Hard to imagine who in front or behind the camera was interested in this lighthearted Crimean War romp. Certainly not William Castle whose po-faced direction, long before he made those campy exploitation horror pics, falls victim to a minimal budget. Nor waning star Paulette Goddard, trying to protect escaped war prisoner Jean-Pierre Aumont (back in Hollywood after WWII service for this?!) in her gypsy wagon. (Don’t ask.) Scripter Robert E. Kent, whose many mismatched credits go from Westerns to ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK/’54 to Ophüls’ THE RECKLESS MOMENT/’49, works up a spy story about Russians on the hunt for a new, ultra-powerful British cannon which could end the war in the seven minutes it takes to change the guard. Really? With atrocious acting up and down the line, and Goddard’s voice turning unpleasantly metallic, only Aumont gets off the hook, too pleasant a fellow to do anything but his best, regardless of the circumstances. The funniest thing in the plot sees his fellow war prisoner Richard Stapley pretending to be catatonic to keep from revealing anything about that revolutionary cannon. The least funny thing is the comic relief; a poetry reciting fellow officer. Yikes! They could have ended the war in less then seven minutes by forcing the Russians to listen to this guy.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: No doubt prolific/lowball producer Sam Katzman hoped the film's title would remind potential audiences of another Crimean war pic: THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE/’36. And it worked! Reminding us to remind you of that vastly superior film. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-charge-of-light-brigade-1936.html
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