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Plot summary
Sergeant Zack is the one man left alive after his surrendered unit is massacred in Korea, spared because a bullet hits his helmet rather than his head. Bound and wounded, he is freed by a Buddhist boy who treats his wounds; when the boy refuses to leave, Zack calls him Short Round and brings him along. The pair meet Corporal Thompson, a medic and the only survivor of his platoon, and a patrol commanded by the untested Lieutenant Driscoll, whose men say Thompson deliberately left his unit. Zack agrees to lead the patrol to a Buddhist temple and set up an observation post there.
Cast
- Richard Monahanas Private Baldy
- William Chunas Short Round
- Harold Fongas The Red
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Steel Helmet (1951)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Samuel Fuller cast Gene Evans as Sergeant Zack, turned down a major studio's wish to make the film with John Wayne, and threatened to quit when producers wanted Evans replaced by Larry Parks; Mickey Knox said he was Fuller's first choice and declined.
SPOILER
The film angered some in the American military, above all for a scene in which Sergeant Zack kills a prisoner of war. Questioned by Army personnel, Fuller said he had often witnessed such acts in World War II and had his former commander, Brigadier General George A. Taylor, phone the Pentagon to confirm it.- The film contains what may be the first mention in a Hollywood movie of the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, spoken by a North Korean soldier.
- Fuller shot The Steel Helmet in ten days in October 1950, using Griffith Park for exteriors and hiring 25 UCLA students as extras; it cost $104,000.
- Actor James Edwards, who portrays Corporal Thompson in The Steel Helmet, suffered a broken nose during filming of the Korean War drama.
- The Steel Helmet was the first American film about the Korean War and the first of several war films made by Samuel Fuller.
