Alan Ladd at his greatest in this ripcord thriller that rips at your emotions!
1953-08-11
N/A
88 min
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.
