Last night Movies!, 113 on Cablevision, ran the under-rated WWII film, Hell IS for Heroes (1962), directed by Don Siegel and starring Steve McQueen just as his star was ascending. Shot in glorious black and white, the supporting cast is a film buff's dream: Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, James Coburn, Bob Newhart, Mike Kellin, L.Q. Jones and Nick Adams, speaking Polish at times. Siegel is not mentioned among Hollywood's great directors, but he left quite a legacy. Among his 50 works, almost all of which are at least solid, are three that stand out: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), whose excellence has not been approached in any of the many remakes; Dirty Harry (1974), as gritty a cop movie as there ever was; and his adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway short story, The Killers (1964), which is not on a par with the 1946 version directed by Robert Siodmak but memorable because it was Ronald Reagan's only turn as a bad guy. I first saw Hell Is for Heroes at the Loew's Oriental in '63, and many times when it ran on TV. Back then it was part of a double feature with Escape from Zahrain (1962), which also boasted a great cast: Yul Brynner, Sal Mineo, Jack Warden, Madalyn Rhue, Anthony Caruso and Jay Novello. Although that flick ran on TV in the 60's and 70's, it has since disappeared. I'm hoping Movies! or This-TV bring it back. My friends and I had just entered our teens and were fascinated by war, without conception of its horrors, when we first saw them. I remember hating when a character I liked was killed off, which is, of course, what war does.
The floating book shop caught a break from Mother Nature, which provided a two-and-a-half hour rainless window that allowed me to do business with Crazy Joe, who overpaid for a book on dinosaurs and one on King Arthur for his niece; and Cabbie, who bought three thrillers; and the young man who purchased John Grisham's The Chamber. My thanks.
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