The Red Beret (1953)

[JamesM]

Two Terence Young directed, Cubby Broccoli-Irving Allen produced, Richard Maibaum scripted WWII adventure films featuring Leo Genn are being released by DDHE on 05/11/07.

[Steve Crook]

name='JamesM']Two Terence Young directed, Cubby Broccoli-Irving Allen produced, Richard Maibaum scripted WWII adventure films featuring Leo Genn are being released by DDHE on 05/11/07.

Is that 11 May or 5 November?



The Red Beret (1953) is the thinly disguised true story of some of the early raids carried out by the Parachute Regiment in WWII. Alan Ladd is the focus, playing a Canadian because the US hadn't joined the war by then, and Ladd is the main box office attraction.



The first part of the story based on the wartime raid on the German radar station at Bruneval. The raid was a combined services operation and the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Parachute Brigade was led by Major 'John Frost' (Major Snow in the film, played by Leo Genn). An RAF radar expert, Flight Sergeant C.W.H. Cox (Sergeant Box in the film, I said it was thinly disguised) accompanied the raiders to tell them what to take back to England.



The second part sees the Paras on a raid behind enemy lines in Tunisia. As in the real thing, the raid itself was a success but then they had difficulty getting back to their own lines. In the film they have Major Snow getting wounded by a mortar round. In reality John Frost got back from this one OK, and from the landing on Sicily. It was at Arnhem that he was finally wounded by a mortar round after he'd led the small force that actually got to the "Bridge too far".



The plan had envisioned the whole division of 9,000 men holding the bridge for two days until XXX Corps got there. John Frost and 700 other men held the bridge for 3-4 days!



Steve

[Windthrop]

Some of those Alan Ladd britflicks from the '50s are entertainingly bad - infact that goes for alot of the movies made in this country with Amaricans in the leads (though mostly they were stars on the slide like Ladd and Victor Mature). Favorite one of the Ladd crop is 'The Black Knight' where two centuries of English history are shoehorned into one time period and Stonehenge Cathedral is created !



Ladd is too old and fat to play the young village smithy !

[orpheum]

The Red Berets was made just after Shane,and from then on it was all downhill for our pintsize hero and his elevator shoes

[batman]

At least 'Red Beret' has Stanley Baker in it.



Bats.

[orpheum]

But not his voice.he was dubbed

[Lord Brett]

name='orpheum']But not his voice.he was dubbed

Apparently it depends on if you are watching a print made for export or not. It'll be intersting to see what's on the DDHE version. I believe there's an old thread on this subject.



Not that bad a film, though I prefer Hell Below Zero, and it's the opriginal source of the scene in From Russia with Love where Bond uses a flare gun to blow up oil cans floating on the water. In the version here it's mines blown up using a bazooka, which doesn't seem as likely.

[batman]

name='Lord Brett']Apparently it depends on if you are watching a print made for export or not. It'll be intersting to see what's on the DDHE version. I believe there's an old thread on this subject.



Not that bad a film, though I prefer Hell Below Zero, and it's the opriginal source of the scene in From Russia with Love where Bond uses a flare gun to blow up oil cans floating on the water. In the version here it's mines blown up using a bazooka, which doesn't seem as likely.

In the VHS version I saw of Red Beret Stanley was dubbed .... I think Max was dubbed in Madness of the Heart as well. Must be something about my favourite actors and the French accent!



Hell Below Zero is a great film and shows just what a huge business whaling was at that time, even for British whalers. It's a pity Stanley didn't get more screen time as he is far more interesting to watch than Mr Ladd.



Last time they showed this on TV I taped it, only for Mrs Bat to tape over the last 45 minutes .... I was not a happy Bat!



Bats .

[orpheum]

bet you had a whale of a time

[Windthrop]

The movie from that stable Ive always wanted to see is 'Interpol' cos its supposed to predate the Bond flicks and, according to old 'alliwell, Trevor Howard's performance is 'electrifying'

[JohnB_Toronto]

To be released by Sony as a Movie Mail exclusive on September 7th.

[Steve Crook]

Thanks John,

I have particular reasons for liking this one, as explained in the Films on TV thread about it



Steve

[JohnB_Toronto]

name='Steve Crook']Thanks John,

I have particular reasons for liking this one, as explained in the Films on TV thread about it



Steve

I just went back and read your thread - I had no idea there was any basis in truth in this film. I well remember seeing it when it was first released (or within a couple of years of its release as films in those days took forever to do the rounds of all the cinemas in Britain). This one will be on my list as I especially enjoy Warwick Films. TCM Canada and US have been showing quite a few recently but every one of them is pan n scan. Wouldn't you know it - this is one of the few Warwick films to get a DVD release and its original screen ratio was 1.37:1.



4:3 here we go again.

[darrenburnfan]

I hope the DVD release isn't of the version that Channel 4 has run a few times, where for some unexplained reason, Stanley Baker's voice is dubbed by someone with a very upper class English accent (probably John Van Eyesen). It looks very strange.



The Red Beret was released in the UK around September, 1953, but I was taken to see it many months later in 1954, when I was seven years old, at the now long gone Tatton cinema in Gatley, near Stockport.



In those days, of course, it wasn't a case like today of a new film playing a week at the local multiplex and then going straight onto DVD. A film could be on general release for two years or so, so that all the cinemas that wanted it got the chance to show it.

[kelp]

Not long after the war, we had some really great British war films. As a child I was taken to Weymouth, and it rained and my Dad took me to see "Angels One-Five". The cinema is still there, or was a few years back on a back street just off the prom. Then as I got a bit older I went to see "The Red Beret" at the Clifton cinema in Great Barr in Birmingham, I loved every minute of it, and wanted to be part of the business that made film. "It's As Easy As Rolling Off A Log", excellent stuff.

[wadsy]

The Red Beret was released in the UK around September, 1953, but I was taken to see it many months later in 1954, when I was seven years old, at the now long gone Tatton cinema in Gatley, near Stockport.





I remember the Tatton. I used to go to school just up the road in Wythenshawe.



Sometimes we'd catch the Stockport bus just outside the cinema, I remember



"The Greatest story Ever told" being shown & the posters on the wall outside,



about 1966/67 I think.

[Merton Park]

Really good film, seen it umteen times since it first came out, always loved it.



Produced by Cubby Broccoli and Irving Allen via their Company Warwick Films wehich was based in Soho Square. They made some great adventure/war/crime/comedy films in the 1950's and usually had a "name" American import to sell the film and made Anthony Newley a star. Zarak, Bandit of Zhobe, Interpol, Idol on Parade, No Time to Die and Cockleshell Heroes to name a few that spring immediately to mind.



In around 1960 Irving Allen returned to the US where he went on to make the Matt Helm films whilst Brocolli joined up with Harry Saltzman to produce the Bond series.

[darrenburnfan]

name='wadsy']



I remember the Tatton. I used to go to school just up the road in Wythenshawe.



Sometimes we'd catch the Stockport bus just outside the cinema, I remember



"The Greatest story Ever told" being shown & the posters on the wall outside,



about 1966/67 I think.

I don't know about 1966 / 67, but in the 1950's, the bus route from Gatley to Stockport was the number 40 and went via Cheadle; Cheadle Heath and Brinksway. The Tatton closed about ten years ago and has since been demolished.

[wadsy]

name='darrenburnfan']I don't know about 1966 / 67, but in the 1950's, the bus route from Gatley to Stockport was the number 40 and went via Cheadle; Cheadle Heath and Brinksway. The Tatton closed about ten years ago and has since been demolished.

Yes we caught the 40 & 39 I recall, they were Stockport bus company buses



white & red I think. We used to walk to Gatley to catch them if our usual bus



the 71( a North Western) didn't turn up.

[paul clifton]

Has anyoine recieved there copy of RB from Movie Mail yet??