General Stitwel (John Hoyt) assigns a dangerous mission to commander Merril (Jeff Chandler) and his 3000 USA Marines volunteers . As the tough officer commands a two-fisted regiment fighting in the jungles of Burma. In 1944 the exhausted unit achieves their latest aim and expects to be relieved . However , Merril has to lead his band throughout the Burmese jungles to his definitive mission in Japonese zone , beyond the enemy lines , at Mykyana . At the end of the movie there is a parade review that features the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Action , adventure , war movie by the great Samuel Fuller in which Chandler leads a group of soldiers through the Burmese jungle and battling feared Japonese . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Ty Hardin , Claude Akins , Peter Brown , Andrew Duggan , John Hoyt and Will Hutchins . At the beginning , the film being produced by Warner Bros and hired Gary Cooper . However , Cooper died by cancer and then it was totally financed by screenwriter and producer Milton Sperling in a lower budget . Nicely played by Jeff Chandler , an ebullient actor who died by stroke before the movie was released . Colorful cinematography by William H. Clothier , John Ford regular . Well photographed in Warnerscope and Technicolor and shot on location in the Philippines Islands . Furthermore , a thrilling and moving score by Howard Jackson .
The motion picture was well directed and co-scripted by Samuel Fuller for three months . Fuller has become something of a cult favorite , an essential and fundamental figure in the film world . Here Fuller excels at showing the mayhem and confusion of battles , giving spectacular frames as when it takes place a desperate pitched fighting at an enemy installation , as a railhead and other overwhelming bloody events . The cigar-chewing Fuller directed several classic movies , such as : ¨The naked Kiss¨ , ¨Pickup on South Street¨ , ¨Underworld USA¨ , ¨shock corridor¨ , ¨Hell and high water¨ , ¨Fixed bayonets¨ , ¨White dog¨ and ¨The big Red one¨.
