Peters Graves ("Mission Impossible," "The Thing," and "Airplane") and Chuck Connors (the Rifle Man) are iconic television stars. John Payne, like James Cagney, and William Powell, is a song and dance man who can also play believable tough guys. Together, they make you feel confident, even as the movie shakes you to the core with great, realistic battle scenes. This group of Marines has not only to fight Korean, Chinese and Mongolian armies, but must contend with a mountainous frozen snowy Korean landscape. Here having dry socks is as important as hand grenades for survival.
The only other Korean War movie that I can compare it to is Robert Altman's M.A.S.H. That was an anti-war movie that actually makes war look like fun, for the most part. This is outwardly a pro-war movie, but it makes war look like hell.
It is also a little bit similar to Carl Foreman's World War 2 movie "The Victors." (1962). That too has excellent battle scenes but ultimately cares more for characters in a platoon than action.
Review of Hold Back the Night
