Fireball Forward

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.

"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.

This is out on Video? They're showing it on TNT? Wasn't it banned by the People of America with Good Taste, Nebraska Chapter? It is truly a sad film, NOT that the premise of having a roving military guy investigating and fixing problems from Europe to the Pacific wasn't (isn't) a neat idea. Ah, the siren call of good premises.

I, unlike you recently fooled renters, saw the thing on ABC when it first aired. I remember reading that they had so much left over (unused) footage from both Patton and Tora Tora Tora (both 20th Century Fox) that they could keep the series going for years. Those two great WWII movies still remain great to this day, but Fireball Forward (who came up with that title?). Nah! You can probably tell the Patton footage as it looks terrific while the rest of this "special" is lit like a TV movie, which of course is what it is.

It never became a series, just this two-hour "pilot." Back yourself away from Fireball Forward. It hurts!

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 can't remember having seen this wartime mystery thriller since the Seventies, but I loved having the great performances throughout recalled to me as I just rewatched it yesterday on Youtube. It's one great result they have obtained here, the level of drama not limited at all by the TV-level budget. Naturally the special effects are at a minimum and I value it all the more for that.

Ben Gazzara is tops in the kind of authoritative role he was best at -- a dogface who made it up tomajor general through field promotions -- adding charismatic color andnever falling into the trap of leaning back on their laurels as the likes of staple character stars Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan or Carroll O'Connor sometimes did in "bigger" war movies of the day. Eddie Albert is good as always in an ambiguous role, Ricardo Montalban very good, along with Dana Elcar, L.Q. Jones and others in what must be called an ensemble effort. Even Morgan Paull, a lesser-known juvenile second lead of the day, added to the whole as a shell-shocked corporal. For this, a theme too deep for today's TV-watchers, and the excellent pacing and plot, I give it an unreserved 9/10 as an absorbing way to pass an hour and a half.