Fireball Forward

"Fireball Forward" was apparently intended as a pilot for a potential television series. And, like so many of these pilots, it ended up playing at a movie of the week on television. Sometimes this was done to see how the public responded to the film...in case they might want to give the series a go ahead. Sometimes they knew that the show would never be made but they showed the movie just to get some use out of them. I'm not sure which was the case with "Fireball Forward".

The film begins with General Barrett (Ben Gazzara) receiving a medal for his excellent work. However, this success is a double-edged sword, as now they have a new assignment for the general....to whip a demoralized and hard-luck division into shape. And, after more losses, it becomes apparent that perhaps someone is informing the Germans of the division's plans...which would explain the repeated defeats.

Like too many old made for TV movies on YouTube, the print for "Fireball Forward" is poor. Not only is it a bit blurry but there's a strong pink cast to the show! Yep...pink soldiers! I cannot blame the movie for this...just the ravages of time and a need for conservation!

So is this any good? Well, with Ben Gazzara and many other excellent actors, the film can't be bad! While not a household name now, Gazzara was an incredibly good actor...well respected back in the day. And, the script is interesting...quite unusual and it manages to make this less a war film and more a mystery-suspense film that just happens to be set in wartime. Well worth seeing.

A made-for-TV flick regarding a cunning officer to discover a traitor, this Fireball Forward deals with a tough general to carry out a new mission . Along the way , he suspects that there is a Nazi sympathizer in his ranks , and dedicates himself to ferreting out the mole . The final part there's a bit of action, to discover the culprit and avoid wreck havoc against his subordinates and then run for their lives . The first half of the film allows the colorful cast of character actors to have their fun as they get their tails whipped into shape and develop shaky relationship with their leader Ben Gazzara . The message here isn't that war is hell. Rather, it seems to be: war can be a hell of a good time... if you've got nothing to lose . The dangerous missions include numerous group formed by a motley and diverse bataillon played by all-star cast .

In this rugged WWII movie , Ben Gazzara ssumes the role of the hard-nose leader of a garrison , as he's assigned by the Military Staff to take over a division with a bad combat record . He is a fictional American general , a two-fisted and stubborn officer who's more pattered as a rough sergeant than as a strict general . It's an ordinary wartime classic movie professionally directed by Marvin Chomsky and being scripted by prestigious Edmund H. North . This moving film packs suspense , intrigue , thriller and buck-loads of explosive action in some spectacular battles , mostly being stock footage . It was actually the 2-hour pilot for an unsold television series. The noisy action limited to a few battles , being uniformly well-made, especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes , including some spectacular shootouts and bombing . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Ben Gazzara as a demanding general obviously patterned on Old Blood and Guts into his misfit team , the film is full of overtalking in barracks , feats , suspense and thrills . Rough Ben Gazzara is good as leader of the motley division together thwart the Nazi schemes and find out a traitor who is informing to enemy , as well as the large secondary cast with special mention for Ricardo Montalban , Eddie Albert , Dana Elcar , Edward Binns , Morgan Paull , L. Q. Jones , Loretta Swit , Richard Yniguez , Kenneth Tobey and Anne Francis plays a military journalist but with no romatic interest .

Produced in short budget by Frank McCarthy , in fact , including outtakes and stock footage from the 1970 Oscar-winner Patton that utilized to flesh out this film , as Frank produced other warlike films as MacArthur , Single-Handed , Decision before dawn and the succesful Patton . The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Marvin J. Chomsky . He was a director who often used to work for Television , shooting notorious series as Peter the Great , Anastasia , Roots , Billionaire Boys Club, Strauss Dynasty and Holocaust . He got several prices , as he commented that he had won the awards for directing projects about events that "never should have happened." One of his projects was about the Holocaust : Holocausto¨(1978) , one was about the Attica prison riot : ¨Attica¨ (1980) , one about Kennedy : ¨Robert Kennedy and His Times , regarding Argentina leader ¨Evita¨ and the Emmy he was accepting was for a project about the Nazis in Germany ¨Insde the Third Reich¨. Fireball Forward(1972) Rating : 5/10 , mediocre . Only for WWII hardcore enthusiasts.

Looks like the proponents of this film could use a little help. OK. Here it comes... Not being much of a historian, and stupid about discards from other pictures, I am unable to evaluate it with these things in mind. Perhaps this lesser intelligence accounts for my being entertained by this flick. It's about a newly-transferred General who concludes that somebody with access to his Command Post is tipping off the Germans with regard to his division's movements. I was not distracted by any inferiority in the easily-seen stuff, such as the acting, sound, lighting, writing, etc. Therefore, I was intrigued by the effort here to identify the source of the "leak". I, for one, would say that FIREBALL FORWARD (which refers to the nickname of the headquarters of the top brass) is worth reconning, and is no more of a gamble as to whether you'll like it or not, than most other movies.

I tracked this down and watched it on YouTube because of its writer Edmund H. North. I'm watching all of his movies and he delivers again with this tight well-paced story. There is a little over-acting and the battle scenes slowed the movie's forward momentum, but that's not on him. The dude wrote scifi, noir, westerns, war movies and more. He can tell a good story in any genre. I thought Gazarra was great in this. The surprise appearance by Loretta Switt before she was famous was fun.

I think you all missed the point! The premise of the movie is to try to guess who the traitor is--the one who is betraying their next moves to the enemy. That is where I get my enjoyment; from the suspense. And as far as the suspense went, it was terrific!!