• Rating:
• Genre: Action
• Movie Type: Combat Films
• Themes: Great Battles
• Director: Lewis Milestone
• Main Cast: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, George Peppard, James Edwards, George Shibata
• Release Year: 1959
• Country: US
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• MPAA Rating: NR

Plot

Pork Chop Hill was based on the eyewitness essays of ex-soldier S. L. A. Marshall. The film is set during the Korean "police action." While diplomats argue pointlessly over the shape of the negotiation tables at Panmunjon, United Nations troops bleed and die. Lieutenant Gregory Peck leads a 135-man unit on the attack of the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill. When reinforcements finally arrive, only 25 of Peck's men survive (and they aren't the usual survivors we've come to expect from earlier, cliché-ridden war films). Among the American troops are such dependable performers as Harry Guardino, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, Barry Atwater, George Peppard, Robert Blake and Martin Landau. Former cowboy-star Bob Steele also shows up briefly as an American general. According to director Lewis Milestone, Pork Chop Hill was cut by nearly twenty minutes because the wife of star Gregory Peck felt that her husband made his first entrance too late into the picture. True or not, the film does show signs of post-production tampering, with flashes of several excised scenes showing up under the main title credits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

• Gregory Peck - Lt. Joe Clemons
• Harry Guardino - Forstman
• Rip Torn - Lt. Russell
• George Peppard - Fedderson
• James Edwards - Corporal Jurgens
• George Shibata - Lt. O'Hashi

Bob Steele - Kern; Woody Strode - Franklin; Norman Fell - Sgt. Coleman; Robert Blake - Velie; Biff Elliot - Boven; Barry Atwater - Davis; Michael Garth - S-2 Officer; Ken Lynch - Gen. Trudeau; Paul Comi - Sgt. Kreucheberg; Abel Fernandez - McKinley; Lew Gallo - PI Officer; Cliff Ketchum - Cpl. Payne; Martin Landau - Marshall; Kevin Hagen - Cpl. Kissell; Leonard Graves - Lt. Cook; Syl Lamont - Sgt. Kuzmick; John Alderman - Lt. Waldorf; Charles Aidman - Harrold; Chuck Hayward - Chalmers; Buzz Martin - Radio Operator; Robert B. Williams - Soldier Runner; William Wellman, Jr. - Iron Man; Gavin MacLeod - Saxon; Barry McGuire - Lt. Attridge; Carl Benton Reid; Bert Remsen - Lt. Cummings; Harry Dean Stanton - MacFarland; John R. McKee - Olds

Credit

Sy Bartlett - Producer; George Boemler - Editor; Edward Boyle - Set Designer; Sam Leavitt - Cinematographer; Lewis Milestone - Director; Frank Prehoda - Makeup; Nicolai Remisoff - Production Designer; Leonard Rosenman - Composer (Music Score); James R. Webb - Screenwriter; Edward Armand - Costume Designer; David Koehler - Special Effects; Capt. Joseph G. Clemons, Jr. - Consultant/advisor; Eddie Armand - Costume Designer; Ray Gosnell, Jr. - First Assistant Director; S.L.A. Marshall - Book Author

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