Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Thursday Night/Early Friday Morning, TCM Broadcasts War Pictures Featuring Real World War II Heroes: A Rare Viewing of To Hell and Back (1955) at 8 p.m. ET, Starring America’s Greatest WWII Hero, Audie Murphy, Playing Himself; and PT 109 (1963) at 2:30 a.m. ET, Starring Cliff Robertson as Lt. John F. Kennedy
[Of related interest: "Audie Murphy wasn't the Only Hero in His Family."]
By David in TN
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 at 12:10:00 A.M. EDT
Corrected at 5:07 a.m., on Thursday, June 27, 2019
This month, TCM has been running WW II movies on the Allies. On Thursday night, June 27, at 8 p.m. ET, it features To Hell and Back (1955). Audie Murphy plays himself as WW II’s most decorated American soldier. This film is not shown on TV that often.
Audie Murphy himself is supposed to have said, “We missed by a mile,” as the action is sanitized. Audie came to like the film when it became Universal's biggest moneymaker until Jaws 20 years later.
Murphy probably should have had two (the other for the slaughter of the machine gunners after they kill his best friend) Medal of Honor awards. The action in the Colmar Pocket in January, 1945 took place in freezing weather. In the movie, it’s a sunny day in the park. Also, the tank destroyer was on fire, and Audie was on it firing the MG much longer than in the movie.
At 2:30 a.m. ET early Friday morning TCM shows PT 109 (1963), This is John F. Kennedy's WWII naval exploits, made and released while JFK was President. Cliff Robertson plays the young PT boat commander. Robertson was 39 when the film was made. Kennedy was 26 in 1943. I always thought Peter Fonda should have played the role.
JFK (and his wife) supposedly wanted Warren Beatty, but JFK settled on Robertson to play him. Beatty wanted to play JFK as a pacifist.
The supporting roles are largely Warner contract players, some TV actors. Robert Blake plays a crew member.
In a way, PT 109 shows how Americans saw themselves in 1963.
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3 comments:
David,explain your last sentence in a little more detail,if you would.I've never watched the movie--I'm not sure if I will this weekend,but interested in a further explanation.Were we more patriotic or because we were a white country at the time,we thought differently--as a country--than we do now.Many whites think in a similar vein to 1963,but many have lost their way.
--GRA
In 1963 (I turned 13 that year) Americans were proud of themselves, proud of their history. The President, whoever he was, had a built-in trust. The "America has a racist history of slavery and exterminating native peoples" was unknown to the public at large, but Communist types were gearing up.
Again, Americans were prepared to see the POTUS portrayed as a hero as a reflection of themselves. JFK did insist on the movie being accurate.
PT 109 isn't a great movie. Cliff Robertson was such a good actor he made you believe his performance but he doesn't work for me as JFK. Still it shows us as the good guys, which is how neatly all Americans saw ourselves in 1963.
You had to have been there to know how it was in 1963 compared to how it is in 2019.
TCM is showing The Red Badge of Courage (1951) on Wednesday Night, October 9 at 8 pm ET, "Prime Time." Audie Murphy stars in his best performance, directed by John Huston.
This version is only 69 minutes long, supposedly heavily cut, but it holds together and seems to have everything in it.
Bill Mauldin, the famous cartoonist, plays the Murphy's character's friend. In one scene, Huston had to rewrite Stephen Crane. The man who killed hundreds of German soldiers couldn't bring himself to say to a "rear echelon ink-slinger" that he was afraid and ran away. Huston fixed it so both said they were scared.
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