Main Cast: Jeff Chandler, Alex Nicol, Charles Drake, Judith Braun, Hugh O'Brian
Release Year: 1952
Country: US
Run Time: 83 minutes
Plot
Red Ball Express deals with the little-known activities of the U.S. Army Transportation Corps during WW II. It so happened that many of the Corps' most courageous drivers were black men, who otherwise would have been denied an opportunity for combat duty. Sidney Poitier plays Corporal Andrew Robinson, who resents his second-class-citizen status and chafes at the orders issued by his white commanding officer Lt. Chick Campbell (Jeff Chandler). Meanwhile, Campbell has his own cross to bear in the form of relentlessly hostile sergeant Ernest Kalek (Alex Nicol). All differences are conveniently forgotten in the climactic euphoria of providing ammunition for General Patton's tanks during the Allied push to Paris in 1944. Considered just another war picture in 1952, Red Ball Express has since taken on added stature by virtue of the presence of actor Sidney Poitier and director Budd Boetticher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Jacqueline Duval - Antoinette DuBois; Jack Kelly - Pvt. John Heyman; Cindy Garner - Kitty Walsh; Sidney Poitier - Cpl. Andrew Robertson; Howard Petrie - Gen. Gordon; John Hudson - Tank Sergeant; Frank Chase - Higgins; John M. Pickard - Major; Robert A. Davis - Pvt. Dave McCord; Richard Garland; Gregg Palmer - As Palmer Lee; Jack Warden
Credit
Bernard Herzbrun - Art Director, Richard H. Riedel - Art Director, Budd Boetticher - Director, Edward A. Curtiss - Editor, Joseph E. Gershenson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Bud Westmore - Makeup, Maury Gertsman - Cinematographer, Aaron Rosenberg - Producer, Oliver Emert - Set Designer, Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer, Leslie I. Carey - Sound/Sound Designer, Joe Lapis - Sound/Sound Designer, Marcy Klauber - Screen Story, John Michael Hayes - Screenwriter, Billy Grady, Jr. - Short Story Author
Red Ball Express is a 1952World War IIwar film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Jeff Chandler. The film is based on the real Red Ball Express convoys that took place after the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944. The tag line for the movie is "From beachhead to battlefront! They carry the ammo for Patton's Tanks!"
Plot Synopsis
August 1944: proceeding with the invasion of France, Patton'sThird Army has advanced so far toward Paris that it cannot be supplied. To keep up the momentum, Allied HQ establishes an elite military truck route. One (racially integrated) platoon of this Red Ball Express encounters private enmities, German resistance, minefields, and increasingly perilous missions.
