Battleground (1949) on Netflix
Private Jim Layton joins a 101st Airborne squad near Bastogne in December 1944, alongside Private First Class Holley, back from a wound. German attacks and snow keep Allied planes on the ground.
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Plot summary
In mid-December 1944, Privates Jim Layton and William J. Hooper join a company of the 101st Airborne Division, and Layton gets a chilly welcome from his new squad. Private First Class Holley rejoins the unit after recovering from a wound. A German push through the Ardennes sends the men back to the front instead of to Paris on leave. Billeted in Bastogne at the apartment of a young woman named Denise, Holley takes an interest in her, while Jarvess, on guard, meets battle-weary troops retreating through the town. The next morning Platoon Sergeant Kinnie leads them out to dig defensive positions, but they are moved and start digging again. Overnight, enemy soldiers in American uniforms slip into the position and blow up a bridge nearby.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Battleground (1949)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The part of Staff Sergeant Kinnie was offered first to Spencer Tracy, who refused it; Wellman and Pirosh then wanted Broadway actor and former Marine James Whitmore, but producers insisted on a bigger name, and James Mitchell was cast and then fired before shooting because Wellman doubted his physicality.
- Battleground was first an RKO property, retitled "Prelude to Love" to hide its subject, and was shelved when production head Dore Schary resigned, though $100,000 had gone into it. Schary bought the script back for MGM over Louis B. Mayer's objection that audiences were tired of war films.
- At MGM, Robert Taylor, a former navy officer, and Keenan Wynn were penciled in, and Wellman put the cast through military training with Taylor, who dropped out believing the role was not right for him; Van Johnson replaced him.
- Shooting finished 20 days ahead of schedule, helped by Dore Schary having the film processed as it was shot so scenes could be dubbed, cut and previewed within two days, and the picture came in almost $100,000 under budget.
- Screenwriter Robert Pirosh based the script on his own Battle of the Bulge experiences, though he served with the 35th Infantry Division, not the 101st Airborne. Real incidents include Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe's one-word "Nuts!" reply to a German surrender demand on December 22, 1944.
- For the indoor filming, the crew turned a meteorological oddity to advantage, putting fog machines that sprayed vaporized light mineral oil at strategic positions so the indoor currents would waft the fog where they wanted it; the constant fog over more than seven weeks killed the desire to smoke.
- Twenty veterans of the 101st Airborne were hired to train the actors and appeared in the film as extras, and Lt Col Harry Kinnard, the division's deputy commander at Bastogne, was the film's technical advisor.
- James Whitmore was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for his performance in the film, it was only his second-ever film role.
