ATTACK !

Based on Norman Brooks' 1954 play, FRAGILE FOX, Robert Aldrich's ATTACK! (1956) is a superb WWII film featuring an absolutely outstanding cast. 

Eddie Albert stars as the cowardly Captain Cooney, a man who has gained rank due to political connections. He's afraid to actually engage the enemy in the field but is happy to send platoon after platoon of doomed men into the line of fire. Lt. Woodruff (William Smithers) knows Cooney is a coward and wants to see him relieved of command while Lt. Col. Bartlett (Lee Marvin), believes in not rocking the boat until Cooney's cowardice becomes unavoidable in the last act of the film. 

But it's Lt. Costa (Jack Palance) and his men that suffer the most under Cooney. They are the ones that have to carry out his suicidal attack plans. Costa's platoon consists of Bernstein (Robert Strauss), Snowden (Richard Jaeckel), Tolliver (Buddy Ebsen) and Ingersol (blink and you'll miss him Strother Martin). Costa becomes so frustrated by Cooney's cowardice that he threatens to take matters into his own hands and kill the man (who suffers a breakdown when faced with the results of his decisions). 

Aldrich and screenwriter James Poe do much to open up the action of the play and do their best to minimize the stagy, set bound talky sequences by including some well staged action sequences. The cast is top notch and the whole thing resembles a practice run for Aldrich's masterpiece THE DIRTY DOZEN ( 19567). 

 ATTACK! is a cynical, hard boiled look at combat and the men who are forced to carry out the orders of their commanding officers, even when those orders spell death. Tough and unflinching this is one helluva great war film. 

Highly recommended.