dglink A trio of fine character actors head the cast of Robert Aldrich's low-budget war film, "Attack," which is set in Europe during World War II. Based on a play by Norman Brooks, the taut, tightly directed film depicts a struggle between heroism and cowardice, professionalism and incompetence, hard-earned rank through merit and unearned rank attained through personal connections. Among the American infantry assigned to establish observation posts are Jack Palance, whose Lt. Joe Costa is a tough, but compassionate soldier, whose bravery and leadership are unquestioned. Costa's superior officer, Capt. Erskine Cooney, played by Eddie Albert, was handed his rank because of his father's military connections; the cowardly Cooney is over his head both as a military strategist and as a commander of men. The third member of the lead trio is tough, wise Lee Marvin, who plays Lt. Colonel Clyde Bartlett, Cooney's superior.Filmed in black and white by Joseph Biroc largely on sound stages and the studio back lot, the exterior battle scenes have a gritty feel, although the shadowy interiors often resemble a 1950's television drama. However, despite a B-movie budget, the performances throughout are excellent, including such other stalwarts as Richard Jaeckel and Buddy Ebsen, although Palance and Marvin are the standouts. Events lead to a moral dilemma, whose resolution will be fodder for much post-viewing discussion; whether or not the ending was dictated by the period in which the film was made is also debatable, because contemporary audiences may be more open to an alternate decision than those of the Eisenhower era. "Attack" is an excellent, if lesser known Aldrich film that deserves a wider audience, if only for the performances of Palance and Marvin.

Prismark10 Robert Aldrich brings this grim story set in the latter stages of World War 2 and conflict in a battalion where Captain Cooney sends men on a mission but is too cowardly to bail them out with firepower as he does not want to die.The film stars Jack Palance as the tougher subordinate Costa who has seen through Eddie Albert's cowardly and drunk Captain Cooney who has used his family connections with Lee Marvin's Lt Colonel Bartlett to get himself a nice number but finds himself out of his depth and quickly losing the respect of his men.From the opening scenes, filmed in a studio back-lot of RKO you can sense this is a low budget film. What we have is a film with some of cinema's hard men Marvin and Palance (both to be future Oscar winners) slightly playing against type. Palance is a good guy here, the platoon leader cynical about his masters. You can see ingrained in his face that he is battle worn, battle weary and sick of his superiors treating his men like some disposal commodity.Marvin plays an effective cameo. He knows Cooney is inept, he has known him for years and he a lot to be thankful to Cooney's father. When Marvin goes back home after the war he needs his father's patronage. Maybe he really did feel in the heat of battle either Cooney will man up, get killed by the enemy or even by one of his own men.William Smithers plays Lt Woodruff torn between his loyalty to Costa and dislike of Cooney but bound not to rock the boat but raises his concerns with Bartlett, but Bartlett dismisses his concerns as he has his own agenda.As the film is an adaptation of a stage play, it does have too many stereotypes and rather one dimensional ones. Robert Strauss is there for broad comic relief for example.Only Smithers comes across as conflicted where his plea to save Costa and his men when they go on a mission are rebuffed by Cooney and feels he has nowhere else to turn.The climax of the film comes across as weak and preachy. The conflict with the German tanks does not look well staged and the incident with Costa falls victim to censorship laws where the violence had to be toned down.I felt that the ending need to be punchier and more to the point which the showdown between Smithers and Marvin failed to bring.Its still a film with some powerhouse performances and a good contrast to the more gung ho war films of the time.

LeonLouisRicci Considered by most to be one of Director Aldrich's best Films. It is certainly one of the best WWII Movies, joining Sam Fuller, Stanley Kubrick, and Oliver Stone in non-patronizing the glory of War. There are plenty of those that do such Patriot pushing so the other side is a welcome and needed relief.In this one it is Politics and incompetent Leaders who represent the Bad Guys here and at this late date is there any argument against that? Not that it is True across the board, but that it does exist and many People pay with their lives because of this ineptitude.With a cast of real War Vets and other good performers, the cold hard script is played out in a claustrophobic, relentlessly cynical atmosphere where it can be a tough watch as are most uncomfortable Truths. It is an uncompromising Story of bravery, cowardice, and incompetence. A yin to John Wayne's yang that cannot be ignored and is one of the great ones from the ultra-conservative Fifties.

floyd beck A 1956 movie, filmed in good quality black and white. A few slow dialog parts but overall lots of fighting and excellent script. The ending is most interesting more than once. I must say that at my age of 60, I recognized most of the actors in this movie. It is hard not to disassociate the would-be characters of Green Acres, Beverly Hill Billies and several more who play in this war movie. But after about 15 to 20 minutes, the fine acting takes over and one is caught up in the excellent script.The fights are well done and very true to what happened in WW2.The quality of the movie I saw on digital TV in 2011 was excellent.