Battle Hymn (film)
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| Battle Hymn | |
|---|---|
.jpg/200px-Battle_Hymn_(film_poster).jpg) Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Douglas Sirk |
| Produced by | Ross Hunter |
| Written by | Vincent B. Evans Charles Grayson |
| Starring | Rock Hudson Anna Kashfi Dan Duryea |
| Music by | Frank Skinner |
| Cinematography | Russell Metty |
| Editing by | Russell F. Schoengarth |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | 14 February 1957 |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Battle Hymn is a 1957 film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson. Hudson plays Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real-life United States Air Force fighter pilot in the Korean War. Hess's autobiography of the same name was published concurrently with the release of the film. He donated his profits from the film and the book to a network of orphanages he helped to establish.
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[edit] Plot
In the film, Hess had accidentally dropped a bomb on an orphanage in Germany during World War II, killing 37 orphans; he enters the ministry after this, but at the start of the Korean War, he volunteers to return to the cockpit and is assigned as the senior USAF advisor/Instructor Pilot to the Republic of Korea Air Force, flying F-51D Mustangs. As he and his cadre of USAF instructors train the South Korean pilots, several orphaned war refugees gather at the base, and he solicits the aid of two Korean adults (En Soon Yang, played by Anna Kashfi, and Lun Wa, played by Philip Ahn) and establishes a shelter for the orphans. When the Communists begin an offensive in the area, Hess evacuates the orphans on foot and then later, after much struggle with higher headquarters, obtains an airlift of USAF cargo planes to evacuate them to the island of Cheju where a more permanent orphanage is established.
[edit] Cast
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):[1]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Rock Hudson | Col. Dean Hess |
| Anna Kashfi | En Soon Yang (misnamed) |
| Dan Duryea | Sgt. Herman |
| Don DeFore | Capt. Dan Skidmore |
| Martha Hyer | Mary Hess |
| Jock Mahoney | Maj. Moore |
| Alan Hale Jr. | Mess sergeant |
| James Edwards | Lt. Maples |
| Carl Benton Reid | Deacon Edwards |
| Richard Loo | Gen. Kim |
| Philip Ahn | Old Man, Lun-Wa |
| Bartlett Robinson | Gen. Timberidge |
| Simon Scott | Lt. Hollis |
| Teru Shimada | Korean official |
| Carleton Young | Maj. Harrison |
| Jung' Kyoo Pyo | Chu |
| Art Millan | Capt. Reardon |
| William Hudson | Navy lieutenant |
| Paul Sorensen | Sentry |
A full cast and production crew list is too lengthy to include, see: IMDb profile.[1]
.jpg/180px-Battle_Hymn_(film_screenshot).jpg)
[edit] Production
Lt. Col. Hess was a technical advisor to Universal to ensure that the final production did not stray far from his original biography. Nonetheless, the inevitable "Hollywood" screenplay prevailed. [2] Unable to film in Korea, locations shifted to Nogales, Arizona that provided at least a modicum of similar landscape. On Soon Whang, Director of the Orphans Home of Korea arrived in the U.S. along with 25 orphans who would reprise their own lives on film. [3]
In order to replicate the ROK unit, the 12 F-51D Mustangs of 182nd Air National Guard Squadron of the 149th Fighter Group of the Texas ANG were enlisted by the USAF to provide the necessary authentic aircraft of the period. During filming, an additional surplus F-51 was acquired from USAF stocks to be used in an accident scene where it would be deliberately destroyed. [4]
The gold flying helmet with the United Nations emblem that Rock Hudson wears in the movie was Dean Hess's actual helmet. It was a Navy-issue helmet that Hess scrounged from a Navy pilot who crash-landed at their airfield in Korea (since the Navy pilot was going to be issued a new helmet as a result of the crash-landing). The helmet is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio.
[edit] Differences between the film and actual events
There were significant differences between the film and real life as recorded in Hess's book. Most prominently, On Soon Whang, Director of the Orphans Home of Korea, incorrectly identified as En Soon Yang in the film, was approximately 50 years old at the time, and was Korean (instead of half-Indian to match Anna Kashfi's screen image). On Soon Whang was a personal friend of Mr. and Mrs. Syngman Rhee, the President and First Lady of the Republic of Korea, and was introduced to Hess by them and she survived the war, meeting Hess in 1954. Hess had already been an ordained minister when he became a fighter pilot in World War II, was not nearly as emotionally affected by the accidental bombing of the German orphanage as depicted, and was recalled to active duty in July 1948, two years before the start of the Korean War.
In the film, there was an incident where a pilot named Lieutenant Maples (played by James Edwards) accidentally strafes a truckload of civilian refugees that happened to be near a convoy of North Korean troop trucks. In the real-life incident, it was a fishing junk full of civilian refugees that happened to be near an amphibious assault by North Korean landing craft.
[edit] Popular culture
A poster for Battle Hymn appears outside the movie theater in the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone, "Where Is Everybody?"
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
[edit] Bibliography
- Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
- Farmer, James H. "By Faith I Fly: The Remarkable Story of Fighter Pilot and Minister Dean Hess and the Making of his 1956 Film Biography: Battle Hymn." Air Classics Vol. 22, No. 6, June 1986.
- Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films, General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
