mhantholz

January 1943, Hitler authorizes use of females in war effort. One of the military specialties the girls serve is as *Blitzmadels* = *Lightning Girls*: they crew for 88mm anti-aircraft Flak Batteries, fighting Allied bomber raids of ever-increasing intensity. This qualifies as a WWII NOIR due to the number of deaths of the girls. This is one of the few war films that is a *Perfect Object* = they got everything right. The cast couldn't be any better --- Keep an eye-out for ultra-cool Horst FRANK, as an amorous Frenchman, putting the moves on hot cutie Antje GEERK. The action scenes are as intense as can be---scenes of the Blitzmadels firing their 88s are unique; no other movie can match the spectacular awesomeness of these teen-age girls letting rip with their flak guns firing artillery that throw lead at 10,000 feet-per-second. Don't sleep on the scenes of the girls doing PT in short-shorts and tight tank tops. Barracks scenes also give the girls the opportunity to show off their, uh, *structural integrity*. This is the one that got away. Don't believe the negativity of film critics of the day: "Politically and morally questionable war film in a supposedly documentary style" ---Lexicon Of International Film. LIGHTNING GIRLS AT THE FRONT is unlike any other war flick you ever saw; it is in a class by itself. Noted German author Hans Helmut KIRST worked on the screenplay, and you can tell --- this one does not pull any punches. It is *satisfying* in a way few war films can equal. Check out director Werner KLINGER's Filmography --- there's a whole lot to like there. You really do owe it to yourself to track this one down this one has stood the test of time --- it has actually grown in power over the years.

Nobody and I really do mean NOBODY could do *bad* like George Colouris. As soon as he enters a scene G.C. is the center of gravity. The change of atmosphere is palpable---This guy is in full command of his skill set and in a matter of seconds everything changes: G.C. is in the house, his *bad guy* goes zero to seventy in the blink of an eye. He brings to the scene a compressed tension unlike any other actor. Nazi? You think you've seen Nazis ? Get a load of G.C. in HOTEL BERLIN (1945)---he reset the bar on smoldering evil. A veteran of Broadway when that meant something, G.C. made his screen debut in CITIZEN KANE (1941), a star turn if ever there was one. If you haven't seen G.C. on a BIG screen (not less than 850 seats), you're in for a treat: the screen positively crackles with G.C. on the set. His physical presence is just the beginning---nobody could put top-spin on his lines like G.C. When G.C. is speaking, everyone else shuts up and listens, you bet. His multi-layered *bad guys* stand alone in Golden Age Hollywood---He could reveal the full inventory of negativity in the human enterprise, one trait per line. His clipped stacatto baritone is WAY UP in the moment, revealing Contempt, Resentment, Greed, Snobbery, Anger, Menace, the lot, all in less than one-two minutes. G.C. had Old School star quality---He made the OTHER guy look good. Check out the other flick G.C. made with John Garfield, NOBODY LIVES FOREVER (1946). There is NO analog for G.C. in today's "actors" (hawk-*ptoo*). How could there be---G.C. was unique, one-of-kind. If you are fed up with the dreck that is today's cinema, give yourself a break and stream you some GEORGE COLOURIS and luxuriate in the sheer awesomeness that is G.C. Cheers!

Everything about this film has been said elsewhere here except for this film's tip-top HORSE ACTION. Few men in Golden Age Hollywood could sit a horse like Joel McCrea. I've been at the racetrack all my life and I've seen the best riders---Joel McCrea was right up there with the best of them. At a full gallop,, he's stock-still, one with his horse, an ice-man. Joel McCrea has the coolest horse, a chestnut with a nice blaze on his nose. The way he handles this horse is a tell---this was J.M.'s own personal horse, for sure. You don't get horse action this fine out of some crap nag from some corral somewhere. Director Raoul Walsh was a master at staging/photographing top-quality horse action, a real delight and revelation for horse fans. Consider this scene towards the end, one of many in this classic: J.M. is at a full-out gallop coming straight at the camera, when J.M. brings the horse to a sharp halt while AT THE SAME TIME getting the horse to do a half-pivot, stopping with the horse's left side---in perfect profile---at just the right amount of horse visible in the shot, as if the horse hit PREDETERMINED marks. This horse is then perfectly still, doesn't even move his head a little bit. You don't get that level of performance out of a horse you just met for the first time this morning: It takes THOUSANDS of hours of working together with a horse to achieve what J.M. does with this horse. And J.M. and his ultra-cool horse have real Old School star quality---they make it look easy. These "actors" today (hawk-*ptoo*) when they make what passes for westerns, they sit a horse like scared little boys. These modern-day "westerns" come unglued when it comes to horse action. If you are fed up, give yourself a break and stream you some JOEL McCREA and see what REAL horsemanship is all about.