Screaming Eagles

As a movie, as a story, this flops. Such a terribly performed and written movie. It's as though someone woke up, said, "hey, let's do a tribute for D-Day, we will feature a unit from the 101st, and who do we have hanging around the studio?" Then, a secretary walks out the door, finds a few folks loafing about and points out, "You, you, you, and you all. Wanna make a movie? Here's your lines, now go do it." And, in one day it was done. Oh, let's add some WW2 footage to the stock, backlot scenery for realism. Just a poorly done movie in all regards. The whole Tom Tyron chomping on a cigar is right out of a comic book.

"Screaming Eagles" is a very good World War II movie about the airborne role in Operation Overlord, better known as D-Day. This story follows 15 men of a platoon, including the platoon leader, of Company D of the 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment. The 502nd then was part of the 101st Airbourne Division, known as the Screaming Eagles.

The opening has the men of Lt. Pauling's platoon in England where they have been training for weeks for the assault on northern France. After three new replacements arrive, there are a couple more days before they get the word that D-Day is set for the next day, June 6, 1944. So, that night, they begin the assault phase of Overlord, called Operation Neptune. They are part of more than 13,000 Americans of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions that parachute into northern France the night of June 5. The naval bombardment and Allied troop assaults would take place the next day at five landing sites, with beaches named (West to East) Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

The missions of the airborne units were to secure bridges and block German reinforcements from reaching the coast at Utah Beach. As this film shows, the pilots didn't see the ground signals for drop zones, and when German anti-aircraft guns started firing on the planes, the troops jumped as soon as they could. As a result, the units were spread out and scattered over a large area. While they couldn't get organized to take all of their objectives immediately, the various smaller groups assembled on the ground were able to attack Germans at various locations. The resulting chaos confused the Germans so that they weren't able to mount strong reinforcements. And the Allied landings were soon able to break out of their beachheads.

This story shows the engagements and combat that just one third of Lt. Pauling's platoon encountered. While he was blinded by the flash of a German's luger, Pauling could speak French with a young French woman they rescued when they assaulted Germans held up in her family's farmstead. Marianne, in turn, could speak German, so between them they were able to foil the Germans. When Pauling's group reaches the rest of his platoon who are assembled with their company at the bridge that was their mission,10 of his 15 men have been killed.

The cast all do well in their roles. Among them are Tom Tryon as Private Mason, Jan Merlin as Lt. Pauling, Martin Milner as Pvt. Corliss, Jacqueline Beer as Marianne, Robert Blake as Pvt. Hernandez, Pat Conway as Sgt Forrest, and Edward G. Robinson Jr. As Pvt. Smith.

There is one thing missing from this film - or, that would have been good to include. On June 5, the day before D-Day, the 101st Airborne Division men were paid a special visit by Gen. Dwight D., Eisenhower, the Allied Command-in-Chief. But, considering that this movie was made in 1956, and Ike was then sitting as President of the U. S., it was probably too much to ask him to make a cameo appearance back in uniform. And, of course, with the man himself living, no one was about to suggest a stand-in actor.

Many more movies were made about WW II battles and combat. There have been films that focus on strategic planning, intelligence, and espionage. Combat movies have been made that focus on tanks, artillery, medics and field hospitals. There have been many movies made about aerial and naval combat. But many combat films have been about the infantry in Europe, Africa and Asia; and Marines in the South Pacific. That's because there were far more infantry and Marine units with many more operations and battles. Airborne (parachute) units were mostly infantry who were trained for assaults behind enemy lines and then regular ground fighting. So, while they would be called on for assaults, usually at the start of an operation, most of their time would then be spent engaged in ground combat.

A few other movies show airborne training and/or combat jumps during WW II. They include "Parachute Battalion' of 1941, "Objective Burma" of 1945, the British "Paratrooper" of 1953, "The Longest Day" of 1962, and "A Bridge Too Far" of 1977. Some other movies have been made that have scenes of small groups or individuals jumping behind enemy lines. The 1944 film, "Battleground", is a very good film about the 101st Airborne Division that wouldn't retreat or surrender to the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge toward the end of the war. They held out until George Patton's Third Army arrived to reinforce them and push the Germans all the way back into defeat and surrender.

Tom Tryon ("Texas John Slaughter")

Jan Merlin ("The Rough Riders")

Martin Milner ("Route 66", "Adam-12")

Jacqueline Beer ("77 Sunset Strip")

Paul Burke ("Naked City", "12 O'Clock High")

Pat Conway ("Tombstone Territory")

Robert Blake ("The Richard Boone Show", "Baretta")

The director was Harvard educated Charles F. Haas. Haas' best film was "Platinum High School" with Mickey Rooney, Terry Moore, Dan Duryea, Yvette Mimieux, Richard Jaeckel, and Elisha Cook, Jr. The film was a reworking of "Bad Day at Black Rock". Haas also directed "Showdown at Abilene" with future TV stars Jock Mahoney ("Yancy Derringer"), Grant Williams ("Hawaiian Eye"), and David Janssen ("Richard Diamond"). And Haas directed 4 films highlighting the talents of Mamie Van Doren.

Haas later directed episodes of "Route 66", "77 Sunset Strip", "Alfred Hitchcock Hour", and "The Outer Limits". Haas used Richard Jaeckel again in his "Alfred Hitchcock Hour" and Grant Williams in one of his "Outer Limits". Inger Stevens starred in Haas' "Route 66" and "Alfred Hitchcock Hour."

Haas died in 2011 at the age of 97.

Co-screenwriter David Lang went on to write episodes of "Maverick", "Cheyenne", "Have Gun - Will Travel", "Wanted: Dead or Alive", "The Rebel", and "Tombstone Territory".

Robert Presnell, Jr., the other screenwriter, wrote episodes of "Twilight Zone", "The Eleventh Hour", "Mr. Novak", and "Banacek". He was married for 40 years to Marsha Hunt ("Raw Deal").

The story for "Screaming Eagles" was by two-time Oscar nominee Virginia Kellogg ("White Heat", "Caged").

Screaming Eagles is the story of a company that dropped into France hours before the dawn of D-Day and what happened to them. If you saw The Longest Day and remember the characters of Robert Ryan and John Wayne you know what the total mission of the 101st Airborne Division was. This film could probably be edited right into The Longest Day, but for the presence of Tom Tryon who starred here and was also one of the many stars in The Longest Day.

Jan Merlin plays the Lieutenant in charge of Dog company and just before zero hour for them, Private Tryon gets himself stinking drunk as soldiers are wont to do on occasion. But this wasn't the time for it and the rest of the squad reluctantly takes him along.

Of course Tryon pulls himself together and comes through for his unit as you would expect he would in this film. The odyssey of this company is the subject of the film. Very few make it through to link up with the rest of 101st Airborne.

Merlin spouting all kinds of philosophical dicta was out of place in a war film of this kind. And quite frankly in the real world Tryon would have been sent to the stockade and court marshaled. Then maybe he might have gotten to the continent later in the war.

Former Miss France Jacqueline Beer makes an appearance in Screaming Eagles as a French farm girl who helps our GIs.

The film is an Allied Artists Production and shot on the cheap. Still it is entertaining and exciting in spots and the battle sequences are well done. War film fans might like it.

Filmed on a sound stage for the most part. If Saving Private Ryan is a 10 star, this pitiful movie gets 1 star. They lost me when the Lieutenant came in the quonset hut wearing a shiny leather A-2 jacket. The replacements showing up in dress uniforms. I will give them credit for the double buttoned cargo pocketed paratrooper jackets. But in real life these troopers shaved their heads except for a mohawk, and the pitiful Lt had long blonde hair. No wonder audiences gave up films for television in the 1950s.