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Hell Is for Heroes is a film released by Paramount Pictures in 1962. Directed by Don Siegel, it is a war film set during the Second World War in 1944. Told through a squad of American soldiers, the film focuses on the breach of the Siegfried Line. Don Siegel (October 26, 1912 - April 20, 1991) was an influential American film director. ...
Though it is likely that Robert Pirosh (1910 - 1989) was not specifically preparing for a career in advertising when he attended the Sorbonne and the University of Berlin, this was the line of work he pursued upon his return to the US. In 1934, Pirosh was signed as a junior...
Steve McQueen in The Great Escape Steve McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an American movie actor, nicknamed The King of Cool. He was considered one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s due to a captivating on-screen persona. ...
Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) (born Walden Robert Cassotto) was one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s. ...
James Coburn in Sam Peckinpahs Cross of Iron (1977). ...
Leonard Rosenman (born September 7, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American film, television and concert composer. ...
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ...
1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ...
Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ...
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ...
1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ...
Don Siegel (October 26, 1912 - April 20, 1991) was an influential American film director. ...
The war film is a film genre that has to do with warfare, usually focusing on naval, air, or land battles, but sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training, or other related subjects. ...
Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...
1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...
A Norwegian soldier (a Corporal, armed with an MP-5) A soldier is a person who has enlisted with, or has been conscripted into, the armed forces of a sovereign country and has undergone training and received equipment to defend that country or its interests. ...
The original Siegfried line (Siegfriedstellung) was a line of defensive forts and tank defenses built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916-1917 in northern France during World War I. However, in English, Siegfried line more commonly refers to the similar World War II defensive line, built...
Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. This gritty 1962 World War II drama, directed by Don Siegel and filmed in black-and-white, brought a stark realism and anti-war sentiment that had rarely been seen in WWII films up to that time. The screenplay by Robert Pirosh and Richard Carr has a basic premise: a platoon of American GI’s must hold off an entire German company for approximately 48 hours along the Siegfried Line in the Fall of 1944 until reinforcements reach them. They will pool together every bit of knowledge and experience each man has to at least survive until help arrives. Pirosh gained quite a name for himself after writing the script for the 1949 film Battleground, about the American 101st airborne paratroopers’ defending of Bastogne, and soon hereafter created the WWII TV series Combat!. 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ...
Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...
Don Siegel (October 26, 1912 - April 20, 1991) was an influential American film director. ...
Though it is likely that Robert Pirosh (1910 - 1989) was not specifically preparing for a career in advertising when he attended the Sorbonne and the University of Berlin, this was the line of work he pursued upon his return to the US. In 1934, Pirosh was signed as a junior...
The original Siegfried line (Siegfriedstellung) was a line of defensive forts and tank defenses built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916-1917 in northern France during World War I. However, in English, Siegfried line more commonly refers to the similar World War II defensive line, built...
1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...
1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ...
Battleground is a 1949 war film which tells the story of a squad of the 101st Airborne Division trying to cope during the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne, Belgium. ...
The coat of arms of the Bastogne municipality. ...
This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
The film begins when the squad leader, Sergeant Larkin (Harry Guardino), and the remainder of his men are getting ready to take a long deserved R&R after being on the front-line for several weeks with the thought they might actually be going home. Harry Guardino (December 23, 1925 – July 17, 1995) was an American television actor. ...
During an interlude at a church and later at a tavern, the senior NCO Sergeant Pike (Fess Parker) happens along a former fellow sergeant, now Private, John Reese (Steve McQueen). Reese, as portrayed by McQueen, is the quintessential loner. A tough guy made even tougher by the hardening of combat he’s seen since entering the war. This is a role only an actor like McQueen could play, one that many might say bore a close resemblance to the actor himself as did other parts he played, such as Captain Hilts in The Great Escape. But unlike his prisoner-of-war, daredevil pilot character in The Great Escape, here McQueen as Reese is not only anti-establishment and ill-mannered, he is downright depressed and anti-social, managing to alienate himself from almost everyone in the squad right from the beginning. Every scene depicts Reese as like a coiled spring or a big cat, waiting to be released and pounce with a viciousness unlike any other man. The company commander, Captain Loomis (Joseph Hoover), comments about the fact Reese only goes crazy when there is no fighting, but is Pike comments he is a good soldier in combat. Fess Parker (born August 16, 1924) is an American film and television actor. ...
Steve McQueen in The Great Escape Steve McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an American movie actor, nicknamed The King of Cool. He was considered one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s due to a captivating on-screen persona. ...
The Great Escape, written by James Clavell, W.R. Burnett, and Walter Newman (uncredited), and directed by John Sturges is a popular 1963 World War II film, based on a true story about Allied prisoners of war with a record for escaping from German prisoner-of-war camps. ...
The Great Escape, written by James Clavell, W.R. Burnett, and Walter Newman (uncredited), and directed by John Sturges is a popular 1963 World War II film, based on a true story about Allied prisoners of war with a record for escaping from German prisoner-of-war camps. ...
Just as the men assemble to get what they think will be their passes for a well-earned break, Sergeant Pike inform the men that they will be going back on the line. After much complaining and disappointment, the men pack their gear and get ready to move out. The remaining members of 2nd Squad include the somewhat stereotypical con-man/thief Corby (Bobby Darrin), the mechanic-who-can-fix-or-rig-anything Henshaw (James Coburn), the easy-going, somewhat-nieve kid Cumberly (Bill Mullikin), the foreigner-without-a-home, Polish refugee Homer (Nick Adams), and the man-with-a-wife-and-kids-back-home Kolinsky (Mike Kellin). Although the characters at first glance seem stereotyped, their portrayals are less so, and fine performances are garnered all around. Bobby Darin (May 14, 1936–December 20, American teen idols of the late 1950s. ...
James Coburn in Sam Peckinpahs Cross of Iron (1977). ...
The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...
Mike Kellin (1922 - 1983) Mike Kellin was a very solid actor who was most enjoyable to watch. ...
After the squad arrives at their appointed posts and dig in, it takes only until the next morning until they realize they are spread so thin that any encroachment by the Germans will quickly reveal how weak the American defenses are at that point, and the entire area will be bombed and overrun in short order. The men begin to put their battle-tested experience to use to try and make the best of things until reinforcements arrive. One stroke of good luck is the sudden and mistaken arrival of an Army Company clerk, Driscoll, played by Bob Newhart in his first film role. Larkin quickly puts Driscoll’s now confiscated jeep to use by having Henshaw rig it to backfire and sound like a tank. Driscoll himself is soon put to use by creating false radio messages that are known to be overheard by the Germans via a microphone left in an abandoned pillbox that serves as the squad’s base-of-operations on their side of the line. Newhart manages to recreate his famous telephone conversation skit from his stand-up routine by pretending he is communicating with all sorts of Army personnel in hopes the Germans will think the area is being supported and protected by more than a few good men. Bob Newhart (born September 5, 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. ...
Jeep logo Jeep is an automobile marque (and registered trademark) of DaimlerChrysler. ...
A bunker is a defensive warfare fortification to protect oneself. ...
During a German scouting incursion that causes the death of Cumberly, Reese manages to kill three German soldiers in close combat (two with his M3 Grease Gun and one brutally with a butcher knife). Reese, so wound up he can barely stand still, recommends hitting the German pillbox on the other side of a field filled with mines and barbed wire to let them think the American forces are at normal strength. Larkin decides to try and find some help and see about a change in orders from Pike to hit the German pillbox. Larkin soon dies from an artillery explosion on their position. Attempts at making an attack on the German pillbox cause the deaths of Henshaw and Kolinsky, the former going up literally in flames as his flamethrower tanks explode, and the latter in a very jarring, unforgettable scene after being hit by shrapnel through the back and abdomen, dying while screaming for his comrades to not let his wife and kids know what it was really like. The M3 Grease Gun (more formally United States Submachine Gun, Cal. ...
A butcher knife is an utillitarian knife. ...
A bunker is a defensive warfare fortification to protect oneself. ...
A bunker is a defensive warfare fortification to protect oneself. ...
A bunker is a defensive warfare fortification to protect oneself. ...
// Riverboat of the U.S. Brownwater Navy deploying an ignited napalm mixture from riverboat mounted flamethrower in Vietnam A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long, controllable stream of fire. ...
The reinforcements do arrive soon thereafter, along with Sergeant Pike and Captain Loomis, who berates Reese and decides to only withhold a court-martial so the insubordinate private who instigated the attack can be at the front of the American assault at dawn. A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a military court that determines punishments for members of the military subject to military law. ...
The final scene is one played to great effectiveness despite the limitations of budget and special effects of the day. In the American attack of the German line, all hell really seems to break loose as the Germans are also in force and dug in. The pillbox that had drawn so much attention is still raining firepower onto the advancing Americans. Reese, in a final act of heroism, manages to spot a satchel charge left by his group the night before on their botched mission and ultimately makes sure it detonates within the pillbox despite having been fatally shot in the chest. The final camera shot is of the advancing Americans overrunning the Germans.
Cast Steve McQueen in The Great Escape Steve McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an American movie actor, nicknamed The King of Cool. He was considered one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s due to a captivating on-screen persona. ...
Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) (born Walden Robert Cassotto) was one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s. ...
Fess Parker (born August 16, 1924) is an American film and television actor. ...
Harry Guardino (December 23, 1925 – July 17, 1995) was an American television actor. ...
James Coburn in Sam Peckinpahs Cross of Iron (1977). ...
Bob Newhart (born September 5, 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. ...
Mike Kellin (1922 - 1983) Mike Kellin was a very solid actor who was most enjoyable to watch. ...
L.Q. Jones (born August 19, 1927 in Beaumont, Texas) is an American character actor and film director, best-known for his work in the films of Sam Peckinpah. ...
Actor Don Haggerty in Cause for Alarm! Don Haggerty (July 3, 1914 - August 19, 1988) was an American film actor appearing in films in the 1940s and 1950s. ...
The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...
Chuck Hicks is an actor, stuntman and boxer. ...
Robert Phillips (born in New York July 26, 1953) is an American classical guitarist. ...
Trivia - James Coburn also appeared with Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven and another WWII adventure film, The Great Escape.
- In the last battle scene of the film, Steve McQueen can be seen firing the M3 Grease Gun and experiencing multiple failures to fire. These malfunctions were due to problems with the blanks used in the gun.
- Several of the guest characters in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Siege of AR-558" are named after characters and actors from this film. These include Patrick Kilpatrick's character Reese, Annette Helde's character Larkin and Bill Mumy's character Kellin (named after the actor Mike Kellin). Other unseen characters to be named after characters from the film include Captain Loomis and Commander Parker.
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