Merrill's Marauders (1962)

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writers:

Milton Sperling (screenplay) and
Samuel Fuller (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

16 March 1962 (Finland)

Genre:

Adventure | War | Drama

Tagline:

True story! Incredible story!

Plot:

Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill leads the 3,000 American volunteers of his 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)...

Plot Keywords:

Battle | Burma | Platoon | Combat Fatigue | Gun

Cast

Jeff Chandler	...	Brig. Gen. Frank D. Merrill
Ty Hardin	...	2nd Lt. Lee Stockton
Peter Brown	...	Bullseye
Andrew Duggan	...	Capt. Abraham Lewis Kolodny, MD
Will Hutchins	...	Chowhound
Claude Akins	...	Sgt. Kolowicz
Luz Valdez	...	Burmese girl
John Hoyt	...	Gen. Joseph Stilwell
Charlie Briggs	...	Muley (as Charles Briggs)
Chuck Roberson	...	Officer
Chuck Hayward	...	Officer
Jack C. Williams	...	Doctor
Chuck Hicks	...	Cpl. Doskis
Vaughan Wilson	...	Bannister
Pancho Magalona	...	Taggy

Directed by
Samuel Fuller

Writing credits
Milton Sperling		(screenplay) and
Samuel Fuller		(screenplay)
Charlton Ogburn Jr.		(book)

Produced by
Milton Sperling	....	producer

Original Music by
Howard Jackson

Cinematography by
William H. Clothier		(director of photography) (as William Clothier)

Film Editing by
Folmar Blangsted

Makeup Department
Gordon Bau	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
William Magginetti	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
William Kissell	....	assistant director (as William Kissel)

Sound Department
Francis E. Stahl	....	sound (as Francis M. Stahl)

Special Effects by
Ralph Ayres	....	special effects

Stunts
Chuck Hicks	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Higino J. Fallorina	....	director of photography: second unit

Music Department
Max Steiner	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Franz Waxman	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Other crew
Vaughan Wilson	....	technical advisor (as Lt. Col. Samuel Wilson)

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures (presents)
• United States Pictures (as A United States Productions Photoplay)

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros.)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1965) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Warner Home Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Bros. (1962) (France) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• LVN Studios  Luz Valdez (through the courtesy of) (as L.V.N. Studio)
• Philippine Armed Forces  we are grateful for the cooperation of, whose participation contributed immeasurably to this dramatic reenactment of an inspiring page from history (as the Philippine Armed Forces)
• Sampaquita Studios  technical facilities
• United States Army's Special Forces  we are grateful for the cooperation of, whose participation contributed immeasurably to this dramatic reenactment of an inspiring page from history (as the United States Army's Special Forces)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | UK:U | Netherlands:12 (re-release) | USA:Approved (certificate #19905) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Philippines

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Bannister, Merrill's Aide de camp, was played by Lt. Col. Samuel Vaughan Wilson (credited as Vaughan Wilson), who was actually one of "Merrill's Marauders" and a survivor of the campaign.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Stock and the rest of his platoon reach the top of the mountain. The lower part of the left sleeve on his shirt has been cut away. It remains like this for the rest of the film and isn't explained until the last battle Stock has a wound on his arm and a bandaged has been applied but no wound was visible until after the final battle.

Quotes:

Bannister:Do you know what I'm going to do after the war? I'm going to get married and have six kids. Then I'm going to line them up and tell them what Burma was like. And if they don't cry, I'll beat the hell out of them.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera (1996)

Gut Check Theater

Though a war movie, "Merrill's Marauders" makes its deepest impressions in the scenes between the battles.

As a unit of exhausted American soldiers claw their way along a rocky slope, one falls to a screaming death. The others pause a moment to watch, then resume climbing.

At one village, a boy gives a crusty sergeant played by Claude Akins a bowl of rice. The sergeant tries to smile, only to break down instead.

"When you lead, you have to hurt people," General Merrill (Jeff Chandler) tells his prize officer "Stock" (Ty Hardin). "The enemy, and sometimes your own."

Sam Fuller was a war vet as well as a director. In making his war films, he struggled to keep it real while at the same time delivering popular entertainment. "Merrill's Marauders" leans too much in the latter direction, with hokey battle scenes and gung-ho narration. But Chandler and Hardin provide sympathetic rooting interests. The cinematography by William Clothier captures riverine landscapes in all their harsh and wild beauty.

The real story of the 5307th Composite Unit and its role in retaking Burma provides a solid backdrop for Fuller's cold view of war and its human toll. Of the 3,000 troops that started out, only 100 remained standing at the end, typhus and Japanese taking equal measure of the rest. Merrill's decision to press forward ("If they've got a single ounce of strength left, they can fight!") is portrayed as a cruel necessity, this much softened from the real GI take on Merrill's boss, Vinegar Joe Stilwell. Stilwell was roundly hated by the Marauders for pushing his boys too hard.

This is something we don't see here. Cooperation with the U.S. military required some futzing on Fuller's part, which he did in hopes of following it with a pet project regarding his own World War II experience that would only emerge 18 years later: "The Big Red One".

The battle scenes feel forced and phony. Fuller himself would complain nobody dies in war as neatly as in movies, and you see that a lot here. A perversely favorite moment for me is when a soldier named "Bullseye" shoots a Japanese soldier off of a watchtower. The soldier starts to fall, then pauses, grabs a baluster, and performs a neat tuck-and-roll in the direction of an offscreen mat.

The one battle scene that works, even with the inane fanfare scoring that is this film's single worst element, is a fight through a maze-like warren of train-support blocks at the railhead town of Shaduzup. Japanese and American soldiers appear and fall in random, endless waves. I don't think soldiers in World War II really called each other "knothead", but moments like those at Shaduzup really connect and help to pull this film over the finish line - however raggedly.

Though probably a bit too rah-rah for Fuller's fans, "Merrill's Marauders" packs a punch and some moments of affecting surprise.