One Minute to Zero (1952) User Reviews

Cold War Film With World War II Ideals.

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 2 July 2004]

One Minute To Zero is a cold war film about Korea, very typical of its time. President Truman called it a police action, like we were going there to arrest Kim Il Sung and his cronies. It sure looked like a war from the point of view of the World War II veterans and their younger brothers who fought it.

Robert Mitchum plays one of those veterans, a career army man who rose from the ranks to become a Colonel. He's training the South Korean Army when the North attacks. His personal story is interwoven with the progress of the war from the initial attack until the landings at Inchon. Mitch is every inch the combat soldier in this film.

And Mitch falls big time for widow Ann Blyth, a United Nations worker. When the UN was founded post World War II a lot of people put hope and faith in it that it would prevent future wars and it would deter aggression with force if need be. The only reason it got into Korea was because the Russians were boycotting the Security Council at the time and couldn't veto anything. A gambit they never used again. Ann is a World War II widow who believes she's carrying out the ideals her husband fought for. Lots of folks felt that way back in 1950.

Director Tay Garnett did a good job editing in real combat footage with his actors. The film has a good sense of realism.

But it's a good romantic story as well, helped along by one of the most durable popular songs in history. When I Fall In Love came from this film, heard in the background but never sung. Curious because Ann Blyth is an excellent singer. Nat King Cole and Doris Day had hit records of it when the film was first out. Later on Etta James, The Lettermen, Donny Osmond, Natalie Cole all did well by this song. And right up to the present day Celine Dion and Clive Griffin did a duet record back in 1993. The good ones always survive and I wouldn't bet against a future hit single for some artist with this one.

There is one scene in this that would definitely jar today's audiences. At one point Mitchum directs his men to fire into a group of refugees who the North Koreans are using as a blind to smuggle men and arms into the South. And the movie makes sure you see that that was the case. I don't doubt such things happened. They're happening today. But the movie verdict acquits Mitchum and assuages Ann Blyth that she shouldn't doubt her man. What CNN would do with that today.

The supporting cast includes Charles McGraw, Wally Cassell, and William Talman. All do a good job.

It's a double treat. Lots of action for the men and plenty of romance for the women, or the other way around if that's what floats your boat.

Mitchum's good performance lifts this movie

[bellino-angelo2014 · 7/10 · 9 February 2019]

While many today remember Robert Mitchum for noir movies (like NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, OUT OF THE PAST and THE BIG STEAL) he also was great in other genres. And even though this is not his best war movie Mitchum shines in this forgotten movie. He plays a infantry colonel stationed with his men in South Korea before the Korean War. The movie has two subplots: Mitchum at war with his men or winning the affection of a UN worker (played by Ann Blyth). He is among the most believable characters I ever saw in a war movie, and that because he is NOT larger than life or hard as nails. Instead he looks like a decent man which everyone could count on. The only problem with the film is that even though it has some light moments (and Mitchum handles them well) it's very explicit as for some scenes of soldiers injured or killed that look a bit brutal. Not a war movie for the faint of hearth, but still awfully good.

A decent Korean War flick.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 27 May 2017]

Robert Mitchum plays Colonel Steve Janowski--an infantry genius who is stationed in South Korea just before the outbreak of the Korean War. His job is to help train the South Korean Army to defend their country in case of invasion...something that occurs in the first few minutes of the film. The story consists of either the Colonel and his Staff Sergeant (Charles McGraw) in combat or the Colonel chasing a pretty UN worker (Ann Blyth).

Generally, the film is well made and the action sequences good, though the overuse of stock footage is a problem common to many war pictures. The viewer might also be surprised because it's a surprisingly bloodthirsty and brutal picture--with footage of charred corpses and the like. Not a war picture for the squeamish, that's for sure...but very well made and acted.

Why did no one mention this film during the controversy about No Gun Ri?

[georgegauthier · 3 January 2008]

In 1999 there was a big to-do about a supposed atrocity during the Korean War, the strafing of civilians fleeing fighting during the initial push by the North Koreans down the Korean peninsula at No Gun Ri. It turned out that the main eyewitness for the story was a liar who was not even in in-country in 1950. The fuss would have been no surprise to viewers of this movie. Here it was artillery fire rather than air attack that caused civilian casualties, but the situation was basically the same. The film depicts the sad necessity of firing on a column of refugees, driven at gunpoint by communist soldiers hidden among them in civilian clothes, who were trying to get past U.N. lines. The blame in the movie is clearly on the commies, but there is no attempt to gloss over the ugly necessities of war. This movie was the first time I ever heard the phrase "Fire for Effect", a phrase I was to utter myself frequently years later as an artillery officer in Vietnam and Cambodia.

"Well Steve, the tide has turned; we're on the offensive!!"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 18 May 2020]

Personally overseen by Howard Hughes, and thus long in gestation (originally under the title 'The Korean Story') and full of aerial action.

South Korea is portrayed as David taking on Goliath in the form of Moscow arming the North to the teeth, thus necessitating killing civilians being used by the commies as cover. Between taking such tough decisions Col. Bob Mitchum finds time to romance UN bleeding heart Ann Blyth, to whom he sings at one point in Japanese; while an instrumental version of Victor Young's hit 'When I Fall in Love' is constantly on the soundtrack.

commendable film on korean war

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 30 May 2017]

Mitchum is the U.S. forces colonel, trying to train the Korean army in warfare, while Ann Blyth is the interpreter "Linda". Of course, they disagree on everything, but naturally they fall in love, in spite of themselves. Even back then, they make the comment that "Nato will just pass some more strongly worded resolutions." This is extra interesting, since the war was still going on when this film was released. Viewers will also spot William Talman, in an early role here, who would go on to be the DA on Perry Mason. He died young at 53. Great flick, overall. They toss in joking one-liners, although they sometimes feel out of place, since there's so much death and dying all around them. Directed by Tay Garnett. He had a great track record, making some of the great films of Hollywood. Showing on Turner Classics.

When Bad Movies Come From Good People

[JimB-4 · 2/10 · 25 November 2005]

How someone as workmanlike as director Tay Garnett could take talents the like of Robert Mitchum and Charles McGraw and crank out this piece of sausage is pretty hard to fathom. It's not that the story is so bad for its time (early 1950s), but that the execution is so poor. Mitchum manages to be good insofar as the worst dialog of his career allows him, and McGraw is loaded down with even worse talk. The chemistry between Mitchum and love interest Ann Blyth is nil, the story veers from sickeningly sweet to nauseatingly real (courtesy of some actual combat footage of various people during or just after being roasted alive, etc.), and the majority of the supporting performances are amazingly amateurish for a studio picture of its time. Mitchum plays an infantry officer in Korea at the beginning of the war there. He has a bit of a queasy stomach after slaughtering a bunch of civilian refugees because a few Communist infiltrators were hiding among them, but even his initially outraged girlfriend comes to see that "even a doctor amputating a leg has to cut off some good flesh with the bad," and pretty soon, this mini-My Lai is forgotten (without anyone apparently considering whether a wiser choice than massacre might have existed). But it's the amateurishness of the direction, the high-school-play sort of staging and dialog that make "One Minute to Zero" (a title without meaning or explanation in the film) an anomaly: how could these people, whose talent is undeniable, have made such a silly and childish little home movie. The philosophy of war, the details of combat and life in a war zone in general, even the romance, all are done with the sophistication and expertise of the average seven-year-old boy. This is the kind of movie Robert Mitchum was often accused of sleepwalking through, but in reality, were it not for him, it would be utterly unbearable.

Passable Korean war movie with Robert Mitchum as a Colonel and Ann Blyth as an idealistic young UN official

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 18 October 2018]

The picture features a Colonel , Robert Mitchum as Col. Steve Janowski , who is stationed in Seoul , he is a military adviser training the South Korean army . Things go wrong when North Korean troops invade the South. Janowski is assigned a dangerous misision along with other officers and soldiers, a motley and important support cast : Charles McGraw , William Talman , Charles McGraw, Richard Egan , Eduard Franz , in charge of evacuating civilians which means persuading United Nations official Ann Blyth that she has to go too . But then Janowski ends up bombing South Korean refugees .Love That Lived with Danger! Back of every man of action ... there's a woman made for love .

Korean war action film divides its time between an army romance : Robert Mitchum/Ann Blyth and war action . This is an allegedly true story in which various military served as technical advisors as Army Capt. Edward R. Harrison ,Lt. Col. S. Paul Latiolais , and Dr. Henry De Young , a former Korean Minister to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters, , and in fact , it used 175 Korean War veterans as extras . Howard Hughes' RKO didn't waste much time in getting neither a great film , nor a notable drama on screen , being a medium budget movie , but an acceptable flick . Stock footage was used to fill in the background and is far more striking than anything the writers could up with . Besides , the blend of battle scenes and romance never amounts too much . Pure sentimental slop , it is a stirring and sometimes moving tale , accompanying some spectacular aerial scenes and impressive bombing behind enemy lines . As for the aerial scenes were used Mustang fighter planes from Buckley Field in Denver and F-80 jets . The lukewarm melodrama features Robert Mitchum as a tough Colonel who quickly achieves the confidence of the other soldiers around him, at the same time he sings a Japanese song . Ann Blyth delivers a decent acting as the beautiful officer and widow who finds out about the horrors of war when she falls in love .

Produced at a cost of millions to bring you a million thrills by the powerful producer Edmund Grainger .Being professionally directed by Tay Garnett , though including flaws as well as gaps , and extremely sentimental . Tay was a good Hollywood craftsman . Tay entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter . After a stint as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began directing for that company . Garnett garnered some attention in the early 1930s with such films as Bad company (1931) and Way Passage (1932) , but his best work came in the mid-'30s and early 1940s with such films as S.O.S. Iceberg (1933) , China seas (1935), Slave Ship (1937) and Trade Winds (1938) . His best known film would have to the John Garfield/Lana Turner vehicle : The postman always rings twice (1946), although his version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) was a well-deserved critical and commercial success as well . Other successes were the followings : Bataan (1943) , The cross of Lorraine (1943) , Soldiers Three (151) , The Black Knight (1953) , Stand-in , Mrs Parkington , Cause for alarm , The big push , Seven sinners , Slighly honorable , Main Street to Broadway , Cheers for Miss Bishop, Eternally yours , among others . One Minute to Zero (1952)results to be a treat for Robert Mitchum and Ann Blyth fans . Rating : 5.5/10

Korean War movie

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 6 August 2021]

Colonel Steve Janowski (Robert Mitchum) is training the local South Koreans as war looms on the horizon. Mrs. Linda Day (Ann Blyth) is a part of a visiting UN health committee. She wants to continue her survey and dismisses the possibility of war. Even when it starts, she assumes that the UN could stop the fighting. Despite an order to evacuate all Americans, she remains behind until Steve literally carries her onto the last plane out.

With the first fifteen minutes, I assumed Ann Blyth to be a main character. Instead, this is split into two different parts. One is a romance between two married people. It struggles with their marriages which the audience cannot assume to be bad. The other part is the war movie. There are some real footage and real hardware. It's a bit stale. The filming style is pretty static but it's nice to see real explosions. I don't like the melodrama and the war part is not the most realistic despite the real equipment. As with most old war movies, this has some propaganda value. The war is tough going at this time and morale is under strained. It does have a tough scene of a complicated situation. It seems to be a reply to news reports of the day. Both parts are struggling with the moral muddle.

Fairly Good Korean War Film

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 22 January 2003]

Unlike a great many films dealing with the Korean war ONE MINUTE TO ZERO does try to bring a sense of time and place to the proceedings . We see planes from Australia strafing North Korean troops while another scene scene shows British troops marching off to war behind a Scottish pipe band , and the most memorable sequence features North Korean infiltrators using refugees as human shields which did happen fairly often during that exceptionally cruel conflict. Compare this to most other films about the Korean war which could have been set in Asia or Europe during the second world war .

It does have a few flaws , for example there`s some painfully obvious real life film footage used and some of the battle scenes , especially the sequence with a soldier being killed by a flame thrower , could have been more graphic but I suppose that`s down to what you could show on screen in 1952 so perhaps that`s not a valid criticism . What is however is the inclusion of a love story which drags the story down some what . Women won`t want to watch ONE MINUTE TO ZERO because of the large number of combat scenes while fans of war films ( Who I guess are exclusively male ) will find the love story intrusive . But it`s a lot better than PEARL HARBOR

One Minute to Zero review

[JoeytheBrit · 5/10 · 15 April 2020]

Extremely ordinary war movie spiced up by genuine combat footage and location photography. Robert Mitchum plays the usual super-tough, super-competent soldier under whose macho spell falls UN aid worker Ann Blyth. The two stars work well together, and are backed up by a strong supporting cast including Charles McGraw and Richard Egan, but even back in 1952 this had already been done a thousand times before. Mitchum's so cool he even wears his tin helmet at an angle, and Ann Blyth looks gorgeous even with that distractingly small chin.

Hubba Hubba

[Wanda Skutnik · 8/10 · 13 March 2000]

Robert Mitchum is at his masculine best (what other way has he ever been?) in this movie. Boy, do those shoulders seem massive when crushing little Ann Blyth with his kisses. Study her face. She's just exquisite. Who cares about the War. The Romance is the thing.

Flat war film with something to say...

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 6/10 · 8 October 2000]

Love and war are a favored show theme in a number of films... Love often brings people of completely different backgrounds together, as in Huston's "The African Queen," Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms," Arthur Hill's "The Americanization of Emily," Douglas Sirk's "A Time to Love and a Time to Die." Also Anatole Litvak's "Act of Love" explores the relationship between an embittered GI (Kirk Douglas), and a lonely, helpless French girl (Dany Robin) fearful of becoming an outright tramp...

"One Minute to Zero" uses love to make the Korean War acceptable... Ann Blyth is a nurse who has already lost a lover to the war... She is deeply hurt and cannot bear the though of falling in love with a soldier... However, she does, with a fighter pilot played by Robert Mitchum... In the end she becomes convinced that he is doing the right thing...

One interesting point about the film is the scene where Mitchum (evacuating American civilians) strafes a column of refugees because it was feared that some guerrillas had infiltrated among them...

Remade in 1968 as The Green Berets?

[cutter-12 · 3/10 · 27 January 2006]

Or possibly We Were Soldiers? Surely this must be one of the movies that made a deep impression on Randall Wallace when he was a kid. An early 50's war movie from the slobbering right. The UN didn't fare any better in their minds in 1952 than it does now. Mitchum takes on The North Koreans with two pumped up right arms, demonstrating one minute to zero patience for the dovish views of UN worker, Ann Blyth, but falling in love with her and converting her all the same. In fact, all it takes for her to see the light in mitchum's soul is to see him shell civilian refugees into kibble then justify it because 'half' of them were communist infiltrators anyway.

what a ridiculous piece of propaganda. Sure, wars need to be fought, that is indisputable, but not in every case, and war movies should never be so blindingly simpleminded and stupid, pandering on behalf of the Pentagon to the lowest brow audience for support. This is strictly the kind of post WW2 arrogance movie that made right wing war lovers what they are today. Let's just kick ass and shut up the pansy eggheads with a kiss, because we're the real men and war is necessary everywhere all the time. Kicking ass is what God made America for, talk is for lovers, and a machine gun and a box of ammo is the ONLY solution always.

Interesting that it was a war entered into by a left wing President. The Right Wing no doubt loved him for it, taking on those commie gook cousins of Uncle Joe.

Until he canned MacArthur.

Brash American machismo doesn't begin to sum up this film. Fetish porn for freeps and muscleheads. It stars three of my favorite actors too. Robert Mitchum, Charles McGraw and Richard Egan I would watch in anything. This just proved not everything they made is worth a damn.

Forgettable Except for One Segment

[dougdoepke · 30 January 2009]

Rather dreary Korean War drama where everybody appears to be performing "by the numbers". There's none of the intensity expected of those life-and-death situations that distinguish the era's better war films (Bridges of Toko-Ri; Pork Chop Hill; Retreat, Hell!). The action never really gels, which I suppose is the fault of director Garnett who appears disengaged from what's on screen. It doesn't help that the screenplay also appears stitched together from a host of war movie clichés, few of which stick around long enough to establish themselves--- the wives, the ethnic grunts, the lonely orphan. It's like a runner in baseball thinking he has to touch all 100 bases before he can score.

Of course, the film does contain one dramatic highlight that caused considerable controversy at the time, but has since proved revealing--- the intentional shelling of civilian refugees by American forces. The screenplay tries to soften the impact with North Korean infiltrators holding refugees at gunpoint, but the destruction occurs anyway. Now, that was really a pretty gutsy move on somebody's part since the war was still going on when the movie was released in 1952.

Though not publicized at the time, we now know from proved incidents such as No Gun-Ri (There was more than one eye-witness, and the only dispute is over the number killed) that such atrocities did occur on our side as well as the enemy's. And though not included in highschool history texts, there was considerable sympathy for the North from the peasantry of the South because of the landlord-dominated government of the South, many of which had collaborated with hated Japanese occupiers during WWII. As a result, considerable guerilla activity occurred in the South both before and during the war itself. Details such as these cast light on the basic accuracy of the movie's depiction. Ironically, the problem for GI's was the same here as in Vietnam--- how to distinguish friendly civilians from the enemy, while too often the solution was to kill them all. But when your own life is on the line, what do you do? That's why Mitchum's Col. Janowski is so torn.

Apparently studio honcho Howard Hughes had high hopes for the production since his name appears above the title. And even though the seams from stock footage are pretty obvious, the film is well produced with locations at Fort Carson, Colorado, where the terrain was said to resemble that of Korea. But background and special effects can hardly compensate for the general listlessness of the results or the ill-conceived Ann Blyth role. Nonetheless, the movie does remain memorable for its one revealing episode.

Typical war movie with some memorable scenes

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 13 November 2016]

ONE MINUTE TO ZERO is a typical American war movie with the then-contemporaneous Korean War serving as the theatre of battle in this instance. The film stars the ubiquitous Robert Mitchum as a hard-bitten combat veteran and colonel in the US army tasked with helping evacuate the local population while at the same time protecting them from advancing North Korean troops. There's not much in the way of a big story here as the war itself IS the story; however, as a realistic depiction of battle it works very well.

This is a visual film with some highly memorable combat scenes in it. Realism is enhanced through the use of real-life wartime footage and the scenes of jets firing rockets are quite incredible and never bettered by Hollywood special effects even in this day and age. I loved the tank battles as well although the film's tense highlight involves the Commies hiding inside refugee columns and ready to burst out and massacre at a moment's notice. A duck is involved in one of the film's tragic highlights. Character actors like Richard Egan, Charles McGraw, and William Talman flesh out realistic supporting roles although Ann Blyth's love interest suffers from the era's usual sexist depiction of women and feels like an unnecessary addition to the story.

Realistic war and gentle love: a nice surprise

[audiemurph · 7/10 · 5 December 2012]

Once upon a time Hollywood could really pump out these classic war films; here, in the midst of the Korean War, RKO Studios tells how the North Koreans and their allies invaded the South, pushing them and their American allies to the very southern end of the peninsula; the story is told by focusing on a Colonel played by Robert Mitchum, whose job it is to delay as much as the possible the push south by the Commies, giving time to the UN and the free West to get its act together and come to Korea's aid.

"One Minute To Zero" benefits greatly from some excellent war effects: fighter jets setting mountainsides on fire, mortar shells blowing up tanks, and the like. Particularly unusual and gruesome is a quick shot about 30 minutes into the film of a charred corpse lieing on a hull of a burned-out tank.

Robert Mitchum cruises through this movie quite handily; he basically plays himself. He is a very likable actor, and I admire him greatly, but he plays this role with what appears to be very little effort - and I mean that as a compliment - I think he was just born to play characters like this. A great actor with commanding screen presence.

Mitchum's blossoming romance with Ann Blythe is managed quite interestingly: both characters are "a little older", so there is no heavy panting; rather, their early love scenes are surprisingly gentle, slightly but pleasantly awkward, and quite tender; Mitchum's first kiss for Ann is on her cheek. A nice change of pace indeed (though I think she is kind of tiny for him).

The director made sure to include a handful of clichéd Yankee soldiers: the innocent and comic chef turned warrior, the two buddies, one of whom kind of bullies the other, only to have the other save the life of the first, like a faithful dog, and so on. But they are not too overdone.

And I never tire of seeing American soldiers of different rank be able to joke with each other, recognizing each other's innate goodness and patriotism, while still respecting rank. And cheesy as it is, Mitchum's compliments and mentoring of the embattled captain played by Richard Egan are just plain heart-warming and pleasing.

A very interesting little film of the "forgotten war", Korea. Don't expect too much, just sit back and enjoy the kind of film they don't make anymore.

Love and war in Korea.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 18 February 2002]

This wartime drama falls a little flat in spite of a very talented cast. The rugged Robert Mitchum is in charge of evacuating American civilians in Korea, but ends up bombing refugees. War action is paced with heavy romance between Mitchum and Ann Blyth. This couple all but ignites the screen. Pretty hot for the early 50s. Also in the cast are Richard Egan, William Talman, Eduard Franz and Margaret Sheridan.

Note:This movie is directed by Tay Garnett, whose work is better shown in THE CROSS OF LORRAINE(1943).

Sky Masterson and Sister Sarah

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 20 May 2019]

After the realistic grit of WWII movies in the 1940s, the 1950s tended to live up to "the golden age" and gloss over unpleasant details in war movies. There are exceptions, of course, but the war itself isn't really the interesting part of the film One Minute to Zero. There are some impressively dramatic scenes, and it does interestingly show the events leading up to the start of the Korean War, but the pace is a bit slower than some of my favorite war movies of the 1940s. If you, like me, preferred Gung Ho! and Objective, Burma! to Mrs. Miniver, you might not be very riveted by One Minute to Zero.

The romance of the film did keep me very riveted, as I always am with two good looking people in the leads. Robert Mitchum, a soldier, and Ann Blyth, a UN researcher, are thrown together in South Korea, and when the war breaks out, his job is to evacuate all American civilians. Ann is stubborn and wants to stay, and their mutual dislike transforms from romantic tension to taking a leap of faith in the middle of a war. I loved the pairing, because I kept thinking what a wonderful Sky Masterson and Sister Sarah they would have made in Guys and Dolls. If you ever wondered what Robert Mitchum and Ann Blyth would have played those characters, this movie will show you. Neither gets to sing, though, but besides that, it's like watching their auditions.

one minute to zero

[mossgrymk · 4/10 · 18 August 2021]

Dreary propaganda film which obviously did not heed the lesson learned by "Steel Helmet", "MASH" and "Pork Chop Hill"; namely and to wit, Commies ain't Nazis (and Korea ain't WW2). Fourteen years later The Duke would make the same mistake with "Green Berets".

Interesting Korean War Film - One Minute to Zero

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 10 December 2021]

I have noticed over the years that war movies that are closer to the actual time of events tend to be more authentic than war films made about that period several years afterward. This film fits into that theory nicely. It captures the feeling and frustration of the early part of the Korean War, when the US had good air power, but the ground war was pretty much mishandled. It was not until MacArthur landed on Inchon several months after hostilities began that the US and UN could take the offensive. Unfortunately, when China entered the fray later in the war, it offset the gains of the Inchon landing and led to a stalemate for the war. The best part of this film is the music by Victor Young and the unforgettable "When I Fall in Love". Interesting turn by William Talman, who had a perfect conviction record on Perry Mason (0 for 300+ trials).

If you like action and romance - you will like this movie

[doug2go · 8/10 · 28 March 2006]

This movie could have been made by the US Army but I am glad it wasn't. I found it to be entertaining, with good acting given a very familiar plot with lost of action. This is one of those movies the critics generally hate and the audiences like - there is nothing unique except the chemistry of the actors and fast moving action direction which makes for an entertaining movie for me. Ann Blyth wanted to be a singer but combined acting and singing in most of her movies somewhere. She and Robert Mitchum sing a duet of sorts which was very entertaining. I wonder how many people know Robert Mitchum had a #1 hit in the mid 50s " Thunder Road" - so he can sing some.

Great Korea War film,,Albeit somewhat unemotional Mitchum,,,but that's Mitchum Tough

[GregP89 · 7/10 · 17 November 2007]

A real good Korea war film that captures the realism and tough decision making without it being a 'Combat TV' show look-a-like. Renting it and watching with my father, a Korean war veteran, on Veterans Day 2007 was great. Still, that one segment in the movie with the terrorist hiding among a line of hundreds of Korean refugees and seeing US sends Cannon shells among the crowd was gut wrenching. Nonetheless, the actual F-94 Starfire jet Scenes were the most footage ever shown in a Korean war film more so than "Men of the Fighting Lady" a distant second.Lastly, the casualty footage for a '51 /'52 was shocking. However, that the film contains a Romantic storyline & some comedy relief by young GI Gomer Pyle type soldier was amazing for the Director to squeeze these items in this film. This film, IMO, is one of better Korea war films along with "Retreat Hell" with Frank Lovejoy, along with a couple other films like "Pork Chop Hill" with Greg Peck.

Coulda been a Contenda

[KingCoody · 2 October 2004]

"Pork Chop Hill" with Gregory Peck, "The Men" with Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray "Fix Bayonets" with Richard Basehart and "The Steel Helmet" with Gene Evans who also starred in "Fix Bayonets", are the top Korean War dramas. This one seems like a second bill WWII git them Nazis and Jap films. The romance angle: the reluctant widow/woman trying to fight off her addiction to gunslingers can be seen played out in westerns and gangster flicks. Robert Mitchum is not as human as he was in "The Story of GI JOE" instead this "Mustang" ( Old Army-ese for a ranker who made it to the officer class without a West Point, VMI, or a well placed political connection) just is Ares gift to the warrior class. Charles McGraw and William Talman two of the best sinister looking and sounding actors of their era, become bland nonentities in this flick. There are some grim moments: Talman's descent into a flaming hutch after his recon plane is shot down, the North Korean infiltrated refugee column being blasted apart,and the gradual attrition on Mitchum and McGraw's outfit ( the film is set right at the beginning of the Korean "ShootOut" before MacArthur's Inchon Landing temporarily turned the tide) but overall there is a lack of tension and good action set pieces to make this film a contender as a Good war movie/Action Film. Perhap's director Tay Garnett suffered from MGM-itis every thing must be pretty because this movie ain't hard or gritty enough. Now if Aldrich,Siegal, Fuller,or Milestone had directed it...

In love and war

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 26 June 2007]

If you like battle scenes, "One Minute to Zero" is for you. Produced by Howard Hughes, it stars Robert Mitchum, Ann Blyth, Richard Egan, Charles McGraw and William Talman. Mitchum and the other men are fighting the Korean War and Ann Blyth, a war widow, is working for the United Nations. They fall in love, but she turns against him when she sees him give the order to kill refugees who are, he believes, probably guerrillas smuggling in weapons.

Someone mentioned the score. Frankly, I thought if I heard the strains of "When I Fall in Love" one more time, I was going to throw something at the television.

Mitchum does a fine job; Talman and McGraw are in unusual roles for them, and they handle them well. Talman would go on to be Hamilton Burger on "Perry Mason." Blyth is good, very pretty, and a far cry from that bratty Veda in Mildred Pierce.

All in all, a pretty detached experience. It's filled with testosterone - the guys will love it.