Movie Review: Too Late For Tears (1949)

Also Known As: Killer Bait  

Genre: Crime Noir  

Director: Byron Haskin  

Starring: Lizabeth Scott, Dan Duryea, Arthur Kennedy, Don DeFore, Kristine Miller  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: Married couple Alan and Jane Palmer (Arthur Kennedy and Lizabeth Scott) stumble onto a bag full of ill-gotten but untraceable cash. He wants to immediately contact the police, but she believes this is their big opportunity to be rich, and convinces him to wait one week. They store the bag at a train station, but Jane anyway embarks on a spending spree. With Alan still insisting they need to do the right thing, Jane spots an opportunity to achieve her dreams when criminal Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) shows up to demand his money.

What Works Well: This is an unpredictable noir exploring emotions tested by unexpected wealth. Jane Palmer is an unforgettable greed-driven force of evil, and Lizabeth Scott's searing performance brings an epic femme fatale to life. Jane has never met a man she cannot manipulate, and dark references to her first marriage suggest she has been playing this game for a long time. In Roy Huggins' screenplay (based on his own book), every role surrounding her matters, and the small but effective cast shines with intensity. Alan's sister Kathy (Kristine Miller) and his wartime buddy Don (Don DeFore) gain prominence as the twisty machinations unfold.

What Does Not Work As Well: Some of the plot details are clunkily convenient.

Conclusion: But not too late for murder, seduction, and multiple layers of subterfuge.



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Movie Review: Rancho Notorious (1952)

Genre: Western

Director: Fritz Lang

Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer

Running Time: 89 minutes

Synopsis: After his fiancée Beth is murdered in a botched robbery, mild-mannered Wyoming rancher Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy) vows revenge and sets-off to track the killer. His pursuit to leads him to suave gunslinger Frenchy Fairmont (Mel Ferrer) and ex-saloon girl Altar Keane (Marlene Dietrich), who now runs the secluded Chuck-a-Luck ranch for fugitives near the Mexican border. Vern falls in love with Altar and melds in with a group of bandits at the ranch, believing one of them is his target.

What Works Well: This western is elevated above routine by a packed agenda and quality delivery. Writer Daniel Taradash opens with a fervent kiss, then augments traditional themes of loss, revenge, and a love triangle with flashbacks and a challenging crime-as-a-woman-owned-business sub-story. In vivid Technicolor, director Fritz Lang adds nervous energy to Vern's descent into a life of crime, and stages several scenes with theatrical panache. Marlene Dietrich (a woman with too much luggage), Arthur Kennedy (the rancher on an unwanted quest), and Mel Ferrer (the fast gun desperate for one constant in his life) create an effective lead trio.

What Does Not Work As Well: The Legend of Chuck-A-Luck sung by Bill Lee over the credits is truly awful, and some of the painted sets are of the obvious cardboard variety. The long line-up of suspects adds spice to Vern's search, but the men remain insufficiently differentiated.

Conclusion: Thoughtfully explores pitfalls along the red mist journey.



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Movie Review: Nevada Smith (1966)

An epic western, Nevada Smith is a grand tale of revenge and coming-of-age.

In the 1890s, outlaws Fitch (Karl Malden), Coe (Martin Landau), and Bowdre (Arthur Kennedy) murder the parents of Max Sand (Steve McQueen), a half-breed young man. Despite no education and no experience in killing, Max vows revenge and sets off to find the killers. He receives gun training from traveling gunsmith Jonas Cord (Brian Keith), then Kiowa woman Neesa (Janet Margolin) helps him identify Coe, a professional gambler and expert knifeman.

Max then locates Bowdre incarcerated in Louisiana, and stages a robbery to join him in a brutal prison located deep in the swamp lands. Max befriends Bowdre and plots an escape, using local woman Pilar (Suzanne Pleshette) to provide them with a boat. Max's final challenge is to find Fitch, now the leader of a large outlaw gang. He adopts the name Nevada Smith to mask his growing reputation and gain Fitch's trust.

Directed by Henry Hathaway and written by John Michael Hayes, Nevada Smith is inspired by a character in Harold Robbins' 1961 book The Carpetbaggers. This is a richly textured western with a story of personal growth unfolding over multiple chapters. Visually beautiful, the engrossing story of revenge fuelled by blind fury easily sustains 131 minutes of screen time.

Steve McQueen at 35 years old does struggle to convey a young Max Sand in the early scenes, and often appears more goofy than naive. As the narrative progresses, Hathaway could have helped by sharpening the definition of the passing years. Regardless, McQueen improves towards the latter segments, and his cool persona is fully meshed with his character for the final confrontation with Fitch.

Along the way, the Louisiana prison sequence is almost a film within a film and introduces a unique setting to the western milieu. Max's long detour to a brutal prison camp and the dangerous surrounding swamps carries a singular and memorable intensity.

At the metaphysical level, Max starts out as an empty vessel knowing only his family then pure evil and hatred. His arc introduces him to a good man in Jonas Cord, two good women from each side of his heritage in Neesa and Pilar, the meaning of a nurturing community with the Kiowa tribe, and finally God, through an encounter with Father Zaccardi (Raf Vallone). By the time Max is ready to close the chapter of his parents' death, he is mature, educated and much wiser to the world and his potential within it.

Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy, Brian Keith and Vallone offer robust support without stealing any scenes. Suzanne Pleshette does leave a haunting impression, her Pilar a prisoner without a crime sacrificing everything for a man while still oblivious to his potential for exploitativeness. Nevada Smith searches for a violent brand justice, but stumbles upon the compassion and humanity required for a different future.

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Movie Review: Bend Of The River (1952)

A sturdy western, Bend Of The River is the story of homesteaders making their way west, and the resourceful men who can either help or victimize the new wave of settlers.

Glyn McLyntock (James Stewart) is leading a large convoy of wagons carrying optimistic farmers towards new pastures in Oregon. Jeremy Baile (Jay C. Flippen) is the grizzled leader of the settlers, and the group includes his headstrong daughters Laurie (Julie Adams) and Marjie (Lori Nelson). Laurie and Glyn are attracted to each other, but stop short of expressing any true affection. After making camp one evening, Glyn scouts ahead and stumbles onto a lynching-in-progress: he saves Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy) from the noose. The two men recognize each other: they were both frontier raiders on the Missouri - Kansas border, and both are trying to find new starts away from chequered pasts.

Emerson joins the convoy and proves to be handy in overcoming the challenges of the trail, including fending off a raid by Shoshone Indians, during which Laurie suffers an arrow wound and Emerson saves Glyn's life. The convoy gets to Portland, where they meet professional gambler Trey Wilson (Rock Hudson) and local businessman Tom Hendricks (Howard Petrie). Glyn and Jeremy lead the settlers to remote hillside territory to establish the farming community, but their resupply plans are disrupted by an unexpected gold rush that consumes Portland. With Hendricks reneging on his deals and the settler community facing starvation over the winter, Glyn has to take matters into his own hands and joins forces with Jeremy, Emerson and Trey on a dangerous cross-mountain trek, although the lure of gold means that trust is in short supply.

The second collaboration between director Anthony Mann and star James Stewart, Bend Of The River is filled with characters, incidents, and fundamental questions about redemption and second chances. The film is as much an exploration of events as it is a thoughtful probing of the nature of the men who shaped the west, and the screenplay by Borden Chase finds a pleasing balance between action and character development.

Mutual suspicion colliding with the absolute need to trust forms the core of the film. Glyn and Emerson circle each other, each identifying both the danger and potential that resides in the other man. They are quickly indebted to each other and forced to collaborate, although neither is ever quite sure where loyalties will ultimately land. Jeremy has no choice: his group of settlers needs men like Glyn and Emerson to make it to safety and then to survive at the remote settlement. Jeremy will either trust men like Glyn and Emerson, or die. And there are always wildcards in the form of the gambler Trey and businessman Hendricks. They are out to make a buck one way or another, but whether it's principled or opportunistic profit could mean the difference between death and survival for Jeremy and his family.

And the fundamental question is whether men like Glyn and Emerson can change, from social outcasts to community builders. In the one area where the film falls short, the script tackles this issue loudly and repeatedly, the social message delivered with a jackhammer rather than any subtlety.

Mann and cinematographer Irving Glassberg colour the screen with the gorgeous scenery of the Pacific Northwest, with snow-capped mountains and the rich green forests creating a majestic backdrop. Equally impressive is the recreation of Portland as a frontier town, at first a staid and welcoming place and then a riotous town overrun by prospectors and profiteers. There is always something stunning to look at in Bend Of The River, and it's almost always beautiful.

James Stewart and Arthur Kennedy are excellent in the two central roles as frontiersmen who are the same yet potentially different. Stewart reveals Glyn's conflict as a man not comfortable admitting that his past is suspect, and fighting for his second chance in as dignified a manner as the west will allow. Kennedy allows Emerson to be, if anything, more honest. More comfortable with his past, Emerson will reform only on his own terms, and if the price is not too high.

Bend Of The River is a symbolic juncture where decisions will need to be made, trading off personal gain for societal benefit: not all men will turn in the same direction.

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Movie Review: Fantastic Voyage (1966)

A unique science fiction adventure about a group of miniaturized scientists traveling through a human body, Fantastic Voyage is full of bright ideas brought to life with energetic execution and admirable special effects.

The US is embroiled in a secret race with the Soviet Union to master miniaturization technology for military purposes. Scientist Jan Benes defects to the US, but suffers a brain injury in the process and slips into a coma. Benes has key knowledge that could help in overcoming the 60 minute limit currently hampering miniaturization efforts. At the secret Combined Miniaturized Deterrent Forces facility, General Carter (Edmond O'Brien) recruits agent Grant (Stephen Boyd) to provide security on-board the experimental submarine Proteus, which is about to be miniaturized and injected into Benes' bloodstream to find and remove the damage affecting his brain. The rest of the submarine team consists of Captain Owens (William Redfield), human physiology expert Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasence), laser surgeon Dr. Duval (Arthur Kennedy) and his assistant Cora (Raquel Welch).

Carter and Grant suspect that there is a traitor within the group, and once the journey starts inside Benes' body, little goes according to plan. Michaels suffers from claustrophobia, the submarine is buffeted by turbulence and knocked off course. The laser surgery tool is sabotaged, and the sub suffers an air supply leak. A re-route requires a dangerous trip through the heart, forcing Carter to order that Benes' heart be temporarily stopped. With time running out, the crew decide to take a hazardous short-cut through the inner ear to the brain, but again there are problems, as the mission is jeapordized by the unknown traitor and Benes' own body working to defend itself against the foreign objects floating within it.

Combining a 1950s sci-fi mentality with 1960s special effects, Fantastic Voyage is visionary kitsch. With the space race in full swing and the cold war at high heat, there is no denying the inventiveness of turning the exploration theme inwards, and transforming the concept of flying through endless space into navigating the smallest capillaries of the human body. The Harry Kleiner screenplay (with four others sharing story and adaptation credits) efficiently introduces the set-up, and cleverly integrates the not-yet-perfect miniaturization science into the cold war tension, with secret military labs and threats from saboteurs thrown in to create numerous opportunities for drama.

Director Richard Fleischer and cinematographer Ernest Laszlo then weave together the visuals, and create a creditable environment with a succession of stunning backdrops mostly inspired by ocean depths. For the most part, the special effects have held up remarkably well.

The adventures of Proteus within the human body are never dull, the incredible obstacles and dangers of traveling through the human body becoming a thrill ride heightened by the subversive attempts to sabotage the mission. Fleischer constructs the film in the form of an obstacle course with a surprise around every corner. The scientists are forced to rely on their ingenuity to problem solve on the fly, including frequent excursions out of the submarine to circumvent, fix, or innovate their way through the latest crisis.

Slightly less successful are the goings-on back in the secret lab as anxious military and medical types monitor the mission's progress. Some of the buffoonish attempts at tension and humour in the control room do not work, and fully deserve the parodies that they inspired in films like Airplane!.

The performances are generally bland, and this is a good thing, since there is enough stimulation in the premise, backdrops and special effects not to require flashy acting. Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasence, Arthur Kennedy, Raquel Welch and William Redfield maintain an even keel. For the most part Welch remains subdued and is surprisingly convincing as a scientist's assistant. She stays under the wraps of her mundane submariner outfit, although late in the film she starts forgetting to fully zip up her top. Kennedy's Dr. Duval attempts some clunky philosophizing inspired by the journey through the human body, at regular intervals spouting weighty but meaningless musings about humanity, life and the order of things.

Innovative, audacious and sometimes campy, Fantastic Voyage lives up to its name.

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Movie Review: Terror Storm (1978)

A cheapo disaster / horror hybrid from Mexican schlockmeister René Cardona Jr., Terror Storm (also known as Cyclone) features horrid production values, atrocious performances, and a few former Hollywood types embarrassing themselves.

A massive storm unexpectedly wallops the Caribbean near an unnamed island. Out at sea, a plane is caught in the turbulence and crashes into the ocean. A fishing boat capsizes, and a tourist boat is stranded without power. The rescue effort is slow in coming. The survivors from the three incidents eventually converge onto the tourist boat, where water and food are running low, tensions are high, and the sharks are circling.

Cardona Jr. made a small career out of budget disaster films in the 1970s, ripping off the decade-long obsession with the genre and cobbling together Mexican / Italian / Spanish co-productions with enough funding to attract a few fading stars. Terror Storm features a sudden Caribbean storm, a plane crash, cannibalism (with crunchier details in the longer "international" version) and a late-in-the-day shark attack, all filmed using bargain-basement techniques, stock footage, and oh-so-obvious not-so-special effects.

To give credit where due, Terror Storm offers up several moral dilemmas worth mulling over, and the film's best moments are in the form of group discussions. Should a pet dog be treated with humanity and provided with precious water in dire circumstances. As the number of survivors on the tourist boat increases, the rationing of water supplies becomes an issue. And finally when cannibalism has to be considered, the topic is debated with some thoughtfulness.

But the few good moments are comprehensively swamped by the prevailing awfulness. The cyclone scenes on the island consist of detached shots of rushing water that appear to be sourced from a documentary. When extras are hit with water, mostly on the crashing plane, it is laughably obvious that they are being hosed down. And once the sharks start munching, they feast on undefined slabs of meat wrapped in white cloth, simulating the human victims. Unsuccessfully.

The dialogue is agonizing, and particularly during the on-island scenes, the words are delivered by actors with blank looks that scream for a mercy killing. Somehow, Arthur Kennedy (as a preacher), Carroll Baker (as the insufferable dog owner) and Lionel Stander (as a pompous tycoon) ended up in this mess, and all three ham it up with bewildering excitedness that does nothing to set their careers back on any sort of recovery. Needless to say, the set design is virtually non-existent. Terror Storm is a tedious exercise in waiting for the sharks to arrive and save the day.

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The Movies Of Arthur Kennedy

All movies starring Arthur Kennedy and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

High Sierra (1941)

They Died With Their Boots On (1941)

Too Late For Tears (1949)

Bend Of The River (1952)

Rancho Notorious (1952)

The Lusty Men (1952)

The Desperate Hours (1955)

Peyton Place (1957)

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

Nevada Smith (1966)

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Anzio (1968)

Terror Storm (1978)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Desperate Hours (1955)

A well-executed hostage drama, The Desperate Hours features one of Humphrey Bogart's final performances as he plays a hardened, desperate fugitive trying to make one last stand.

Dangerous convicts Glenn Griffin (Bogart), his brother Hal (Dewey Martin), and the lumbering Simon Kobish (Robert Middleton) escape from prison and randomly choose the suburban Indianapolis home of businessman Daniel Hilliard (Fredric March) to seek refuge. The family consists of Daniel's wife Ellie (Martha Scott), their teenaged daughter Cindy (Mary Murphy) and young Ralphie (Richard Eyer), now held hostage in their own home. Griffin connects with his out-of-town girlfriend with instructions to deliver a large sum of money to the Hilliard address.

Deputy Sheriff Jesse Bard (Arthur Kennedy) organizes a search for the escapees, but progress is slow. In the meantime the wait for the money takes longer than expected and the home occupation drags beyond one day. Griffin allows Daniel to go to work and Cindy to go out on a date with her fiancé Chuck (Gig Young) to maintain a semblance of normalcy in the neighbourhood. But the strain of the hostage ordeal starts to take a toll, tensions mount between Griffin and Daniel and among the convicts, while innocent visitors to the house stumble into mortal danger.

An adaptation of a Joseph Hayes novel (inspired by real events) and a subsequent Broadway stage production which starred Paul Newman, The Desperate Hours deviates from the typical hostage drama by affording the victims some flexibility of movement. Griffin allows Daniel and Cindy to repeatedly come and go from the house unsupervised, on the pretext they will not dare alert the authorities as long as Ellie and Ralphie are under threat at home. It's a tenuous argument. While the freedom of movement increases location diversity, expands the tension into Daniel's workplace and draws the fiancé Chuck into the drama, it also undermines Griffin's competency.

Otherwise director William Wyler crafts a tidy and tense thriller, capitalizing on a clash of two strong central characters. The career criminal with his cohorts and the well-to-do businessman with his family are suddenly forced to deal with each other, and it's a well-staged duel spiced by the brewing unease between Griffin and the boorish Simon Kobish. Cindy's presence as an attractive young woman caught in the clutches of desperate men adds a further element of menace, with Griffin's ability to control Kobish's primal urges always in question.

A strong police dragnet eventually corners the escaped convicts, but the script (by Hayes) is always aiming for a man to man final confrontation, the hardened criminal and the family man destined to determine the outcome. Hilliard realizes he is in the best position to help his family, deploying strategy to compensate for his lack of natural aggression.

Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March are both excellent, two veterans enjoying the thrill of sparring. Bogart's star power meant he landed the role ahead of Newman, and Glenn Griffin evolved into an older character to suit the actor. Bogart referred to Griffin as "Duke Mantee grown up" in reference to his career-making role in 1936's The Petrified Forest. Fittingly, The Desperate Hours proved to be Bogart's final gangster, as he passed away the following year after just one more release.

Bogart's last outlaw wants a measure of revenge against a system designed to defeat him. Surrounded by the domesticity he never experienced, Glenn Griffin unleashes his fury on hostile suburban normalcy.

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Movie Review: They Died With Their Boots On (1941)

An ambitious biographical epic, They Died With Their Boots On is a stellar example of grand storytelling, Hollywood style. The chequered history of George Custer makes for an action-packed and yet human story, recounted with impressive vigour and traces of humour.

Before the Civil War, George Custer (Errol Flynn) enlists at West Point Military Academy with ambitions to join the cavalry. He proves to be an undisciplined free spirit, unable to follow rules, his record tarnished with frequent transgressions. He clashes with fellow cadet Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy), and meets and falls in love with Elizabeth Bacon (Olivia de Havilland), the daughter of businessman Samuel Bacon (Gene Lockhart).

When the Civil War does erupt Custer is rushed into service in the Union Army despite his unpromising performance. Lieutenant General Winfield Scott (Sydney Greenstreet) takes a shine to the young man and assigns him to the Cavalry. Custer proves to be an unconventional and fearless military commander, incurring losses but achieving significant victories. In the chaos of war, he is quickly promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He marries Elizabeth, continues to lead his troops from the front, and contributes to the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg.

In a post-war funk Custer crosses path with Sharp, now part of an unscrupulous railroad expansion business cartel. Custer refuses to go into business, rejoins the military and is assigned to command Fort Lincoln deep in the Dakota Territory. With Indians under the leadership of Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) still ruling the territories and threatening trade routes, Custer gets help from grizzled old-timer California Joe (Charley Grapewin) and sets about to whip the fort regiment into shape and forge peace. But events and corporate interests will conspire against him, culminating in the Battle of Little Big Horn.

An enthusiastic version of the Custer story, They Died With Their Boots On is a galloping 140 minutes packed with adventure, war, politics and ultimately tragedy. Director Raoul Walsh expertly paces the film to alternate swashbuckling moments of Flynn doing what Flynn does best with more measured character-building scenes, delving into quieter moments where politicians, generals and businessmen helped to shape the key events in his life. The one missing aspect is Custer's childhood and upbringing, but the film is none the poorer for the omission. He arrives at West Point as an oddball adult, and remains a true contrarian throughout his colourful career.

In the context of Hollywood's early 1940s era, They Died With Their Boots On is remarkably accurate. Custer's abject mediocrity at West Point, his unexpected over-achievement in the Civil War, his bold battlefield tactics, his post-war involvement in the intersection of politics with commerce, and the romance with Elizabeth Bacon are all represented, and bring to life a rounded hero rightfully celebrated in his time. His last stand and demise at Little Big Horn are romanticized in Custer's favour as a great sacrifice, but the film is commendable for capturing a compelling Custer with all his faults, and all his strengths.

The film boasts a progressive portrayal of the Indian tribes, who are presented as defending their land, willing to accept peace, and then victims of a betrayal driven by unscrupulous business interests.  The screenplay (by Æneas MacKenzie, Wally Kline and Lenore J. Coffee) also excels at injecting the typically ignored backroom machinations of business and politics, providing the movie with an added dimension of intrigue outside the more traditional battlefield exploits. And throughout Custer's adventures, moments of humour and human traits and foibles are teased out, turning the legend into a man.

They Died With Their Boots On was the eighth and final teaming of Flynn and de Havilland. They are easily comfortable with each other, their romance and marriage an inspiration and then foundation for Custer's exploits. Their last scene together is prolonged and poignant: Custer's farewell to Elizabeth as he prepares for the fateful battle with Crazy Horse is carefully constructed by Walsh to heighten the impending tragedy. Flynn and de Havilland give the scene a deep maturity as the couple dance around what needs to be fully understood but absolutely unsaid. Flynn again demonstrates admirable range and no shortage of charisma in the acting scenes, while Arthur Kennedy as Ned Sharp is a worthy and tenacious adversary.

Custer's legacy was much more than just his final stand, and They Died With Their Boots On flamboyantly celebrates an adventure-seeking maverick who lived life to the fullest.

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Movie Review: Anzio (1968)

An occasionally clunky World War II movie preoccupied with questioning the value of war, Anzio enjoys some moments of good combat tension wedged within tentative commentary about why men fight.

Thoughtful war correspondent Dick Ennis (Robert Mitchum) joins the US Army Rangers as they successfully execute an unopposed landing on the beaches of Anzio, out-flanking the stalemated Italian front. Battle-hardened Colonel Jack Rabinoff (Peter Falk) is an expert at incursions behind enemy lines, and along with Ennis realizes the road to Rome is wide open: the Germans have been caught flat-footed, and a bold drive forward by the Rangers could achieve a spectacular victory. But the US General in command, Jack Lesley (Arthur Kennedy), is careful, insisting that the beachhead be fortified before any inland incursions. The delay allows German Field Marshall Kesselring (Wolfgang Preiss) to regroup and plan a sturdy defence.

By the time several hundred Rangers move forward on a scouting mission with Ennis in tow, they are ambushed by an overwhelming German force, and the Rangers take high casualties. Rabinoff, Ennis and a few others survive but are trapped behind enemy lines, and have to use a combination of stealth and hit-and-run tactics to chart a tortuous path back to the beach.

An American-Italian co-production produced by the master of cut-rate epics Dino De Laurentiis, Anzio aims high but is missing the quality lamination needed to achieve its vision. The script (a four person collaboration to adapt a book) is full of good ideas, but the writing is dull and the execution perfunctory. Director Edward Dmytryk gives the impression of going through the motions, failing to add excitement or sharpness when presented with opportunities.

Robert Mitchum trudges through the countryside carrying quite a few pounds more than he needs to, and generally delivers a performance alternating between leaden and predictable. It's left to Peter Falk to invigorate the narrative, but his character is made interesting through interpolation rather than action. Preiss gets one and a half scenes, but he is effective as Kesselring first frantically tries to react to the unexpected landing and then regains the upper hand as the Americans fumble the initiative. The likes of Robert Ryan, Reni Santoni, Earl Holliman and Mark Damon fill out the cast.

Anzio does enjoy a few highlights. Dmytryk finally comes to life when Ennis and the Rangers have to traverse a minefield under the threat of a menacing tank, and the final cat-and-mouse battle with deadly German snipers is reasonably well handled, although tellingly this duel materializes without context.

When Ennis and Rabinoff are not in the heat of battle, they spend a lot of time talking about why wars are fought and why men insist on killing each other. Both Ennis and Rabinoff have good excuses to be safely back home, and both have decided they prefer to remain participants rather than observers, although they may not know exactly why. Anzio sides with anti-war sentiments and the moments of reflection do resonate, both characters benefiting from a modicum of enhanced compassion.

Like the beach landing itself, Anzio builds anticipation for fireworks, but washes up onto the shore rather uneventfully.

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