What Price Glory (1952)

The wartime romantic misadventures of Captain Flagg, commander of a company of US Marines in 1918 France.

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Phoebe Ephron (screenplay), Henry Ephron (screenplay)

Stars:

James Cagney, Corinne Calvet, Dan Dailey

Cast

Complete credited cast:
James Cagney	...	Capt. Flagg
Corinne Calvet	...	Charmaine
Dan Dailey	...	1st Sgt. Quirt
William Demarest	...	Cpl. Kiper
Craig Hill	...	Lt. Aldrich
Robert Wagner	...	Pvt. Lewisohn
Marisa Pavan	...	Nicole Bouchard
Max Showalter	...	Lt. Moore (as Casey Adams)
James Gleason	...	Gen. Cokely
Wally Vernon	...	Lipinsky
Henri Letondal	...	Cognac Pete

Storyline

In 1918 France, Captain Flagg commands a disreputable company of Marines; his new top sergeant is his old friendly enemy, Quirt. The two men become rivals for the favors of fair innkeeper's daughter Charmaine, but the rivalry goes into reverse when Charmaine proves to be angling for a husband. When the company is ordered to the front, this comedy interlude gives way to the grim realities of war.

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Plot Keywords:

marines | military uniform | u.s. military | american abroad | trench warfare | 

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Taglines:

The New "What Price Glory" [as opposed to the classic 1926 silent version]

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jack Pennick was also in the 1926 version.

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Goofs

When Flagg and Quirt crawl through the lines in search of prisoners, Flagg picks up a German helmet and places it on his head. In the next sequence he is bare headed but he wears it in the farm house.

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Quotes

Lt. Moore: What about those three men who were supposed to go up to Le Mans to get the Croix de Guerre?
Captain Flagg: Oh, yeah. Yes, yes. All right, get 'em out of the guardhouse and have 'em take a bath and send 'em over with an MP escort.

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Connections

Version of What Price Glory (1926)

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Soundtracks

Smiles
(uncredited)
Music by Lee S. Roberts
Lyrics by J. Will Callahan
Sung in the background when Sgt. Quirt returns

User Reviews

"March the bridegroom off to war"

In the mid-1920s, when What Price Glory? debuted as a play and was filmed for the first time, there was a popular anti-war mood, and cultural works attacking the First World War proliferated. In the early-1950s, with World War Two a recent memory and the Korean war still going on, war movies of every kind were at the height of their popularity, but there was no way they could be openly anti-militaristic. Hence, when Fox Studios decided to resurrect the classic story in 1952 it was largely a comical and de-politicised affair.

With a screenplay by Henry and Phoebe Ephron, this version of What Price Glory? uses virtually none of Maxwell Anderson's original dialogue. The job of direction was handed to John Ford, who was known for staging extended improvisations, creating little vignettes of military life with comical drunkenness and good-natured fistfights. In What Price Glory? this is done to the extent that it actually overshadows any semblance of plot. And not just the anti-war business; the romantic subplots seem weak and disjointed as well.

That's not to say there aren't some good things about this picture. The Technicolor cinematography by Joe MacDonald is often breathtaking, giving a haunting quality to the mist-shrouded battlegrounds. Ford was as always a good visual director, often using stark contrasts in depth to bring different ideas to our attention in the one shot. For example, as the troops march off to the front, a mass of drab browns and greys, we see Corinne Calvet in a bold red, white and blue dress – a human flag and a reminder of what the men are leaving behind them. And James Cagney is good fun in one of his purely comic roles.

But there is little else to recommend about this What Price Glory? Various scenes look to have been filmed with an emphasis on pathos, but they don't work within the structure of the whole thing. When a young Robert Wagner makes the central speech in which the words of the title are spoken, it seems barely to relate to the rest of the picture. And it's not the mixing of comedy with the realities of war per se that makes it fall apart – after all this is the basis of such classics as The Big Parade and MASH – it's just that the balance is wrong. It simply fails to take the war seriously enough, and the "serious" moments seem like flimsy little inserts. Of course, if it had been a tight and hard-hitting anti-war drama, it would most likely have fallen foul of the censors and/or stifled the careers of its creative team. As it was, this vague mish-mash of bar songs and army jokes was conveniently inoffensive.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

16 March 1953 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Deux durs à cuire

Filming Locations:

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1