May 24 movie: A Walk in the Sun. This was an excellent movie about the invasion of Sicily, directed by Lewis Milestone who also directed All Quiet on the Western Front. Starred Dana Andrews and a great ensemble including Sterling Holloway, Lloyd Bridges, Richard Conte (was in The Godfather and the original Ocean's Eleven) and Norman Lloyd. He plays a curt tough guy who will surprise you if you remember him as the kindly old doctor on St. Elsewhere, not so much if you know him as the villain in Saboteur.
It's rare to see an ensemble war movie without the usual cast of stereotypes: no plucky ethnic guy, no Texas hayseed who becomes best friends with the Chicago hustler, no "I'm getting too old for this shit" career man, etc etc. The characters all seem very real and, what's the word. Underwritten? They just seem like people, not types with a capital T. The movie was very spare, with good use of locations. There's a beautiful shot that the director uses a couple of times, of the camera panning along a ditch or trench while the men jump down into the trench one by one.
I'm really glad I got to see this. My only complaint was the first reel had not been well restored & the night scenes were so blurry they were a little hard to watch. The image cleared up at some point and from then on was no hindrance to enjoying the movie.
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