A company of Marines races against the clock to find a Japanese rocket base.A company of Marines races against the clock to find a Japanese rocket base.A company of Marines races against the clock to find a Japanese rocket base.
Jack Palance
- Pigeon Lane
- (as Walter {Jack} Palance)
Richard Allan
- Pvt. Stewart
- (uncredited)
Edward Binns
- First Soldier in Final Tracking Shot
- (uncredited)
Robert Board
- Marine
- (uncredited)
Robert Bohannon
- Soldier
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaUS Marine and Navy units participated in the filming of this movie and after their work was finished, they went to fight in Korea.
- GoofsWhile speaking to his superiors on his walkie-talkie, Lt Anderson twice closes his conversation with "Over and out." This is incorrect. He should have said either "Over" (if he was turning the conversation over to the other speaker), or "Out" (if he was ending the talk). Interestingly, Anderson uses the correct term "Out" later in the film.
- Quotes
Sgt. Randolph Johnson: Wasn't there a comment by your General Sherman about war?
Lt. Butterfield: Yeah, he said, "War is Hell." What did he know, that eight-ball never left the States.
- Crazy creditsCurrent prints open with the mid 1980's 20th Century Fox logo.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Hempas bar (1977)
- SoundtracksMarines' Hymn
(uncredited)
Music from the "Gendarmes' Duet" from the opera "Geneviève de Brabant"
Written by Jacques Offenbach
Sung over the opening credits
Also played during the first landing
Featured review
A Ground-Breaking Depiction of Pacific Combat
When it was released in 1950, "Halls of Montezuma" was one of the most realistic and ambitious war movies yet made. Today its strengths still outweigh its unfortunate flaws. The flaws are an all-too-familiar sentimental streak, an absurd "revelation" about Japanese tactics, an unconvincing psycho in a clumsy explanatory flashback, and the unlikely presence, in Lt. Anderson's platoon, of a replacement who just happened to have been one of his high-school students in civilian life.
Many viewers will find such flaws even more annoying because they detract from the good things about this movie, including some solid performances (Widmark, Palance, Boone, Webb) a realistic plot, an unusually authentic look--including some (mostly) well integrated combat footage--and a spectacular scope. Until "The Longest Day" (1961), the beach landing here(with flame-throwing tanks)and the later assault on the Japanese were more impressive than any other screen depictions of a large military operation. (BTW, the failure of the Japanese to oppose the landing itself isn't a Hollywood howler; the movie accurately reflects the Japanese defense strategy on Okinawa in 1945.) Milestone's directorial masterpiece, "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930), expresses revulsion at the slaughter of World War I. "Halls of Montezuma" affords a more complex view of men in World War II. The hero is a high-school chemistry teacher whose migraines have addicted him to painkillers; he doesn't care because he assumes he's going to be killed. One character is blinded and another killed by accident. By modern standards such incidents may seem relatively mild, but during the war such troubling images were thought to be too disturbing for film-goers. Even in 1950 they were strong stuff for a movie.
Made at a time when the Cold War was heating up dangerously in Korea, "Halls of Montezuma" is still a revealing postwar response to World War II in the Pacific.
Many viewers will find such flaws even more annoying because they detract from the good things about this movie, including some solid performances (Widmark, Palance, Boone, Webb) a realistic plot, an unusually authentic look--including some (mostly) well integrated combat footage--and a spectacular scope. Until "The Longest Day" (1961), the beach landing here(with flame-throwing tanks)and the later assault on the Japanese were more impressive than any other screen depictions of a large military operation. (BTW, the failure of the Japanese to oppose the landing itself isn't a Hollywood howler; the movie accurately reflects the Japanese defense strategy on Okinawa in 1945.) Milestone's directorial masterpiece, "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930), expresses revulsion at the slaughter of World War I. "Halls of Montezuma" affords a more complex view of men in World War II. The hero is a high-school chemistry teacher whose migraines have addicted him to painkillers; he doesn't care because he assumes he's going to be killed. One character is blinded and another killed by accident. By modern standards such incidents may seem relatively mild, but during the war such troubling images were thought to be too disturbing for film-goers. Even in 1950 they were strong stuff for a movie.
Made at a time when the Cold War was heating up dangerously in Korea, "Halls of Montezuma" is still a revealing postwar response to World War II in the Pacific.
helpful•122
- wuxmup
- May 28, 2006
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Okinawa
- Filming locations
- Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, USA(I know this, as my father was in boot camp at the time and his squad were used as extras for four days at this location, for this film.)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 53 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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