It's probably too late to address the legalities now but at the time there may well have been an infringement of the Trade Descriptions Act in a movie titled BATTLE Cry that runs two and a half hours and contains barely twenty minutes of actual combat but that's not the same as saying it's a bad movie, indeed, I scored it a 7 out of 10. Scenarist Leon Uris, who was adapting his own novel (there's a lovely story about Uris, whose novel was turned down by just about every major publisher in turn, snarling at the last one 'when this is published and becomes a best-seller I'm gonna shove the 100,000th copy up your ass) cleverly anticipates the Hollywood bomber-crew syndrome by having his narrator Mac (James Whitmore) reel off the various 'types' as the recruits are en route to Boot Camp. The film is mainly concerned with the people behind the soldiers and their women and in that respect it is similar to From Here To Eternity with the basic difference that Eternity was primarily about the peace-time army ending as it did with the attack on Pearl Harbor whilst Battle Cry begins with America already well into the War. There are fine performances from Van Heflin (as we would expect), James Whitmore and John Lupton whilst Dorothy Malone is wasted and completely eclipses her love interest Tab Hunter who even back then was known to be gay - it was probably some kind of 'in' joke pairing him with the feral Malone when his 'girl back home', Mona Freeman, was much nearer the mark. Top-billed Raymond Massey also draws only a five-minute appearance but these cavils aside this is a respectable Peyton Place type entertainment but don't mention it seriously in the same breath as 'Attack'.
Review of Battle Cry
