"Alan Ladd at his greatest in this ripcord thriller that rips at your emotions!"
Steve MacKendrick resigns from the US Army after causing the needless death of a fellow officer. Wanting to serve in the war, he enlists as a Canadian in the British 1st Parachute Brigade. He proves himself exceptionally skilled for a recruit, arousing the suspicion of his commanding officer who starts an investigation. He redeems himself during combat. The film was titled "Paratrooper" in the US.
Alan Ladd
Steve 'Canada' McKendrick
Leo Genn
Major J. Snow
Susan Stephen
Penny Gardner
Harry Andrews
R.S.M.
Donald Houston
Taffy
Anthony Bushell
General Whiting
Patric Doonan
Flash
Stanley Baker
Breton
Lana Morris
Pinky
Steve MacKendrick resigns from the US Army after causing the needless death of a fellow officer. Wanting to serve in the war, he enlists as a Canadian in the British 1st Parachute Brigade. He proves himself exceptionally skilled for a recruit, arousing the suspicion of his commanding officer who starts an investigation. He redeems himself during combat. The film was titled "Paratrooper" in the US.
Maybe not the strongest of vehicles for Alan Ladd, this one. He is serving with the Canadian contingent of the British Army's paratroop regiment and doesn't care much for promotion or authority - he just wants to get the job done. His boss, though "Maj. Snow" (Leo Genn) reckons there is more too it, and after a bit of investigation he discovers that "Canada" has a recently tragic past. A decent cast of British stalwarts try to get the thing going, but the first half hour or so is all just way to slow. A few spats with Stanley Baker's "Breton" tell us most of what we need to now about "Canada" pretty quickly, so we could move on far more sprightly than we do, into the field where, to be fair, it ends quite well as they cleverly fight their way through a minefield. It's watchable, OK - Genn and Ladd do just about enough, but it is pretty forgettable fayre.
Based on the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war captured in Britain to escape back to Germany during the Second World War.
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
In the 1943 invasion of Italy, one American platoon lands, digs in, then makes its way inland to attempt to take a fortified farmhouse, as tension and casualties mount.
During a raid on Germany, a British bomber crew is forced to bail out after their plane is damaged. They land in Holland, where they're aided by Dutch civilians.
A group of men parachute into Japanese-occupied Burma with a dangerous and important mission: to locate and blow up a radar station. They accomplish this well enough, but when they try to rendezvous at an old air-strip to be taken back to their base, they find Japanese waiting for them, and they must make a long, difficult walk back through enemy-occupied jungle.
At the onset of World War II, American Lt. Col. Robert Frederick is put in charge of a unit called the 1st Special Service Force, composed of elite Canadian commandos and undisciplined American soldiers. With Maj. Alan Crown leading the Canadians and Maj. Cliff Bricker the acting head of the American contingent, there is initial tension -- but the team comes together when given a daunting mission that few would dare to attempt.
During World War I, a group of British miners are recruited to tunnel underneath no man's land and set bombs from below the German front in hopes of breaking the deadly stalemate of the Battle of Messines.
In March of 1945, as the War in Europe is coming to a close, fighting erupts between German and American troops at the last remaining bridgehead across the Rhine.
During World War II, a young man is called up and, with an increasing sense of foreboding, undertakes his army training ready for D-Day, June 6th, 1944.
During World War II, a small group of survivors is stranded in a lifeboat together after the ship they were traveling on is destroyed by a German U-boat.