Men On Secret Mission

Cockleshell Heroes (1955-56) Turns Tide Of The War

Warwick was a British firm headed by Irving Allen and pre-James Bond Albert R. Broccoli. They did big-scale actioners meant to compete with a best the Yanks could deliver. War themes were a staple, big names lured from our shores to headline. So far there'd been Alan Ladd in several, Victor Mature for Safari and Zarak, plus oddball of a sci-fi, The Gamma People, with Paul Douglas. The big Cockleshell name was director and star Jose Ferrer, riding a career crest and regarded a triple, if not more, threat, for whatever project he took on, the Jack Buchanan character in MGM's The Bandwagon said to have spoofed him. The story was fact-based, impossible mission stuff, grim outcome from which Warwick doesn't shrink. There weren't a lot of war pix where objective was achieved at cost of nearly all personnel, as here, but it's that integrity that elevates Cockleshell Heroes. Did Robert Aldrich observe and take note for his later The Dirty Dozen? The latter seems a remake in many ways: comic-flavored training and war games in a first half, dead serious penetration of enemy territory for the second. Trevor Howard acquits well as Ferrer's opposite number; they clash and eventually join in detailing the raid. Eager Brit thesps don uniform, some to join Hammer ranks in years to come: John Van Eyssen (Horror of Dracula) is among volunteers, and Christopher Lee commands a submarine rendezvous. The Cockleshell Heroes is best seen wide, as on Sony's HD channel, and there is a Region Two disc.