Every Memorial Day weekend and Veterans Day, viewers can count on Turner Classic Movies to run war movies around the clock. Many of the films are well known and to be expected, but sometimes they slip in one or two titles that have been largely forgotten. This weekend, it seems they did the latter. I saw several titles on the schedule that I was unfamiliar with, and I noticed a couple of twists on the old formula. First, there were several movies about the Korean War. Remember, the Korean War is often called "the forgotten war" by its veterans and historians, and I have only seen a couple of Korean War movies. The other thing I notice is that several movies TCM was showing dealt with the psychological effects of the war on the men involved and with questions of morality in wartime; less military action and more character oriented.
My favorite Korean War era movie is the original The Manchurian Candidate (1962) starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Janet Leigh. I don't think it was on TCM's playlist this year, but I can't talk about Korean War movies without mentioning it. Harvey plays a soldier who was "brainwashed" by his Chinese and North Korean captors during the war so that he would become a "sleeper" agent back in America, ready to do their bidding when activated. His stepfather is a scheming, manipulating, power-hungry politician intent on gaining the presidency, and he is obviously based on Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the demagogue who gained power during the 1950s Red Scare. Harvey's mother is even more scheming, manipulating, and power-hungry, and she is played to perfection by Angela Lansbury (playing much older than she actually was as she did in much of her earlier work). I think Manchurian is one of the most perfect political thrillers ever made. Of course, it was re-made as a vehicle for Denzel Washington, but if you haven't seen the original, check it out.
One of my new discoveries on TCM this weekend was The Rack (1956). It stars Paul Newman and was written by Rod Serling, the creator of one of my favorite shows of all time, The Twilight Zone, so I had to watch. It just so happens that it also is about psychological torture inflected in a North Korean prison camp. Newman plays a young officer who spent two years in a POW camp, and when he returns home, he is accused of collaborating with his captors to the detriment of his fellow POWs. He is court-martialed for collaboration and treason and must defend himself. There's also a strong family tension element because his brother died in the war, and their father is a strict, by-the-books colonel. This movie has family melodrama and courtroom drama going on at the same time. The whole movie can be found on Youtube..
In1963, Kirk Douglas starred in The Hook, set in the last few days of the Korean War. He plays one of three American soldiers who inadvertently capture an enemy pilot. They are ordered to kill the POW. Douglas and the other two man have to grapple with their own consciences and each other about what to do. One thing that will stand out if you watch this movie is, since it is a Hollywood movie of 1963, the POW who is supposed to be Korean or Chinese, is played by a Filipino actor. They did at least get a Korean-American actor to play the South Korean officer in a small role.
Although it's set just after World War II and not in the Korean War, The Clay Pigeon (1949) was a new-to-me movie starring Bill Williams and Barbara Hale, and its plot is similar to the plot of The Rack. Williams plays a former POW in a Japanese POW camp. He is accused of informing on two fellow prisoners who had stolen rations from their Japanese captors. One of the two men was beaten and tortured to death as a result. Williams' character has lost his memory of the incident and spent a while in a coma. When he awakens, he learns of the charges against him and escapes in order to try and clear his name. Two little notes about this movie: 1) Williams and Hale were married in real life, the parents of William Katt, who starred as The Greatest American Hero in the tv series of that name. Of course, Hale is better known as Perry Mason's secretary, Della Street, and Katt played the detective in the 1980s Perry Mason re-boot.) 2) there is a short scene in the movie, which could easily have been edited out but wasn't, in which Williams' character acknowledges and praises the 442nd division, the most decorated military unit in American history, composed entirely of Japanese-Americans. Considering the movie was made just four years after the end of America's internment of Japanese-Americans, I think it was a pretty significant scene for the filmmakers to include. You can find the entire movie on Youtube.
The Steel Helmet was the first American movie about the Korean War, released in 1951, the first year of the war. In Helmet, a ragtag group of survivors find themselves thrown together as they try to make it to safety. There are a couple of anti-racist moments in the movie, one involving derogatory labels and another scene in which a captured North Korean tries to subvert the black GI by discussing racism in the US. It received great reviews upon its release, and still holds up. The whole movie is available on Youtube.
