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Warner Bros. Pictures
Not part of a collection.
He defied the army and navy . . . and they gave him a Court Martial!
A dramatization of the American general and his court martial for publically complaining about High Command's dismissal and neglect of the aerial fighting forces.
CinemaSerf
Aug 29, 2022 · via TMDB
Gary Cooper is perfectly adequate in this rather dry telling of the court-martial of a pioneering American general who, according to this film anyway, prophesied the hitherto unimaginable rise in importance of air power in conflict as well as predicting that an attack on Hawaii by Japan was likely to succeed against the relatively ill-defended islands. Demoted and posted to an administrative job in Texas, things come to an head when he becomes so frustrated by the intransigence of his army superiors (this is before the USAF existed as a separate entity) that he goes to the press and is subsequently tried for gross insubordination. The narrative is interesting insofar as it illustrates the reluctance of the senior services to acknowledge the significance of these new machines - partly ignorance, partly a reluctance to allow anything else to vie for the limited resources available. The court proceedings, though, are rather dull and dreary. Ralph Bellamy turns in a spirited performance as his lawyer Reid, and Rod Steiger is bullish effective as his determined prosecutor but the whole look and feel of the film just lacks for weight and substance. There is precious little to excite here, it may be prophetic, but it's very wordy and there is a real dearth of action which makes the 100 minutes or so it takes to tell this story seem considerably longer. It does feature plenty of familiar faces which helps pass the time, but sadly this is a really rather unremarkable biopic that probably didn't even rock the fourth row, let alone the world!
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Gary Cooper
Col. Billy Mitchell
Charles Bickford
Gen. Jimmy Guthrie
Ralph Bellamy
Congressman Frank R. Reid
Rod Steiger
Maj. Allan Guillion
Elizabeth Montgomery
Margaret Lansdowne
Fred Clark
Col. Moreland
James Daly
Lt. Col. Herbert White
Jack Lord
Lt. Cmdr. Zachary 'Zack' Lansdowne
Peter Graves
Capt. Bob Elliott
Darren McGavin
Capt. Russ Peters
Robert F. Simon
Admiral Gage
Charles Dingle
Senator Fullerton
Dayton Lummis
General Douglas MacArthur
Herbert Heyes
General John J. Pershing
Robert Brubaker
Major H. H. Arnold
Phil Arnold
Fiorello LaGuardia
Ian Wolfe
President Calvin Coolidge
Will Wright
Admiral William S. Sims
Gregory Walcott
Howard Millikan
Sam Leavitt
Director of Photography
Otto Preminger
Director
Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor
Dimitri Tiomkin
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Dec 31, 1955
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Versus
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Bicara Cinta
2020
The Pied Pipers of Harlow
1965
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
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