FILM REVIEW OF ''ADVANCE TO THE REAR" (1964)

"Destry Rides Again" director George Marshall's lightweight, hilarious, comedy "Advance to the Rear" (*** OUT OF ****) takes place during the American Civil War, but it exploits the conflict more for humor than history. The critical issues of slavery and state's rights are never dealt with in the Samuel A. Peeples and William Bowers' tongue-in-cheek screenplay based on William Chamberlain's novel "Company of Cowards." Furthermore, nobody talks about why they joined up to fight the Civil War. Like most Civil War movies that occur on the frontier, Union and Confederates are fighting each other over a shipment of gold from western mines that both sides desperately want to replenish their coffers. Basically, the story follows the misadventures of a bumbling West Point Academy graduate and his company of misfits that ironically wind up saving the day. Think of "Advance to the Rear" as a predecessor for "F-Troop," and you can put it into greater perspective for film and television in the 1960s.  Peeples and Bowers do a commendable job of foreshadowing action and furnishing the leading men with interesting dialogue. Too many critics have dismissed this hilarity as hokum.  One conversation between Melvyn Douglas's stuffed shirt superior and Glenn Ford's common sense subordinate officer establishes the absurdity of war. Composer Randy Spark's provides a first-rate soundtrack bristling with jaunty music that reinforces the film's farcical qualities. The New Christy Minstrels do a splendid job of warbling the title tune "Company of Cowards," and you want to get up and dance a jig to it.  The cast is stocked with big names, not only Glenn Ford and Melvyn Douglas but also familiar faces galore such as Alan Hale, Jr, Jim Backus, Whit Bissell, Michael Pate, and James Griffith. The production values for this MGM release are reasonably polished, despite the decision to make Oscar winning Technicolor lenser Milton  Krasner shoot this widescreen laffer in black & white. Krasner's elegant pictorial compositions are a treat for the eye.

Glenn Ford maintains a straight face throughout this nonsense as Captain Jared Heath who is later demoted to lieutenant owing to an unfortunate circumstance over which he had no control but for which is culpable. Life is serene in the spring of 1862 for career officer
Colonel Claude Brackenby (Melvyn Douglas of "Ninotchka") who has his troops fire a barrage from his thirty cannon at the Confederates. The Southerners retaliate with thirty rounds from their artillery. This stalemate of sorts concludes abruptly when the overzealous Heath, Sergeant Beauregard Davis, and a couple of other men abduct three Confederate
soldiers and bring them back to their camp for interrogation. Colonel Brackenby is livid with indignation. "Who told you to go out after any prisoners," Brackenby demands. "Take them back." Brackenby constantly reminds Heath that he graduated from West Point. "And how
many times have I warned you about showing any initiative?" Heath is surprised at Brackenby's rebuke. "We've got a nice, quiet, well-regulated sector here," Brackenby explains. "Every morning at six o'clock, the Rebs fire thirty rounds of ammunition at us. Then at six thirty, we fire thirty rounds at them. Their generals are happy and it keeps our generals happy, and nobody much gets hurt. But now you have to go out and capture prisoners and upset the whole status quo. They're not going to like that. It's going to make them mad. Real mad." A confused Heath replies, "If you'll forgive me, Colonel, I thought the
purpose of this war was to have both sides mad at each other." The Confederates launch an attack on Brackenby's men. Heath has to contend with some pretty hopeless soldiers like Private Owen Selous (Andrew Prime of "The Devil's Brigade") who suffers from a perpetual case of hiccups, and Corporal Silas Geary (Jessie Pearson of "Bye, Bye, Birdie") who explains that something about him drives horses crazy. Heath orders Geary back to the rear to serve as Brackenby's courier. Later, after Geary receives orders from Brackenby, the corporal rides off, and Brackenby's horse carries the colonel off as it follows Geary. Everybody is dumbfounded by Brackenby's questionable tactics, and they believe that they must retreat and follow the example of their commanding officer.  The gimmick with the horses that cannot resist Geary is simple but effective in precipitating comedy.  Peeples, who penned an episode of virtually every western television show in the 1950s and 1960s, and Bowers--best known for Burt Kennedy's "Support Your Local Sheriff," trot out this amusing gimmick later on again toward the end.

Predictably, the Union High Command isn't happy with this turn of events. Brackenby finds himself and his regiment the subject of a court-martial. "I damn well intend to get to the bottom of his miserable fiasco and determine what or who is responsible for an entire
regiment turning tail and running before the first shot had even been fired," vows General Willoughby (Jim Backus of "Rebel Without a Cause") as he convenes a board of inquiry. "That damned horse ran away with me," Brackenby defends himself. Not even Corporal Geary can convince the fatuous Willoughby that his peculiar relationship with horses triggered the retreat. "Now, my first warm and generous impulse was to have the whole bunch of them taken out and shot at dawn," Willoughby proclaims to his staff, "but President Lincoln has a phobia about mass executions." One of Willoughby's officers suggests they send Brackenby's men somewhere where the newspapers cannot contact them. Ultimately, they send them so far west that they hope they will never be heard from again. Another officer describes this as "a dirty trick on the Indians." Willoughby recites General Sherman's quote about "War is Hell." Brackenby takes command of Company Q and heads west by river boat to relieve a detachment of the 11th Cavalry. Company Q contains the worst misfits in the Union Army. These include a kleptomaniac, an arsonist, and a compulsive fist fighter. The same time that they are embarking on their journey, they are joined by prostitutes who are being run out of town by a crowd of wives. One of the women is a Confederate spy, Martha Lou Williams (Stella Stevens of "The Poseidon Adventure"), dispatched to keep track of Brackenby's men because the Confederate High Command suspect that this handpicked force of specialists has something to do with guarding a long awaited shipment of gold. They also send in their own renegade officer, Hugo Zattig (James Griffith of "The First Texan") to steal the gold, but they aren't entirely certain of his loyalty.  As one officer points out, Zattig "combines the worse features of Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson."  The use of barrel spars to ski into the Confederate camp is imaginative. Griffith makes a sinister villain. This Civil War western is rather funny, and Marshall makes sure that nobody behaves as if they were in a comedy.

FILM REVIEW OF ''DRUMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH" (1951)

Although the South lost the war, the Confederates win the battle in “Drums in the Deep South!”  Oscar-winning art designer William Cameron Menzies helmed this Civil War yarn based on a screenplay by “Whistle Stop” scribe Philip Yordan and Sidney Harmon from a story by Hollister Noble.  Later, Yordan collaborated with “Talk of the Town” writer Harmon on "Battle of the Bulge," but Harmon was now a producer.  One of the best B-movie directors in the business, B. Reeves Eason of “The Phantom Empire” handled the second-unit action.  Menzies treats us to a glimpse or two of slaves in the fields and those who worked in the houses.  As many commentators have written, movies about the Civil War are few in number and the good ones even fewer.  Guy Wilkerson has a bit part as a Confederate sentry, while Denver Pyle is cast as an obnoxious Union guard.

The explosive action unfolds in Georgia in 1861.  The first scene occurs at an antebellum mansion.  Colonel Braxton Summers (Craig Stevens of “Peter Gunn”) has returned from Atlanta.  According to Summers, the South has been planting too much cotton.  Uncle Albert cannot believe Braxton’s news.  “Cotton is king.  The whole south is built on it.  And the world is knocking down our doors for more.”  Braxton tells his beautiful wife, Kathy (Barbara Payton), Atlanta is a powder keg.  Furthermore, the militia has been called up.  He adds all West Pointers are being called back for duty.  Like Uncle Albert, Kathy believes the storm over succession will abate. Brax lacks her confidence.  Meantime, he shows Kathy a black scarf he purchased for her.  She isn’t overjoyed when he tells her about encountering two of his former roommates from West Point.  The soap opera component of “Drums” rears its amorous head.  Kathy refuses to see Clay Clayburn (James Craig of “Flying G-Men”) who has never stopped loving her.  She assures Brax anything she felt for Clay has passed.  Brax tells Kathy that Clay has changed.  As it turns out, Clay and Will Deming (Guy Madison of "Seven Winchesters for a Massacre"), lie about their thriving shipping business.  They ship cotton from New Orleans to Liverpool and then take wool to Boston.  At dinner, Brax reveals he is experimenting with a new cotton seed for export.  After Brax and Will excuse themselves to discuss his experiment, Clay confronts Kathy.  He admits he is not a ship captain but a common seaman.  Moreover, he has neither repaid his father’s debts nor bought back the family plantation.  Outside the mansion roars a storm that possesses all the fury of Armageddon.  Later, Albert forsakes his chair and proclaims amid thunder and lightning that the South has bombarded Fort Sumter.  

Menzies stages a timeline as the years march past to an artillery barrage.  By 1864, the Union Army has compelled the Confederacy to retreat.  General Sherman's Army is threatening Atlanta.  General Joseph Johnston (Lewis Martin of “Operation Pacific”) selects Major Clayburn for the mission.  Johnston orders Clayburn to sneak twenty men with four cannon through occupied lines and position them atop Devil's Mountain to blunt the Federal advance.  Johnston’s closest officers have doubts about Clayburn’s qualifications.  “Clayburn is reckless beyond all risk.  He exposes himself to enemy fire on all occasions.  How he has come through this war and still be alive . . ., one officer cannot understand Clayburn’s incredible luck.  Another officer observes, “The man seems to be seeking death.”  “A good soldier,” Johnston points out, “dies only once.  And death is someone he knows.” 

When Clayburn enters the headquarters tent, Johnston informs him he has “a difficult job for him.”  Johnston explains, “Sherman’s whole army poured out of Chattanooga three weeks ago.  They are moving straight along this single railroad and heading for Atlanta.  If he takes Atlanta, we’re doomed.  Our only chance is to draw him deep in Georgia, cut off his supply lines, and destroy his army bit by bit.  The bulk of his supplies are pouring through this same railroad and as fast as we destroy it, his men rebuild it.  What we’ve got to do is find a weak link in this railroad so we can keep destroying it faster than Sherman’s men can repair it.”

Clayburn is familiar with the terrain since he grew up there.  Johnston indicates Devil’s Mountain dominates the railway where it swings through Snake Gap.  The General believes this constitutes “the weak link in Sherman’s supply line.”  Johnston wants Clayburn to blast the railroad until the Confederate Army can regroup and counter-attack.  “General, Devil’s Mountain is a sheer cliff,” Clayburn warns. “I might be able to get twenty men up there, but four cannon that’s another question.”  Johnston relieves him when he tells him about a scout who can guide them from inside the cave to the top.  “General, if I can get the cannon on top of Devil’s Mountain, I could fight there until doomsday,” Clayburn vows with a gleam in his eyes.  “You may have to, Major,” they warn him.  No sooner have they embarked on their mission than things turn sour.  When our protagonists rendezvous with their guide, they find him swinging from a noose.  

Menzies never shows the Confederates whistling Dixie as they trundle their cannons across rugged terrain through enemy country to Devils’ Mountain.  Once they get inside the mountain, it’s quite a chore getting the artillery up to the top.  Menzies does a competent job of driving the action along without sacrificing g momentum.  It takes him approximately 26 minutes to get the Southerners to their objective.  Devils Mountain resembles the “Close Encounters of a Third Kind” mountain.  This is a rare Civil War epic with an interesting premise that anticipates the blockbuster 1961 World War II mission movie "The Guns of Navarone."  The music is excellent! Composer Dimitri Tiomkin provides an atmospheric orchestral soundtrack.  “Drums in the Deep South” is an entertaining epic.