Battle Circus (1953)

Set in Korea and made during the war, this is the love story of a hard-bitten Army surgeon, and a new nurse ready to save the world.

Director:

Richard Brooks

Writers:

Allen Rivkin (story), Laura Kerr (story)

Stars:

Humphrey Bogart, June Allyson, Keenan Wynn

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Humphrey Bogart	...	Maj. Jed Webbe
June Allyson	...	Lt. Ruth McGara
Keenan Wynn	...	Sgt. Orvil Statt
Robert Keith	...	Lt. Col. Hilary Walters
William Campbell	...	Capt. John 'Rusty' Rustford
Perry Sheehan	...	Lt. Laurence
Patricia Tiernan	...	Lt. Rose Ashland
Adele Longmire	...	Lt. Jane Franklin
Jonathan Cott	...	Adjutant
Ann Morrison	...	Lt. Edith Edwards
Helen Winston	...	Lt. Graciano
Sarah Selby	...	Capt. Dobbs
Danny Chang	...	Korean Child
Philip Ahn	...	Korean Prisoner
Steve Forrest	...	Sergeant

Storyline

Nurse Lt. Ruth McGara is assigned to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit near the front lines of the Korean War. There she meets and is roughly romanced by Major Jed Webbe, one of the unit's surgeons. Webbe is pushy and seems to care only for momentary pleasures, but McGara falls for him just the same. Their romance blossoms in the midst of overwhelming numbers of casualties, threats from the enemy and from the weather, and emergency evacuations that test the mettle of even a unit whose very name suggests quick mobility.

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Plot Keywords:

nurse | surgeon | evacuation | mobile army surgical hospital | korean war | 

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Taglines:

M-G-M's great drama of desire under fire!

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 March 1953 (USA)

Also Known As:

MASH 66

Filming Locations:

Calabasas, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,201,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$1,627,000, 31 December 1953

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,362,000, 31 December 1953

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Robert Keith, who played the colonel, also played an army colonel in the film Men at War.

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Goofs

Soon following the scene in which Alyson gets the grenade away from the Korean soldier the scene changes to outside where a chopper is a mere 15-20 feet from a tent. No way would a tent, even with the sturdiest of canvas with 10-foot deep stakes, survive the wind storm of the chopper landing so close.

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Connections

Referenced in Century of Cinema: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)

User Reviews

A quirky and realistic slice of Korea, with Bogie!

"Battle Circus" is interesting to compare to the TV series M*A*S*H. On TV, the camp of the medicos was a little too clean, and the doctors, especially Hawkeye, were always a little too ready with a joke. The one-liners never stopped at the 4077th, and there were few characters, especially in the last few years, who were not ever-ready to spew out endless dreary puns galore. Battle Circus is interesting in that it shows, I imagine, a more sober and realistic view of life in a MASH unit.

Because they are located near the ever shifting front of the Korean conflict, the MASH must constantly move with it. This brings out the greatest strength of this film: a large number of scenes in this movie are dedicated to showing the teamwork and bee-hive like energy of the grunts of the unit, taking tents down, putting tents up, moving the hospital here, then to there, often through or frighteningly near enemy fire, all the while dedicated to keeping their patients alive. The many minutes of film spent on these thankless and glory-less activities increases our appreciation of the realities of the soldiers' daily routine.

Here, there are few luxuries (unlike on the TV MASH, where many of the characters seem to have as many possessions as the Howells did on Gilligan's Island). Conditions in the personal tents of the characters are especially Spartan. Bogie's only possession seems to be a bottle of Scotch. When there is no time to bring everything with them, the soldiers burn whatever they must leave behind. Again, the starkness of existence suggests to this viewer a wonder that not all of the MASH members didn't go insane on a regular basis.

Now I am not a June Allyson fan, and while the romance between Bogie and her is not all that interesting or convincing, it is not a complete waste of film either. I don't believe I have ever seen Humphrey Bogart smile and laugh and be so un-pessimistic in a film before, and this is quite entertaining (Bogie even falls in the mud, losing his dignity, and laughs about it with June Allyson! Yikes!). There is no such thing as useless celluloid when Bogie is on screen. However, these episodes of light-hearted Bogie are surrounded by plenty of periods of brooding and cynical Bogie, so he is not completely out of character.

Robert Keith's colonel with the high-pitched voice complements Bogie's doctor very nicely in their scenes together. Keenan Wynn is also a terrific surprise; I usually find his raspy voice and abrasive characters unpleasant, but here he plays perhaps the most likable character (a can-do sergeant) in the whole film. His affection for a wounded Korean boy has the potential to be hokey, but he pulls it off very nicely.

One more MASH comparison. Bogie's character, like Hawkeye Pierce, is a woman-chaser and a man who wants no more authority than necessary, as well as a first rate surgeon. But unlike Hawkeye, who is afraid of guns, Humphrey Bogart is as willing to pick up a rifle and fire at the enemy as he is top pick up a scalpel. A real man's man.

Don't expect Gone With the Wind, and you will find this a quite interesting and quirky little war film.