Future James Bond director Terence Young, who later helmed "Dr. No," "From Russia, with Love," and "Thunderball," doesn't muck about in "The Red Beret," a low-budget but entertaining World War II thriller about British paratroopers. Clocking in at 88 nimble minutes, this Columbia Pictures release is a fast-moving epic with a first-rate supporting cast. Masquerading as a Canadian, Alan Ladd of "Shane" fame joins His Majesty's Army and trains as a paratrooper. He hides a flaw in his character. It seems that Private Steve 'Canada' McKendrick (Ladd)was an officer in the Army Air Corp who had problems and no longer relishes the idea of being an officer. The sparks fly between former pilot turned English and pretty Penny Gardner (Susan Stephen of "Three Spare Wives") who packs his parachute and sticks a handkerchief in it. This turns out to be a quaint old custom that Penny defends. Naturally, any wartime thriller about paratroopers features scenes where chutes don't open, soldiers collide in the air, or they injure themselves when they land. Leo Glenn is well cast as real life Major Snow who saw action against the Germans. Interestingly enough, Anton Diffring plays a Polish paratrooper; later, Diffring would specialize in roles as a German officer. The initial training jump from a balloon goes awry when their sergeant drops out of the balloon but his chute fails to open. Stanley Baker plays that unlucky sergeant. The first mission takes them into Occupied France where our heroes launch an assault on a German radar installation at Bruneval. Young and "Hell Below Zero" lenser John Wilcox stage some exciting combat scenes, especially in the castle setting during the radar raid. Later, the British start jumping from America aircraft, unlike British planes where they jump through a hole in the bottom of the fuselage. Producer Albert R. Broccoli would team up with Young in later Ladd vehicles and eventually they would make the Bonds. Scenarists Richard Maibaum, who penned several 007 epics, and veteran American scribe Frank Nugent of "Fort Apache" insert scenes of battlefield gruesomeness. Not only does one soldier jump to his death, but also another loses his legs during a mission. After the raid on the radar station, the British are flown into North Africa where they are ordered to destroy an airfield held by the Germans. During the battle, Ladd and company stumble onto a deadly minefield and the Germans arrive and set up mortars and machine guns to wipe them out if they refuse to surrender. Something similar to this happened later in the Clint Eastwood war movie "Kelly's Heroes." Anyway, Ladd rounds up a rocket launcher that they use it to clear a path and escape. I don't know why they did resort to their own firearms and blast their way through the minefield the same way that Rock Hudson would do in "Tobruk." Altogether, "The Red Beret" chutes the works with an atmopheric orchestral score from John Addison.

Don't know why this movie appeals to me this much except for the excellent Leo Genn who makes any movie better. It is one of those that I can watch over and over. I think it is that there are so many great British character actors and Allan Ladd isn't bad but his usual self. The story line is simple but then I was a small child at the beginning of the war and all the movies were very simplistic. I think that is what I enjoy. Not a lot of side drama, just a straight forward telling of men at war in the old idealized style. The editing is a bit choppy in places and the old blue screen is obvious in odd places but "Sorry for the man who hears the pipes and was na born in Scotland."

This is the thinly disguised story of real life hero John Frost. Portrayed in this film by Leo Genn and called Maj. Snow (I said the disguise was thin).Lt Col John Frost led the small group of paratroopers who actually got to the bridge in A Bridge Too Far (1977) (where he was played by Anthony Hopkins). Despite only having a few hundred men instead of the whole brigade that they expected to get there, they still held out for four days against an S.S. Panzer group. John Frost got his knees damaged by a mortar bomb so spent the rest of the war in a P.O.W. camp. In this film Maj. Snow gets wounded in the legs by a grenade but is carried to safety by his men.But Arnhem was just the final move in an amazing wartime career. Frost was one of the earliest volunteers in the newly formed parachute regiment at the start of the war. As a Major, he led the successful raid on the German radar station at Bruneval where radar specialist Sgt Cox (Sgt Box in this film) dismantled the German unit and brought it back to Britain along with some of the operators so that the British could understand the limits of the German radar system. This happened in a very similar way to the raid portrayed in the first part of the film.The next raid Frost led was on an airfield in Tunisia, just like the second raid in the film. In real life, as in the film, the raid on the airfield was a success but they had some problems getting back to their own lines.Frost then led the parachute drop on Sicily and a further raid in Italy before his wartime career finished at Arnhem.This film is quite well made and adapts the story well to fit Alan Ladd in without making it too obvious that he's only there to attract an American audience. The real heroes of this story are John Frost and the men of the Parachute Regiment.

If you`ve no interest in war movies THE RED BERET may just appear to be yet another B movie about the war . It contains all the old cliches like dying soldiers making a speech just before they draw their last breath and as soon as someone is tasked to do something dangerous they`ll do it in a completely blase manner then die in a blackly comical famous last words scene .There`s some corny dialogue from the American characters like " Holy cow , check out those crazy beefeaters " while the Brits are all stiff upper lipped . It should also be pointed out that the " location filming " in North Africa was obviously carried out somewhere else , my guess would be the Highlands of Scotland with its peat bogs and rolling hills . But despite these flaws I can remember seeing this film from my childhood where it retains a soft spot and watched it again for the first time in something like 30 years.Despite the somewhat patchy production standards I wasn`t really disappointed with this movie and as an adult I was able to notice a few interesting points . One point is that it`s very very similar to SHANE . Both star Alan Ladd and he plays a very similar character in both , in this case a North American called McKendrick who has a guilty past . Also if you look at the production credits you`ll notice that the producer , screenwriter and director would almost 10 years later go on to make DR NO * a movie that changed the face of British cinema . In many ways THE RED BERET is much more enjoyable than most of the British war movies at the time probably down to the fact that it`s made in glorious technicolor rather than monochrome and I`ll probably be accused of being a heretic by saying that it`s more enjoyable than the depressing BAND OF BROTHERS a mini series that has a lot in common with THE RED BERET * Watch the scene where Major Snow walks into the office and throws his hat onto a hat stand . Sean Connery also does this in the Terence Young directed Bond movies . No doubt a director trade mark