Battle at Bloody Beach

June. 20,1961      NR
Rating:
5.4
Trailer Synopsis Cast

This is only the second Audie Murphy movie set in WWII after his autobiographical "To Hell and Back." Here Murphy steps out of his usual kid-Western role to play a civilian working for the Navy helping supply guerilla insurgents in the Philippines. His sole motive is not politics nor bravery, but to find his bride from whom he was separated during the Japanese invasion two years before

Audie Murphy as  Craig Benson
Gary Crosby as  Lt. Marty Sackler
Dolores Michaels as  Ruth Benson
Alejandro Rey as  Julio Fontana
Lillian Bronson as  Delia Ellis
Barry Atwater as  Jeff Pelham
Ivan Dixon as  Tiger Blair

Reviews

Cubussoli
1961/06/20

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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Colibel
1961/06/21

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

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Platicsco
1961/06/22

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

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Mandeep Tyson
1961/06/23

The acting in this movie is really good.

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JohnHowardReid
1961/06/24

Audie Murphy (Craig Benson), Gary Crosby (Marty Sackler), Dolores Michaels (Ruth Benson), Alejandro Rey (Julio Fontana), Marjorie Stapp (Caroline Pelham), Barry Atwater (Jeff Pelham), E.J. Andre (Dr Van Bart), Dale Ishimoto (Blanco), Miriam Colon (Nahni), Pilar Seurat (Camota), Lillian Bronson (Delia Ellis), William Mims (M'Keever), Ivan Dixon (Tiger Blair), Kevin Brodie (Timmy Thompson), Sara Anderson (Mrs Thompson), Lloyd Kino (Japanese lieutenant).Director: HERBERT COLEMAN. Screenplay: Richard Maibaum, Willard Willingham. Based on a story by Richard Maibaum. Photography: Kenneth Peach. Supervising film editor: Jodie Copelan. Music composed and conducted by Henry Vars. Art director: John Mansbridge. Set decorations: Harry Reif. Wardrobe: Robert Olivas. Make-up: Vincent Romaine. Script supervisor: George Rutter. Property master: Wilbur L. Russell. Photographed in black-and-white CinemaScope. CinemaScope lenses by Bausch & Lomb. Production supervisor: Harold E. Knox. Assistant director: Francisco Day. Sound editor: Jack Cornall. Sound: Jack Solomon, Frank McWhorter. Sound facilities: Glen Glenn Sound Company. Producer: Richard Maibaum. Executive producer: Robert L. Lippert. An API Production for 20th Century-Fox. 2nd assistant director: George Batcheller. Made with the co- operation of the United States Defense Department and the United States Navy.Copyright 1 June 1961 by Associated Producers, Inc. New York opening at neighborhood theaters: 16 August 1961. U.S. release: June 1961. U.K. release: 23 July 1961. Never theatrically released in Australia. 80 minutes.U.K. release title: BATTLE ON THE BEACH.SYNOPSIS: During the Jap invasion of the Philippines, an American aids the guerrillas.VIEWER'S GUIDE: Not suitable for children.COMMENT: Yet another of those U.S.-Filipino war pics, this one is more routine than most. The direction only comes to life during the climactic battle. The rest of the film is pretty dull sledding, despite a few brief bursts of action and a heroine who tends to be more sultry than the script requires.OTHER VIEWS: Set during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, with Audie Murphy involved in a distinctly uneasy blend of marital problems and melodramatic heroics. The director handles the action scenes competently but both he and his cast are at the mercy of the unconvincing script when it comes to the personal affairs of the characters. It all rings much too hollow and the result is an overloaded melodramatic hodge-podge. — E.V.D.

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bkoganbing
1961/06/25

Battle at Bloody Beach was one of Audie Murphy's attempts to get away from the western casting where he did so well and should have stayed in his career. It bears some resemblance to John Wayne's Back to Bataan and Tyrone Power's An American Guerrilla in the Phillipines in subject matter.But the latter had the advantage of great color cinematography and was shot in the actual scenes of the Phillipines. This particular cheapie was done on Catalina, it looks like it was done over a couple of long weekends.The plot as it were has Murphy as an American running supplies to the Filipino insurrectionists and discovering his wife, Dolores Michaels believing he was dead, having taken up with Filipino guerrilla Alejandro Rey both politically and personally. That leads to some tense moments as Murphy leads some refugees away from the oncoming Japanese.The battle itself is the climax as Murphy with Gary Crosby and assorted help mows down row after row of charging Japanese. Now why the Japanese commander didn't size up the situation and wait for some artillery before getting all his troops slaughtered in a charge is a mystery to me. I'll be willing to bet that somewhere in the financing of this film was Gary's father who was always doing things like that for his sons. Good thing Bing had the sense to keep his name off the credits if he did.

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drystyx
1961/06/26

Audie Murphy made a lot of exciting movies, so how did he ever appear in this "thing"? By the standards of yesteryear it was as weak and pitiful as it is today. Murphy searches for his wife during World War 2 on a Japanese held island. There is a very mundane love triangle which no one cares about. The other characters are weeded out predictably and in the most contrived of scripts. It is by far the worst script Murphy has accepted that I know of. There is some action, but it is very hard to care. The film could have been taped in two hours, the way it looked. Historically, it has no value, either. Don't look for great acting. Murphy tries, but for what?

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sol1218
1961/06/27

(There are Spoilers) WWII movie involving a love triangle that takes placed on a Japanese occupied island in the Philippines. Since the fall of the Philippines in the spring of 1942 to the Japanese Army US contractor and foodstuff and ammunition supplier Craig Benson, Audie Murphy, has been trying to find out if his wife Ruth, Dolores Michaels, is either alive or dead. Sneaking onto the island to make contact with his US Army contemporary Sgt. Sackler, Gary Crosby, Craig is told that there are a number of guerrilla units in the area. Craig and his Philippine guide, provided to him by Sgt. Sackler, Blanco (Dale Ishimoto) hook up with this group of guerrilla's lead by an American named M'Keever, Williams Mims.It turns out that this M'Keever is nothing but a black market hustler who's playing both sides, the Japanese Army and Filipino guerrillas, down the middle and only want's the guns and supplies that Craig would supply to him and his men in order to sell them to the highest bidder. Attacked by M'Keever and his men when he got wise to him Craig and Blanco are then rescued by a real group of Philippine guerrillas lead by their handsome and charismatic leader Julio Fontana, Alejandro Rey. It's later found out to Craig's shock and surprise that his wife Ruth is part of Fontana's guerrilla unit and not only that she's also in loved with him.One of the few WWII movie's that authentic, not made in Hollywood, WWII war hero Audie Murphy ever made has him in hot water almost as soon as he lands on the island. With the Japanese attacking both Craig and the people, mostly American civilians, that he's assigned to bring back with him on a US submarine to Australia. Audie, or Craig Benson,is very troubled over his wife leaving him for another man, Julio, but the fact that he was thought to have been killed in the fighting against the Japanese in Battan/Carrigador two years earlier didn't mean that Ruth, whom at the time he was married to for about a week, betrayed or deserted him.With the US submarine delayed in it being spotted by a Japanese cruiser off shore Carig and Sgt. Sackler and about a dozen American and Filipino's hide out on an old battered and run aground ship waiting for either to be rescued by the US Navy or die fighting the Japanese Army.The Japanese, after they were first repulsed in very heavy fighting, in the person of Let. Lloyd Kino give the Americans an hour to surrender with Craig, who's a civilian combatant and not in uniform, to be shot if he surrenders or not; or else face a barrage of murderous Japanese artillery and mortar fire that would tear them and the ship that their hiding in apart.Earlier during the heavy fighting with the Japanese Sgt.Sackler dived into the ocean and in him trying to get to a nearby island for help and is attacked and killed by a shark. Picking up the ball, in so many words, and running with Craig goes on foot into the jungle to seek help from guerrilla units that are said to be in the area. Later when the Japanses are just about to overrun the ship and kill everyone on it, including Craig's estranged wife Ruth, Craig comes riding to their rescue with a full Philippine guerrilla company who put the Japanese attacker out on their heels and running for their lives. Heart-lifting ending with Ruth deciding to go back with Craig to the US submarine and the safety of friendly Australia instead of staying with Julio in his battle to liberate his people from the Japanese. For a while you would have thought that being with Jullio for some two years in the Philippine jungles would make Ruth forget about Craig, whom she thought was dead anyway. It's when Ruth was reunited with Craig and seeing just what a kind as well as the both modest, which Audie Murphy was in real life, and heroic person that he really was how in all sincerity could she let someone like him, who's just too good to be true, ever get away from her!

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