This is not a large scale multi-million dollar epic of World War Two No thousands of extras, no wide panoramic sweep of battle scenes This says more about The Battle of the Bulge than the movie of the same name It s just an ordinary black and white M G M production What it lacks in size and scope it makes up for in impact A simple story very well told, of a squad of GI s of the 一0一st Airborne Division, thrown into the maelstrom that was the German offensive in the Ardennes in December of 一九四四 against the Allied ground forces It s hard to believe that this film was not shot on location but on a Metro sound stage And Metro s Culver City was turned into the only outdoor location for the snow-covered, rubble-strewn town of Bastogne under siege, which was tenaciously held by the 一0一st, under the command of Brig General Anthony McAuliffe With the exception of Van Johnson as Pvt Holly who was high profile on the Metro lot in his time, and George Murphy as Pvt Stazak, the rest of the cast were character-type actors who filled their roles perfectly James Whitmore as Sgt Kinnie is drilling the squad in the opening scenes The squad members talk of an enjoyable furlough in Paris which is suddenly cut short by the German breakthrough in the Ardenne Ptv Stazak hopes of going home are dashed because his authorised documents have not come through before the squad moves up front Douglas Fowley as Pvt Kippton seems to be the best in the squad at bellyaching Maybe it s his dentures that make him a sourpuss But Fowley s dentures turn into a class act clicking away to the old song, quot I Surrender Dear, quot through the courtesy of a German propaganda broadcast heard over the radio in a Sherman tank Denise Darcel comes as a welcome relief of feminine pleasure not out of place in the town of Bastogne itself In an indoor scene, Pvt Holly s eyeballs go into left-to-right overdrive as he stares at Denise s buxom rear end descending a flight of stairs Then there s Holly again, nursing stolen newly-laid eggs, as valuable as gold nuggets He s about to scramble them over a fire when the squad is told to saddle up and move out Not for the first time does Johnson Pvt Holly yell, quot oh no quot A expression he s used in past movies also The broken eggs in his upturned helmet are now a problem In the end it s disaster The German artillery scramble the eggs for Holly Problem solved On a three man patrol, Holly, Hodiak as Janness, Montalban as Rodriguez, intercept and force a jeep carrying a Major and two sergeants to stop and identify themselves The knowledge that Germans are infiltrating in GI uniforms has made the patrol suspicious so the Major is asked how the Dodgers made out in 一九四四 The Major hesitates,but the Sergeant in the rear seat asks Holly who Betty Grable is married to Montalban shouts back, quot Cesar Romero quot The Major says Romero is out quot Betty Grable is married to Harry James quot The tense atmosphere relaxes The patrol is convinced they re friendly What is displayed authentically on this studio sound stage is the icy, bone-chilling atmosphere of the battlefield The men hunkered down the deeper the better, in their foxholes Throughout nearly all this movie there is the constant rise and fall in the background of continuous artillery fire, like a rolling thunder It never seems to cease Sometimes it s close, sometimes distant That, along with the freezing fog hanging like a thick whitish-grey blanket in the air, enveloping everything, gives off an atmosphere of crisis a feeling of fearful tension The men endeavour to dispel the fear with humour Waiting and wondering when the enemy will appear ghost-like out of the mist-shrouded forest Near the end of the movie, Leon Ames gives a good performance as a Army Chaplain Trying to explain the reason for this necessary trip to Europe, to kill off a murderous political system that has already killed off millions Before the end, the tables turn in the Allies favour Sergeant Kinnie notices his shadow against the snow The sun is breaking through and the mist rises Allied tactical air power is back in business again with a vengeance Veteran director William Wellman was not found wanting when he directed this movie He had already proved himself with, quot The Story of GI Joe quot , in 一九四五 Antiwar film Any war film well made and convincing can be antiwar, and you do not need blood all over the silver screen to prove it Antiwar or not, World War Two was a quot popular quot war The reasons stuck out a mile The Army Chaplain said so in so many words The Ardennes offensive caught the Allies unawares By late 一九四四, battered the German forces may have been But they still had a few nasty shots in their locker to scare the living daylights out of the Allied Command We thought the Germans had run out of fighting steam, but old Field Marshal Gerd Von Rundstedt thought different