ONE MAN MUTINY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 933, 28 June 1957, Page 18

ONE MAN MUTINY

(Warner Bros.) G Cert. OST fighting services assiduously collect, collate and graph their casualties (so many dead and wounded ‘rom rifle and machine-gun fire, from aerial and artillery bombardment, from bayonet wounds, from disease), but I'd be surprised if returns had ever been kept of those who broke their heads against brick walls. It would not be a large statistic, but it would probably be a. significant one, militarily speaking. Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, of the United States Army Air Service, whose turbulent career this movie celebrates, was one of those casualties. A little tougher than most, he charged the | brick wall twice. The first time he bounced back to the rank of Colonel and a desk job in Fort Sam Houston, Texas; the second time they gave hin. the U.S. equivalent of a bowler hat to hide his scars. Mitchell first bucked higher authority when he and his bomber boys sank the old German battleship Ostfriesland ("The British say she’s unsinkable") by using 2000 Ib. bombs from 2500 feet, instead of 1000 lb. bombs from 5000 feet as ordered. This not only alienated his Army superiors, who were pink with embarrassment, but completely spoiled the picnic for the younger Navy commanders (who hoped to sink the target ship themselves) and for the top Navy brass, who feared a consequential cut in their establishment. So, according to the Hollywood story (and’ I see no reason to doubt its general accuracy) the whole affair was officially hushed up and Billy was rusticated to Texas, where there were no planes and no battleships. So far, so good, and one up to General Yesterday. But at-this point the film-which has up to now had a reasonable quota of incident and one or two exciting airborne moments-slows down |} and loses a good deal of emotional attitude. Mitchell, I suppose, didn’t quite know what to do next, and Gary Cooper has little difficulty getting the mood across. Even the next climax in the tale -the deliberately irregular press-con-ference some years later at which Mitchell invited court-martial by accusing the defence chiefs of incompetence and near-treason-is played without fire, and the build-up to the court-mar-tial itself is so slow as to be almost lethargic.

Eventually General Deeds goes to Washington (emotive shots of Capitol Hill, etc.), and has his day in Court. And even at this remove, when time and hindsight and Gary Cooper have taken some of the sting from his words, one can’t help sensing how they must have rocked the diplomatic and military worlds. He flatly named Japan as the enemy, foretold Pearl Harbour (about all he omitted was the date) and proved that the U.S. had only nine front-line planes. Eddie Rickenbacker, Hap Arnold and Tooey Spaatz give evidence for Mitchell. General MacArthur (third from the left, with the high forehead and the broad swatch of ribbons) sits among the judges and seems impressed. But the brick wall stands firm. With Rod Steiger (who squeezed more into a small part than the principals did into theirs) as triggerman, the brasshats shoot Billy down. And he died before he could have the last laugh. An interesting picture, but not overimpressive (considering that Otto Pre-

minger directed)-I now await the lowdown on the great inter-continental ballistic missile squabble.