Classic War Movies – 5 Films – Young Winston, The Prisoner, Commandos Strike at Dawn, Castle Keep, Bitter Victory

Description

To Arms!

Young Winston
(1972) – Color – PG
Simon Ward, Robert Shaw, Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins
Played by Simon Ward, young Churchill is ambitious and over-eager, with a tendency toward boastful over-exaggeration and opportunism, all of which served him well in overturning the low expectations of his father. The film flashes back through three main periods of Churchill’s life narrated by the older, knowing Churchill. In boyhood and adolescence, Churchill’s self-consumed parents, Lord Randolph and American-born Lady Jennie, are too busy with their own lives in Parliament and social engagements to see him off to boarding school, a task fulfilled by a beloved nanny.

The Prisoner <br(1955) – B&W – Not Rated
Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins
Two Legendary Actors at the height of their careers face off in a film so controversial that both the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals banned it. Following World War II, a strong-willed cardinal is arrested as a traitor to the state. His will is strong, but so is that of his inquisitor, a seemingly benevolent man who uses oily charm to lure the cardinal into speaking freely. The interrogator eventually resorts to false evidence, dirty tricks and cruelty. Months pass, and the cardinal’s spirit seem impossible to break. As the interviews become increasingly hostile, the captors turn to the last bastion of the immorally powerful. Eventually the cardinal is exploited and destroyed.

Commandos Strike at Dawn
(1943) – B&W – Not Rated
Paul Muni, Lillian Gish, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Anna Lee
Oscar-winner Paul Muni gives a dynamic performance in this dramatic World War II story. Muni plays Erik Toresen, a simple Norwegian fisherman who finds his quiet coastal village shattered by the Nazi invasion. Untrained in the ways of war, the villagers use only their cold, sullen hatred as defense. But when an elder member of the community is maimed and, Muni mobilizes the villagers and trains them to fight. Eventually discovered by the Germans, Muni and four others escape to England to lead British troops against the Germans, who intend to attack the Arctic supply lines.

Castle Keep
(1969) – Color – R
Burt Lancaster, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Peter Falk, Scott Wilson
Near the end of World War II, American Major Falconer leads his weary eight-man squadron to a perfectly preserved medieval castle in the Adrennes Forest. CASTLE KEEP‘s owner, the aging Count of Maldorais, shelters the servicemen in hopes they will defend his fortress and his priceless collection of art masterpieces from the advancing German troops. But the servicemen have plans of their own. Major Falconer begins an illicit affair with the Count’s beautiful young wife, while Sgt. Rossi romances the wife of an absent baker. As the German soldiers push forward, a deadly game of possession ensues, leading to a spectacular ground battle for keeper of the castle.

Bitter Victory
(1957) – B&W – Not Rated
Richard Burton, Curt Jurgens, Ruth Roman
A Word War II drama starring Richard Burton and Curt Jurgens as Captain Leith and Major Brand, a pair of British Army officers assigned to execute a daring commando raid on the Libyan stronghold of General Rommel. Even before the mission begins, the tension between the two is evident. This is further exacerbated when Brand learns that Leith and his wife were once romantically involved. Once the operation is underway, Leith must save the day when Brand’s cowardice is revealed, thus putting the mission and the lives of the men in jeopardy. As they struggle through the wastes of the Sahara we learn who will live, who will die and what is the price of glory.