on late on WFIL-TV in Philly. I'd sit there with a pint glass of milk and ten Ivan spiced wafers and pace myself through the four acts of every Combat episode week in and week out. It was great because after Combat were re-runs of the Untouchables. Enough of that. Combat was realistic and well put together. There was no better infantry squad portrayed that I've ever seen in the movies or TV than Chip Saunders squad (with the R/T call-sign "King two".) When I went in the Army in '68 I had to relearn military phonetics.... Baker was Bravo, King was Kilo, Nancy was November....I had watched Combat and Twelve-o'clock High so often. Let me tell you something: having my last name called by a Sargeant and being put on the 'point' or the 'flank' for the first time in the real Army was almost a familiar situation! You learn right away whats Hollywood and whats reality however. The first lesson is helmet etiquette; chin straps never hang loose. You never 'one-arm- hang' your weapon, (sling or port-arms or you are using it.) ad infinitum.....but there was a ton of believability in Combat regardless.
All the actors knew how to salute. This is unbelievably critical to convey a sense of reality. Just look at Cuba Gooding playing a military guy if you want a real laugh. I believe two of the actors were ex-military Navy. The actors knew their weapons...so much so that you identified each weapon with the soldier. M-1 Garand with Littlejohn, Saunders with the Thompson, and Kirby with the BAR....Caje with a knife... Kirby, by the way, lugged an authentic Browning Automatic Rifle through every episode. The Radio Operator ALWAYS "got-it" but the R/T traffic was authentic and the unit itself seemed to be as ubiquitous as the weaponry. This crew used to go on-location frequently too. Korbel Winery was one location. To this day I buy their champagne because of it. And there was the back lot at MGM where they shared the set with 'Man from Uncle" and some westerns.
Vic Morrow was to Combat and all military movies (both screens) as William Shatner is to James T Kirk: unassailable. The shame of Vic Morrows death is that he was put in a dangerous situation by a movie director later in his career and died because of negligence: plain and simple. Hence Vic Morrow as Sgt Chip Saunders stands forever in my mind, looking over the barrel of the Thompson perched on his hip....as the hard-bitten squad leader: best NCO in the European Theater bar none.
The actor who portrayed Littlejohn was an accomplished writer. His recollections of those days are priceless and recommended for any fan of 'Combat!"
Battleground (1949)
One of the top 5 American WWII War movies
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, They Were expendable, Twelve O'clock High, Tora Tora Tora, and Battleground: fast forward to HBO's Band of Brothers. There is nothing between that measures up. Battleground loses nothing by being in 1940's black and white: the easel of the finest directors and producers in Hollywood. This is the movie of the Infantryman. Anyone who served is able to detect the phoniness of Hollywood War films when done poorly. The characters are impeccable.The reality is superior. Consider this: you never see an officer. Boil the entire film down to the incredibly intense German infiltration scene in the fog. Close up to Pvt Hansen in his foxhole pouring away with his Garand. 8 shots: the sound is true to the core the last shot ejects the empty clip in a noise unmistakable for anything else. The weapon is steaming. One of the guys near him is dying you can hear him crying. Hansen needs to reload from the top with glove-liners on his hands in brutal cold. This is hardbitten and stark. Whitmore is a Sergeant throughout. There is a sarcastic Pvt. Holley line from this movie I find myself using now and then: "I thought we had it good before, but this is the BEST YET ! "
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
a riot of old new and timeless comedy
This is one of the great American comedy movies of all time: ripe with gut-wrenching physical laughs brought to us by some of the greatest comedic names to ever to come out of Hollywood in some of the best visual comedy you could hope to see. From Dick Shawn screaming over back California roads in his red dodge crying "I'm comin' to get ya, momma, I'm comin to get ya!!!" to Buddy Hackett rolling pilot Jim Backus' Beech 18 and knocking him senseless while he's mixing morning cocktails. Edie Adams is hot AND priceless. Sid Ceasar putting his foot through an insect on the bottom of Ben Blue's bi-plane that isn't matching the speed of traffic on the highway below. Ethel Merman and Terry Thomas as hilarious adversaries eventually destroying the Brits' Rover in the process. Phil Silvers tearing out the bottom of his car. Jonathan Winters systematically knocking down a gas station. Front to back start to finish: What physical comedy in film is all about. Its road rage on the cement highways of California in 1963. Just forget the last ten minutes of the film. EVERYBODY is in this one. Don't miss it.