BATTLEGROUND 23
Battleground (1949)
Synopsis
Scripted by WWII combat veteran Robert Pirosh; directed by William Well-
man; and starring Van Johnson, John Hodiak, James Whitmore, Ricardo Montal-
bán, and George Murphy, Battleground is an American war film about a com pany
of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, surrounded by
German forces and holding out at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in
World War II.
Background
Robert Pirosh (1910–1989), Hollywood writer and producer and, later, creator of
the popu lar 1960s Combat! TV series, was uniquely qualified to make Battleground,
a film about the Siege of Bastogne (20–27 December 1944) during the Battle of the
Bulge. Pirosh served in World War II as a master sergeant with the 35th Infantry
Division, saw action in the Ardennes and Rhineland campaigns, and was awarded
a Bronze Star. During the Battle of the Bulge Pirosh led a patrol into Bastogne to
help relieve surrounded American forces there. After the war he used material from
his war time journal to develop a screenplay that presented Bastogne from the infan-
tryman’s point of view, but he had to wait a few years before the war (film)- weary
public was ready for a postwar combat film. Battleground became an RKO property
in 1947 but was shelved by studio owner Howard Hughes, a decision that caused
production head Dore Schary to resign. When Schary went to MGM, he purchased
the rights to the script from RKO, over the objections of Louis B. Mayer, who
believed that the public was tired of war films. MGM signed Robert Taylor, Keenan
Wynn, and John Hodiak, and the proj ect was bud geted at $2 million. Twenty veter-
ans of the 101st were hired to train the actors and to appear in the film as extras. Lt.
Col. Harry Kinnard, deputy divisional commander of the 101st at Bastogne, was
hired on as the film’s technical advisor. Director William Wellman put the cast
through two weeks of military training, but Robert Taylor, a former navy officer,
dropped out, and Van Johnson replaced him.
Production
Battleground was shot in 44 days between 5 April and 3 June 1949 at several sets:
a replica of Bastogne, refashioned from an Italian village set built on a United Art-
ists (UA) studio backlot for The Story of G.I. Joe (1944); a faux pine forest in the
Ardennes, built on a UA sound stage using 528 real trees; and on location in north-
ern California, Oregon, and at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington, which was
used for the tank sequence showing the relief of the 101st Airborne by Patton’s
Third Army. Shooting went faster than anticipated, taking 20 fewer days than
planned. This time savings was in part due to Schary’s creative filming methods—
he often pro cessed film right after it was shot, then had scenes cut together so that
they were available for preview two days after being shot. The film came in almost
$100,000 under bud get.