Between Heaven and Hell (film) is a 1956 20th Century Fox Cinemascope colour war film based on the novel The Day the Century Ended[1] by Francis Gwaltney that the film follows closely. The movie was filmed on Kaua'i.
The film stars Robert Wagner, Buddy Ebsen, Terry Moore, and Broderick Crawford and was directed by Richard Fleischer. The film's score by Hugo Friedhofer that included elements of the Dies Irae was nominated for an Academy Award.[2]
Plot
The story is told in flashback format detailing the life of Sam Gifford (Robert Wagner) from his life as a Southern landowner to his war service in the Philippines.
The film begins with military drums and a shot of a bearded Robert Wagner behind barbed wire wearing dirty fatigues with the dark shadow of missing chevrons. A long tracking shot follows his release from the stockade as the music becomes the Dies Irae as the credits roll.
When war comes, Gifford's National Guard unit is called to active service with the United States Army. Gifford's father-in-law is the Colonel (Robert Keith) commanding his regiment. Despite Gifford's wealth and commanding position in civilian life he is not a commissioned officer but a platoon sergeant. As opposed to his callous treatment of his sharecroppers viewed in flashback, Gifford becomes friends with three privates in his platoon that he prefers to be with than those of his own rank.
Though leading his platoon admirably leads to his being awarded a Silver Star medal for valour, Gifford outwardly shows signs of fear, battle fatigue and neurosis that intensify when his father-in-law is killed. When a frightened lieutenant machine guns his three friends out of panic and stupidity Gifford attempts to beat him to death with his rifle butt. Gifford is subdued, broken in rank to private, and imprisoned where we first see him in the film's beginning.
Gifford is summoned by Lt. Colonel Miles (Frank Gerstle) where due to his being awarded a Silver Star he is given a choice of being sentenced to the United States Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth or to be transferred to George Company, a de facto punishment company in a dangerous area of the line. Gifford chooses the punishment company commanded by Captain Grimes a former First Sergeant (Broderick Crawford) who insists everyone call him "Waco". Waco wears no rank insignia and forbids his men to salute him or address him as "sir" lest he become a target for snipers. Waco is hated by the everyone in George Company except for his suspicious friendships with some pre-war regular army comrades-in-arms (Frank Gorshin and Skip Homeier) who act as Waco's bodyguards. Impressed by Gifford's combat record Waco offers him a membership in his private circle as a radio operator that ends when Gifford beats up Homeier when he makes remarks about his wife's photograph. Waco burns the photograph and exiles him to a forward platoon on outpost duty lead by a lieutenant called Little Joe (Brad Dexter).
Gifford forms a friendship with a former sharecropper Willie Crawford (Buddy Ebsen) with the two being sole survivors of a Japanese attack. With Crawford wounded, Gifford is the only one who can make it through enemy lines to warn the Company of Japanese infiltration.
Production
Arkansas born Francis Irby Gwaltney soldiered in the Philippines with the 112th Cavalry that served throughout the Pacific doing several amphibious landings.[3] During this service he formed a friendship with Norman Mailer whom he met there.
The Day the Century Ended was Gwaltney's most famous novel. When Fox picked the 1955 novel up for filming they assigned it to Philippine veteran Rod Serling famed for his American television plays. Unfortunately Serling's first screenplay was nine hours long and the project was given to other writers, [4] notably Harry Brown who had written the book A Walk in the Sun.
Between Heaven and Hell is one of the 1950s depictions of the US Army that did not paint a recruiting poster image and was more in tune with many soldier's memories such as From Here to Eternity, Robert Aldrich's Attack or Samuel Fuller's films.
Fleischer uses the Cinemascope widescreen format well, notably in views of hills lit up by a firefight. Included in the cast of G.I.s are Harvey Lembeck, Mark Damon, Ken Clark, Tod Andrews, Biff Elliot, Bart Burns, L.Q. Jones, Sam Edwards and Carl Switzer.
Quotes
CAPTAIN: (looking over Gifford's service jacket) "Hitting an officer under combat conditions...what rank was he?"
EX-SGT.GIFFORD: "Lieutenant"
CAPTAIN: "Lieutenant...Shoulda killed him!"
EX-SGT.GIFFORD: "I was trying to"
CRAWFORD: (handing Gifford back his M-1 rifle) "Go ahead and kill someone, I don't care...How did you get in this outfit?"
GIFFORD: "It was that or Leavenworth"
CRAWFORD: "Shoulda taken Leavenworth"
FORMER 1ST SGT NOW CAPTAIN CRAWFORD: "They busted both of us. You to Private, me to Captain"
References
External links
