"Blackboard Jungle" helmer Richard Brooks co-wrote and directed "Battle Circus," starring Humphrey Bogart, June Allyson, and Keenan Wynn, about a U. S. Army Mobile Medical Unit in the Korean War. For the record, this hospital-in-fatigues saga that focused on the doctors and nurses struggling to save the lives of casualties was released while the war was still being fought. The United Nations coalition waged the Korean War between June of 1950 to July of 1953, and MGM screened this opus in April of 1953. Mind you, "Battle Circus" was unique in that it depicted the trials and tribulations that doctors and nurses faced behind the lines in a M. A. S. H. unit. This trim, 90-minute melodrama confines itself largely to the tents where medical personnel labor feverishly to save lives. Reportedly, the title "Battle Circus" summed up the uncertainty of their predicament. These units staked themselves out as close to the front lines as they dared. Historically, the use of helicopters to transfer casualties from the battlefield to the M. A. S. H. units saved the lives of half of all wounded and injured soldiers. The rugged Korean terrain made it even onerous for these units, which is why helicopters were deployed. Veteran character actor William Campbell portrays one of the intrepid chopper pilots who ferried the wounded as well as medical supplies under the worst possible circumstances.
Although it doesn't qualify as a classic of its kind, "Battle Circus" has its moments. Supposedly, this MGM release spawned the long-running television series with Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers. The emphasis here, however, is on dire drama, with romantic interludes between Major Jed Webbe (Humphrey Bogart of "The Big Sleep") and Lieutenant Ruth McGara (June Allyson of "The Stratton Story") as they become attracted to each other. Like Alan Alda in "M. A. S. H.," Major Webbe is a womanizer. As the film unfolds, another starry-eyed nurse is warbling like a dove about the Major as she confides in her fellow nurses about Jed, using his first name. Sadly, for this gal, Lieutenant McGara changes all of that. Jeb drops the other nurse like a hot potato when he gets a look at McGara. Ruth is young and extremely green about combat conditions. Webbe reprimands her because she hasn't learned the ropes of survival in combat. Often he cradles her in his arms as explosions erupt and tear up the landscape.
The ordeal of operating on men under these desperate circumstances becomes traumatic in one scene. An enemy soldier is escorted into the unit. The technicians shove him into a portable X-ray machine, and this hapless Asian freaks out. Earlier, when these captured soldiers were about to be given medical treatment, one soldier slipped a hand grenade to another. The soldier with the hand grenade is so addled by his experience on the X-ray machine that he threatens to pluck the pin out of the grenade. He wanders around the unit, eventually blundering into a surgical suite in one of the tents where Jed and company are operating on a soldier. Lieutenant McGara manages to talk the enemy soldier out of certain suicide, and he relinquishes the hand grenade to her. Actually, this is the most thought-provoking scene in "Battle Circus." Too bad Brooks and his writers passed up a ripe opportunity to punch up the action. Had that grenade gone off, the damage would have been considerable.
Greater difficulties arise when the unit must break down the tents, pack up the truck, and head off for wherever headquarters dictates these sudden moves without warning. Sergeant Orvil Statt (Keenan Wynn of "Mackenna's Gold") hails from Florida. He participated in the teamwork of moving the Barnum & Bailey circus before Korea, so he can improvise in a pinch. He does so in one instance when he rigs a cargo truck so it can cruise along the railroad because a long-awaited hospital train hasn't arrived. Everybody in "Battle Circus" adopts a friendly attitude to the refugees whose lives have been disrupted by the hostilities. "Battle Circus" emerges as barely above average, but a far cry from a truly memorable war picture. None of the surgeons lose any patients on the operating tables. What Brooks does best is show the grueling circumstances and conditions under which these M. A. S. H. toiled. The romance between Bogart and Allyson, who make a less than charismatic couple, is tolerable. Jeb's wife walked out of him when he went off to war. Now, he cannot keep his hands off the nurses. Some of Brooks' dialogue is catchy, but this movie rarely does anything memorable. Hollywood in the 1950s wasn't geared to this kind of film. None of the battle casualties is truly horrific. There is little sense of camaraderie and the sarcasm of risking one's life to save others isn't examined as thoroughly as it would be in the television series. However, one scene sticks out primarily for its physical action. Major Webbe must remove all the patients from the trucks because the vehicles must negotiate a steep descent onto another road to avoid being targets for the enemy. One jeep tumbles on the way down the slope with the driver in plain sight as the vehicle rolls over in one shot and the driver emerges intact without any injuries. Was this a stunt? Or was this an example of something spontaneously happening that was not rehearsed? Battlefield footage is occasionally inserted at points to provide authenticity and atmosphere. Nevertheless, "Battle Circus" lacks the depth of substance a good war movie must have.
Although it doesn't qualify as a classic of its kind, "Battle Circus" has its moments. Supposedly, this MGM release spawned the long-running television series with Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers. The emphasis here, however, is on dire drama, with romantic interludes between Major Jed Webbe (Humphrey Bogart of "The Big Sleep") and Lieutenant Ruth McGara (June Allyson of "The Stratton Story") as they become attracted to each other. Like Alan Alda in "M. A. S. H.," Major Webbe is a womanizer. As the film unfolds, another starry-eyed nurse is warbling like a dove about the Major as she confides in her fellow nurses about Jed, using his first name. Sadly, for this gal, Lieutenant McGara changes all of that. Jeb drops the other nurse like a hot potato when he gets a look at McGara. Ruth is young and extremely green about combat conditions. Webbe reprimands her because she hasn't learned the ropes of survival in combat. Often he cradles her in his arms as explosions erupt and tear up the landscape.
The ordeal of operating on men under these desperate circumstances becomes traumatic in one scene. An enemy soldier is escorted into the unit. The technicians shove him into a portable X-ray machine, and this hapless Asian freaks out. Earlier, when these captured soldiers were about to be given medical treatment, one soldier slipped a hand grenade to another. The soldier with the hand grenade is so addled by his experience on the X-ray machine that he threatens to pluck the pin out of the grenade. He wanders around the unit, eventually blundering into a surgical suite in one of the tents where Jed and company are operating on a soldier. Lieutenant McGara manages to talk the enemy soldier out of certain suicide, and he relinquishes the hand grenade to her. Actually, this is the most thought-provoking scene in "Battle Circus." Too bad Brooks and his writers passed up a ripe opportunity to punch up the action. Had that grenade gone off, the damage would have been considerable.
Greater difficulties arise when the unit must break down the tents, pack up the truck, and head off for wherever headquarters dictates these sudden moves without warning. Sergeant Orvil Statt (Keenan Wynn of "Mackenna's Gold") hails from Florida. He participated in the teamwork of moving the Barnum & Bailey circus before Korea, so he can improvise in a pinch. He does so in one instance when he rigs a cargo truck so it can cruise along the railroad because a long-awaited hospital train hasn't arrived. Everybody in "Battle Circus" adopts a friendly attitude to the refugees whose lives have been disrupted by the hostilities. "Battle Circus" emerges as barely above average, but a far cry from a truly memorable war picture. None of the surgeons lose any patients on the operating tables. What Brooks does best is show the grueling circumstances and conditions under which these M. A. S. H. toiled. The romance between Bogart and Allyson, who make a less than charismatic couple, is tolerable. Jeb's wife walked out of him when he went off to war. Now, he cannot keep his hands off the nurses. Some of Brooks' dialogue is catchy, but this movie rarely does anything memorable. Hollywood in the 1950s wasn't geared to this kind of film. None of the battle casualties is truly horrific. There is little sense of camaraderie and the sarcasm of risking one's life to save others isn't examined as thoroughly as it would be in the television series. However, one scene sticks out primarily for its physical action. Major Webbe must remove all the patients from the trucks because the vehicles must negotiate a steep descent onto another road to avoid being targets for the enemy. One jeep tumbles on the way down the slope with the driver in plain sight as the vehicle rolls over in one shot and the driver emerges intact without any injuries. Was this a stunt? Or was this an example of something spontaneously happening that was not rehearsed? Battlefield footage is occasionally inserted at points to provide authenticity and atmosphere. Nevertheless, "Battle Circus" lacks the depth of substance a good war movie must have.