The Court-Martial Of Billy Mitchell (1956) Keeps Coop Indoors
This title stuck with me from early on because
we had a kid next door named Billy Mitchell. Whatever gets it done ... only
trouble was no stationran Court-Martial as I grew up, consequence perhaps of
loopy ownership of United
States Pictures output, an independent released through WB, with ownership of negs later reverting to Milton Sperling, who was, among other things, a Warner son-in-law. Now Olive has most of them out and Milton's is a household name again, at least among
cineastes. The elements are a bit rugged, along with early Cinemascope mumps, but that's charm of 50's relics. Who's going
to spring, after all, to clean this up? Court-Martial has little for
reputation, a stepchild to director Otto Preminger's oeuvre and down the list
of Gary Cooper vehicles that interest us. The show looks economical, but
wasn't, the negative cost ($2.3 million) equaling dollars spent on Warners'
previousMister Roberts and East Of Eden. There was less suspense because
viewers knew (or found out) that Billy Mitchell was found guilty and suspended
from service. Juicing up a long last third is Rod
Steiger as a vicious prosecutor, forerunner to acid George C. Scott gave Preminger's Anatomy Of A Murder. Big gotcha
is Mitchell's real-life 20's prediction that the Japanese would one day attack
Pearl Harbor, and must have gotten ooh-ahhs from 1956 patronage and sent them
home with plenty to talk about and pass along to friends. Maybe this spiked
boxoffice, as Court-Martial did turn respectable profit.
Remember this as part of the STARTIME package of films syndicated to TV stations in the early seventies. Tiny collection of something like 17 films, almost all of them the United States Pictures properties, handled at that time, I think, by American International. Big stars (Cooper, Cagney, Bogart, Stanwyck, etc.), big directors (Lang, Preminger, etc.) even if the actual films weren't exactly their most famous.
This played in Wichita a lot, and I probably sat through it at least 3 times. Poky, in many ways, but the whole "He saw it coming and they punished HIM!" business was very powerful to the 10-year-old sense of injustice.
It sure is. I was at this moment exchanging e-mails with someone about that very thing, saying it was one of the few images I've seen of Ford on that location, let alone in color.
Here in Australia the Billy Mitchell Court Marshall attracted little attention and I saw the film on first release under the title of "One Man Mutiny". This lack of knowledge of the result of the case added a degree of tension and interest to the conclusion of this film.
When we engage a story in which the outcome is known this is called a passion narrative. I once was accosted by a young man extremely upset by my posting flyers on the street for Carl Th. Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1927). "Passion? I don't like that word 'passion'" he shouted.
Damned if I could tell him the deepest meaning of the word and the real meaning as it applied to Dreyer's film. THE COURT MARTIAL OF BILLY BISHOP is a passion narrative. It is about a man martyred (the word means "witness") who was right on the deepest possible levels by an authority bent on his destruction from the outset.
Pearl Harbor was the price paid for ignoring him. The destruction of the Temple and the utter annihilation by Rome of Israel was the price paid for crucifying Jesus who taught love those who persecute you to a nation that preferred to hear, "Kill those who persecute you."
We are swiftly coming to a similar moment in history when everything will be shattered.
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WBTV-Charlotte did run this, at least once, as an entry in their Monday night BEST OF HOLLYWOOD movie, the only time I attempted to watch it.
I got, maybe, half through before turning to maybe VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA or THE MONKEES.
Remember this as part of the STARTIME package of films syndicated to TV stations in the early seventies. Tiny collection of something like 17 films, almost all of them the United States Pictures properties, handled at that time, I think, by American International. Big stars (Cooper, Cagney, Bogart, Stanwyck, etc.), big directors (Lang, Preminger, etc.) even if the actual films weren't exactly their most famous.
This played in Wichita a lot, and I probably sat through it at least 3 times. Poky, in many ways, but the whole "He saw it coming and they punished HIM!" business was very powerful to the 10-year-old sense of injustice.
Hmmm. Is that John Ford photo from the set of John Wayne's ALAMO?
It sure is. I was at this moment exchanging e-mails with someone about that very thing, saying it was one of the few images I've seen of Ford on that location, let alone in color.
Here in Australia the Billy Mitchell Court Marshall attracted little attention and I saw the film on first release under the title of "One Man Mutiny". This lack of knowledge of the result of the case added a degree of tension and interest to the conclusion of this film.
When we engage a story in which the outcome is known this is called a passion narrative. I once was accosted by a young man extremely upset by my posting flyers on the street for Carl Th. Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1927). "Passion? I don't like that word 'passion'" he shouted.
Damned if I could tell him the deepest meaning of the word and the real meaning as it applied to Dreyer's film. THE COURT MARTIAL OF BILLY BISHOP is a passion narrative. It is about a man martyred (the word means "witness") who was right on the deepest possible levels by an authority bent on his destruction from the outset.
Pearl Harbor was the price paid for ignoring him. The destruction of the Temple and the utter annihilation by Rome of Israel was the price paid for crucifying Jesus who taught love those who persecute you to a nation that preferred to hear, "Kill those who persecute you."
We are swiftly coming to a similar moment in history when everything will be shattered.
Once again, we are foiled by Google's word completion (Canadian version), eh Reg? :)
Those word completions are fun.
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