230 MEN IN WAR
D- Day, fighting both the enemy and severe combat fatigue while stuck in the
deadly hedgerows near Saint- Lô, France. The novel won high praise by critics for
its taut prose and gritty realism and was republished in paperback by Pocket Books
under the title Combat in 1951. In 1956 director Anthony Mann bought the screen
rights to Day Without End and (at least officially) hired veteran writer-producer
Philip Yordan to turn Van Praag’s novel into a film. To make the film more topical
to a Cold War audience, the filmmakers decided to transpose the setting from
World War II to the Korean War.Production
Anthony Mann and co- producer Sidney Harmon hoped to secure Department of
Defense (DOD) cooperation but that was denied when Pentagon officials vetted the
script and found that it depicted shell shock, insubordination, and unit discipline
in tatters. Without recourse to military hardware Men in War could feature noth-
ing more than a couple of jeeps, explosives detonations, and a few soldiers with
small arms and a bazooka or two— but that was the small- scale scenario already
dictated by the novel and screenplay. The film was supposedly written by Philip
Yordan but he was likely fronting for blacklisted screenwriter Ben Maddow. It was
shot (in black and white) in Malibu Canyon, Janss Conejo Ranch (Conejo Valley,
California), and Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, in July and August
of 1956 on a production bud get of $1 million.Plot Summary
On 6 September 1950, a battle- fatigued platoon of the 24th Infantry Division finds
itself cut off from its battalion and picked off, one by one, by stealthy North Korean
soldiers. Led by Lt. Benson (Robert Ryan), the platoon is on its way to re unite with
American forces on a distant hill when it encounters a jeep driven by 1st Cavalry
Division Staff Sergeant Joseph R. “Montana” Willomet (Aldo Ray), accompanied
by a shell- shocked col o nel (Robert Keith) who is mute, catatonic, and strapped to
his seat. After the First Battle of the Naktong Bulge (5–19 August 1950), Montana
has deci ded he and his col o nel are through with the war. Benson commandeers
their jeep for his platoon’s rations and ammo and for Cpl. James Zwickley (Vic Mor-
row), another shell- shocked combatant. As the platoon proceeds towards its ren-
dezvous point, Montana goes against Benson’s order and kills a North Korean sniper
on the verge of surrender. It is discovered that the sniper was hiding a weapon in
his hat. Bringing up the rear, Staff Sgt. Killian ( James Edwards) is killed by a North
Korean infiltrator after decorating his helmet net with daisies. Montana takes his
place by the side of the road and feigns sleep, luring two lurking North Koreans
into the open, where he kills them. Thereafter, Montana transforms the platoon
into a functioning military unit that successfully negotiates a sniper attack, artil-
lery barrage, and a field full of landmines— though Platoon Sergeant Nate Lewis
(Nehemiah Persoff) panics and gets himself killed. Once at the hill, they find it
occupied by the enemy. Montana shoots a group of enemy combatants posing as
Americans after a North Korean prisoner (Victor Sen Yung) is used to flush them
out and is killed by his own men. Benson leads his men in an attack but Montana