Twenty minutes or so after that first announcement we were in chem lab, next door to the classroom. It was then that the principal once again came on the P.A., only this time to inform us that the president was dead. The mood was one of somber disbelief. I kept thinking about all the televised press conferences I'd watched during which the young president with the funny accent briefed the media with his customary charm and wit on full display.
My family was glued to the television set that entire weekend and beyond, from news about Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest, to the swearing in of new President Lyndon Johnson aboard Air Force One, to the murder of Oswald in the Dallas police station by Jack Ruby on live TV, followed by Kennedy's funeral procession from the Capitol to Arlington National Cemetery.
Investigators were soon able to track Oswald's movements following the gunshots. After descending six flights of stairs to the ground floor, he made a hasty departure from his place of employment, the Texas School Book Depository, located along the presidential motorcade's route. He took a bus and then a cab to a location near his boarding house in the Oak Cliff neighborhood in south Dallas, where he stayed just a few minutes. Shortly after leaving that house on foot at about 1:15, Oswald fatally shot Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit, who had stopped him for questioning. A few blocks away, a shoe store owner grew suspicious when he saw Oswald duck into his doorway just as a Dallas patrol car was cruising up the street. The store owner followed Oswald toward the Texas Theater, where he witnessed the suspect sneak inside when the ticket seller wasn't looking. The cops were called, and after a short scuffle, they arrested Oswald for the murder of Tippet. Of course later, Oswald was fingered as Kennedy's assassin.
The Texas Theater was showing a double feature on its matinee schedule that day. If you can name the two films, or even one of them, you certainly must be a history buff, a movie maven, or a trivia guru. Maybe all three. I am none of those, but somehow it registered in my memory that the titles were Cry Of Battle and War Is Hell. Until last month, I had not seen either one, but periodically kept an eye out for them on Turner Classic Movies' schedules. Finally last month, TCM showed Cry Of Battle, and my curiosity prevailed. I can't honestly say it was worth the wait, but I've now crossed it off my "Wanna See" -- not to be confused with my "Must See" --List.
The story starts out promisingly on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The Japanese navy has invaded the Philippines, and a young American civilian, Dave McVey (James MacArthur), is caught in an ambush. McVey is rescued by Filipino guerrillas trying to oust the invaders. The rescuers take him to a remote village where he stays in a safe house for months while learning the local language. Everything is fine until another, older American, merchant seaman Joe Trent (Van Heflin), arrives at the house. Once Trent finds out that McVey is the son of a wealthy industrialist who had been doing business in the western Pacific before the war, Trent takes McVey under his wing. Trent figures McVey's old man will reward him someday for protecting his son.
McVey correctly senses that Trent spells trouble, and his hunch proves true when Trent rapes the teenage granddaughter of the safe house's owner. Trent runs for the hills while McVey momentarily decides to stay, but the girl's incoherent screams well after the fact scare McVey into escaping too, lest he be accused of the crime. At that point he reluctantly joins Trent, whose experience presents McVey a safer option than roaming the dangerous island alone.
The pair encounters more Filipino guerrillas, including one battle-tested group led by the boyfriend of Sisa (Rita Moreno), and marauding bandits. Additional skirmishes against the Japanese, ambushes, betrayals and romantic vibes become part of the story. The arc of the plot shows how McVey is changed by all of these things, not always in a good way. It is appropriate and instructive that the working title of this film was To Be A Man.
Before the inadvertent connection which Cry Of Battle would make with the events of that tragic day in Dallas, the main reason moviegoers paid attention to the film upon its release was the presence of MacArthur and especially Moreno in the cast. Even though he was only twenty-five years old, MacArthur was already famous as a quasi-teen idol from his appearance in many Walt Disney productions in the late fifties. The role of McVey was a major stepping stone in his effort to shed the teen label and step into more mature roles. As for Moreno, this was only the second movie since her breakthrough portrait as Anita in the musical West Side Story. In fact, filming of Cry Of Battle was put on hold for three days so that Moreno could fly back to LA from the Philippines to collect her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for that musical.
War Is Hell, the other half of the Texas Theater double feature, remains for me to be seen. That movie, not Cry Of Battle, was the one actually playing during the few minutes Oswald was present. Maybe it's weird, but I'm still interested in watching it someday. I figure it's a part, albeit a tiny part, of American history.
Here are the movies I have watched in the sixty-eight degree comfort of my family room this past quarter.
1. Cake (2014 drama; Jennifer Aniston, with the help of her housekeeper Adriana Barraza, attempts to overcome physical and emotional pain resulting from a tragic accident followed by a separation from her husband.) B-
2. Crossing Delancy (1988 rom-com; Amy Irving is an independent woman with an important job, but her grandmother, thinking she needs a man in her life, arranges a blind date with pickle vendor Peter Reigert.) B-
3. Cry Of Battle (1963 war drama; James MacArthur is an American trapped on a Phillipine island when WW II breaks out, and gets involved with untrustworthy Van Heflin who looks upon the islanders as pawns.) C+
4. The Deer Hunter (1978 war drama; Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken and John Savage are western Pennsylvania steel town workers who have traumatic experiences fighting in Viet Nam.) A-
5. The Detective (1968 police drama; Frank Sinatra is a no-nonsense detective who, while his marriage to Lee Remick is crumbling, works toward solving the gruesome murder of the gay son of a city government big wig and the apparent suicide of Jacqueline Bisset's husband.) B
6. Stand By Me (1986 drama; four twelve year old boys, led by River Phoenix, hike for miles in a quest to find a dead body in the woods.) B+
7. Summer of '42 (1971 drama; On a New England island, fifteen year old Gary Grimes strikes up a friendship with radiantly beautiful Jennifer O'Neill, a war bride, and by the end of the summer he has become a different person.) B
8. A Summer Place (1959 drama; Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee are college age children of Dorothy McGuire and Richard Egan, who themselves are married to others but for whom the old flame is rekindled.) D
9. The Thin Man (1934 detective drama; William Powell, a retired detective who drinks martinis without pausing, is reluctantly drawn into a missing persons case which turns into a triple homicide.) A-
10. The Wrong Man (Henry Fonda, married to the mentally deteriorating Vera Miles, is a night club musician who has the dual misfortune of being nearly broke and remarkably resembling an armed robber.) C-
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