14 ATTACK!
Background
Keen to make a WWII movie, in de pen dent director- producer Robert Aldrich (Kiss
Me, Deadly) tried but failed to secure the rights for Irwin Shaw’s The Young Lions
(directed by Edward Dmytryk for 20th Century Fox in 1958) and Norman Mailer’s
The Naked and the Dead (directed by Raoul Walsh for Warner Bros., also in 1958).
Aldrich did obtain the rights to Norman Brooks’s controversial Broadway play,
Fragile Fox (1954), a work he pronounced “ahead of its time, in terms of being
anti- war, anti- military” (Arnold and Miller, 2004). What Aldrich saw as strengths,
the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) found unacceptable after vetting James Poe’s
script, which revolves around a combat unit jeopardized by a cowardly officer dur-
ing the Battle of the Bulge. Anxious to uphold American military prestige in the
depths of the Cold War, the DOD refused to loan Aldrich U.S. Army equipment and
soldiers as extras— and even refused to let him use stock U.S. Signal Corps combat
footage. Frustrated but undaunted, Aldrich bought a tank for $1,000, rented another
one from 20th Century Fox, and worked with a small cast of 19 actors (all of them
WWII veterans) to represent a 100- man com pany of infantry.Production
An in de pen dent production that ultimately cost $810,000 (mostly funded by bank
loans but $35,000 in bud get overruns were covered by United Artists), Attack! was
shot in 25 working days (16 January–15 February 1956) at RKO- Pathé and Uni-
versal Studios, Universal’s “ Little Eu rope” backlot, and at Albertson (aka Russell)
Ranch in Triunfo, northwest of Los Angeles. The film’s modest bud get and outlier
status is evident in its shaky production values. The two tanks used in Attack! are
conspicuously poor imitations of German panzers, the combat action is less than
convincing, and aside from some fake snow, the mise- en- scène looks suspiciously
warm and dry— nothing like the Ardennes in the bitter cold, fog, and heavy snow
that prevailed in the winter of 1944–1945. Fortunately, a taut script and fine, though
sometimes strident acting more than compensate for shaky production values. Iron-
ically, Eddie Albert, who plays the cowardly Erskine Cooney, was considered a
true war hero and was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat “V.” During his ten-
ure as pi lot of a Coast Guard landing craft, Albert saved 47 stranded Marines and
oversaw the rescue of 30 other Marines who were enduring enemy fire.Plot Summary
Fragile Fox is a U.S. Army rifle com pany occupying a town in Belgium near the
frontline in 1944. They are “led” by Capt. Erskine Cooney (Eddie Albert), a con-
niving coward who freezes under fire. Cooney’s position is the result of a kind-
ness paid by battalion commander Lt. Col. Clyde Bartlett (Lee Marvin), a longtime
friend of the Cooney family. Cooney’s ineptitude is causing morale prob lems and
aggravating Platoon Leader Lt. Joe Costa ( Jack Palance), a brave and resourceful
combat soldier respected by his men. Cooney’s capable executive officer, Lt. Har-
old Woodruff (William Smithers), strug gles to keep the peace between Cooney and
Costa while he tries to get Cooney reassigned to a rear echelon desk job. When
the Germans initiate the Battle of the Bulge, Cooney is ordered to take the town of