Already revered for making the seminal anti-war (World War I) film and the third Academy Award Best Picture winner All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), producer-director Lewis Milestone selected Harry Brown's novel (and screenwriter Robert Rossen) to make this highly thought of WW II drama which tells a story about the Lee platoon of the Texas Division (United States Infantry) that came ashore at an Italian beach near Salerno in 1943. Earl Robinson wrote a song and Millard Lampell provided the lyrics that are hauntingly and soulfully sung by Kenneth Spencer, comprising most of Freddie Rich's background score and filling in the details behind what was more than "just a little walk in the sun", to become an anthem for foot soldiers then and now.
The credits open with narration from an uncredited actor, Burgess Meredith, who ironically would go on to play real life war correspondent Ernie Pyle in a documentary style drama that similarly chronicles the lives of infantry soldiers (during the same war) titled Story of G.I. Joe (1945), the film which earned Robert Mitchum his only Academy Award nomination. After introducing the major characters, Meredith's voice-over is supplanted by the title song:
It was just a little walk In the warm Italian sun But it was not an easy thing And poets are writing The tale of that fight And songs for the children to sing
The music continues while the film opens with a night scene of the soldiers in their landing craft still a few miles offshore:
Let them sing of the men of the fighting platoon Let them sing of the job they done How they came across the sea to sunny Italy And took a little walk in the sun They took a little walk in the sun.
Almost from the start, it's apparent that the movie will not be like others from its genre, which are typically dominated by action sequences. Instead, A Walk in the Sun (1945) is a dialogue dominated picture that features at least ten character sketches which provide insight into the (kind of) men that fought in the (Texas division of the) infantry:
Rivera and Friedman, Tyne and Porter, A Texan from Jersey, and one from Dakota A Texan from out near Duluth, Minnesota Kansas, Maine and Tennessee, Lord God, They're all in the Texas Infantry They're all in the Texas Infantry
When the characters fall silent, the song and its lyrics fill in the blanks; the singer's voice plaintively wails while cinematographer Russell Harlan pans the line of dug in soldiers:
It's a long long time a man spends a waiting' waiting around in a war I think of a gal I've never seen The hair is black and her eyes are green Her name is Helen or maybe Irene It's a long long time for waiting I think of all the things I haven't done or love the women I haven't won It seems like my life ain't really begun It's a long long time a waiting'
Important details of their mission is initially revealed via this background music:
This is the story of one little job One day from dawn until noon Just one battle more in a long long war And the men of a single platoon It was 53 men started out that day Along the Italian shore And some of those were mighty good joes Who never see the sunrise anymore, poor boys They'll never see the sunrise anymore
When the task is complete and the day has been won, the song repeats its opening and concludes with these telltale words:
It's the walk that leads down through a Philippine town And it hits Highway seven, north of Rome; It's the same road they had coming out of Stalingrad It's the old Lincoln Highway back home It's where ever men fight to be free.
It stars Dana Andrews as Sergeant Tyne, who ultimately leads the frontal assault on a farmhouse that's a German stronghold after directing the destruction of a strategic bridge (the sergeants play a more prominent role because the platoon's lieutenant was mortally wounded before they even reached the beach); Richard Conte plays the machine gunner, Private Rivera; George Tyne plays Private Friedman; John Ireland plays a minister's son & Pvt. that verbally and somewhat poetically "writes" letters to his sister; Lloyd Bridges plays a former MN farmer, Sgt. Ward; Sterling Holloway plays the medic McWilliams; Norman Lloyd plays Pvt. Archimbeau, who always draws the toughest assignments; Herbert Rudley is initially second in command as Sgt. Porter, but gives way to Sgt. Tyne when he can't handle the pressure; Richard Benedict plays a New Yorker who speaks two languages, Brooklyn and Italian; Huntz Hall, George Offerman Jr. and Steve Brodie are among the many others.
The credits open with narration from an uncredited actor, Burgess Meredith, who ironically would go on to play real life war correspondent Ernie Pyle in a documentary style drama that similarly chronicles the lives of infantry soldiers (during the same war) titled Story of G.I. Joe (1945), the film which earned Robert Mitchum his only Academy Award nomination. After introducing the major characters, Meredith's voice-over is supplanted by the title song:
It was just a little walk In the warm Italian sun But it was not an easy thing And poets are writing The tale of that fight And songs for the children to sing
The music continues while the film opens with a night scene of the soldiers in their landing craft still a few miles offshore:
Let them sing of the men of the fighting platoon Let them sing of the job they done How they came across the sea to sunny Italy And took a little walk in the sun They took a little walk in the sun.
Almost from the start, it's apparent that the movie will not be like others from its genre, which are typically dominated by action sequences. Instead, A Walk in the Sun (1945) is a dialogue dominated picture that features at least ten character sketches which provide insight into the (kind of) men that fought in the (Texas division of the) infantry:
Rivera and Friedman, Tyne and Porter, A Texan from Jersey, and one from Dakota A Texan from out near Duluth, Minnesota Kansas, Maine and Tennessee, Lord God, They're all in the Texas Infantry They're all in the Texas Infantry
When the characters fall silent, the song and its lyrics fill in the blanks; the singer's voice plaintively wails while cinematographer Russell Harlan pans the line of dug in soldiers:
It's a long long time a man spends a waiting' waiting around in a war I think of a gal I've never seen The hair is black and her eyes are green Her name is Helen or maybe Irene It's a long long time for waiting I think of all the things I haven't done or love the women I haven't won It seems like my life ain't really begun It's a long long time a waiting'
Important details of their mission is initially revealed via this background music:
This is the story of one little job One day from dawn until noon Just one battle more in a long long war And the men of a single platoon It was 53 men started out that day Along the Italian shore And some of those were mighty good joes Who never see the sunrise anymore, poor boys They'll never see the sunrise anymore
When the task is complete and the day has been won, the song repeats its opening and concludes with these telltale words:
It's the walk that leads down through a Philippine town And it hits Highway seven, north of Rome; It's the same road they had coming out of Stalingrad It's the old Lincoln Highway back home It's where ever men fight to be free.
It stars Dana Andrews as Sergeant Tyne, who ultimately leads the frontal assault on a farmhouse that's a German stronghold after directing the destruction of a strategic bridge (the sergeants play a more prominent role because the platoon's lieutenant was mortally wounded before they even reached the beach); Richard Conte plays the machine gunner, Private Rivera; George Tyne plays Private Friedman; John Ireland plays a minister's son & Pvt. that verbally and somewhat poetically "writes" letters to his sister; Lloyd Bridges plays a former MN farmer, Sgt. Ward; Sterling Holloway plays the medic McWilliams; Norman Lloyd plays Pvt. Archimbeau, who always draws the toughest assignments; Herbert Rudley is initially second in command as Sgt. Porter, but gives way to Sgt. Tyne when he can't handle the pressure; Richard Benedict plays a New Yorker who speaks two languages, Brooklyn and Italian; Huntz Hall, George Offerman Jr. and Steve Brodie are among the many others.