The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)

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  • THE STORY OF G.I. JOE


    DIRECTED BY WILLIAM A. WELLMAN
    PRODUCED BY LESTER COWAN/ DAVID HALL
    LESTER COWAN PRODUCTIONS
    UNITED ARTISTS



    Information from IMDb


    Plot Summary
    War correspondent Ernie Pyle joins Company C, 18th Infantry as this American army unit
    fights its way across North Africa in World War II.
    He comes to know the soldiers and finds much human interest material for his readers
    back in the States.
    Later, he catches up with the unit in Italy and accompanies it through
    the battles of San Vittorio and Cassino.
    He learns from its commanding officer, Lt. (later Capt.) Bill Walker
    of the loneliness of command, and from the individual G.I.'s
    of the human capacity to survive drudgery, discomfort, and the terror of combat.
    Written by Jim Beaver


    Full Cast
    Burgess Meredith ... Ernie Pyle - Scripps-Howard War Correspondent
    Robert Mitchum ... Lt. Walker
    Freddie Steele ... Sgt. Warnicki
    Wally Cassell ... Pvt. Dondaro
    Jimmy Lloyd ... Pvt. Spencer
    John R. Reilly ... Pvt. Murphy (as John Reilly)
    William Murphy ... Pvt. Mew (as Bill Murphy)
    Sicily and Italy Combat Veterans of the Campaigns in Africa ... Themselves
    William 'Billy' Benedict ... Pvt. Whitey (uncredited)
    Michael Browne ... Sergeant (uncredited)
    Bob Hope ... Himself (voice on radio program) (voice) (uncredited)
    Yolanda Lacca ... Amelia, Italian Girl (uncredited)
    Tito Renaldo ... Lopez (uncredited)
    Dick Rich ... Sergeant at Showers (uncredited)
    William Self ... Pvt. Cookie Henderson (uncredited)
    Nino Tempo ... Begging Child (uncredited)
    Dorothy Coonan Wellman ... Nurse Lt. Elizabeth 'Red' Murphy (uncredited)


    Writing Credits
    Leopold Atlas (screenplay) &
    Guy Endore (screenplay) &
    Philip Stevenson (screenplay)
    Ben Bengal additional dialogue (uncredited)
    Ernie Pyle books "Brave Men" and "Here Is Your War" (uncredited)


    Original Music
    Louis Applebaum
    Ann Ronell


    Cinematography
    Russell Metty


    Trivia
    The extras in the film were real American GIs, in the process of being transferred from the war in Europe to the Pacific. Many of them were killed in the fighting on Okinawa - the same battle in which Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gunner - never having seen the movie in which they appeared.


    William A. Wellman, nicknamed "Wild Bill", was a fighter pilot in World War I and hated the infantry, and therefore had no interest in making a film about them. Producer Lester Cowan tried several times to convince Wellman to direct the film, including showing up uninvited at Christmas with gifts for Wellman's children. Wellman finally agreed to take the job only after meeting and spending several days with Ernie Pyle at Pyle's home in New Mexico, where he saw how much former infantrymen revered him.


    Several of the humorous lines spoken by G.I.s in the film are taken, uncredited, from WWII cartoonist Bill Mauldin's "Willie and Joe" characters.


    War correspondent Ernie Pyle acted as advisor to the film. Pyle was killed not long after the film was completed.


    Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called this the finest war film he had ever seen.


    Goofs
    Continuity
    After 34 minutes a camouflaged M4 Sherman is seen firing. Moments later when the tank is hit and burns it has transformed into a non camouflaged M3 Lee. flagged M3 Lee.


    Crew or equipment visible
    When Ernie leaves his sleeping bag and other heavy gear before crossing a small stream, the shadows of the camera crew, boom mics, etc are clearly visible as he begins entering the water.


    In a night battle scene of US soldiers advancing, it is lit only by artillery explosions, a cameraman in visible in the middle distance pointing a hand=held camera back towards the men.


    Factual errors
    The unit Pyle is with -the 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division- never fought in the Italian campaign. After the Sicilian campaign ended, it was brought back to England and began training for the D-Day invasion in Normandy. The 1st Division would eventually spearhead the assault on Omaha Beach.


    Much of this film revolves around the battles around Monte Cassino and the controversial bombing of the abbey, with several references to the monastery being used by the Germans as an observation post. Although the film acknowledges that the Germans used it as a defensive position after the bombing, it does not mention that the abbey had been unoccupied by the Germans and that the bombing was unnecessary. Given that this movie was filmed in 1945 while the war was still being fought, it is perhaps understandable that this fact was not mentioned.


    Memorable Quotes


    Filming Location
    Selznick International Studios - 9336 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().

  • The Story of G.I. Joe, also credited in prints as Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe,
    is a 1945 American war film directed by William Wellman,
    starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum.
    The film was nominated for four Academy Awards,
    including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
    This was the film that established him as one of the world's biggest movie stars.


    The story is a tribute to the American infantryman ("G.I. Joe") during World War II,
    told through the eyes of Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle,
    with dialogue and narration lifted from Pyle's columns.
    The film concentrates on one company, ("C Company, 18th Infantry"),
    that Pyle accompanies into combat in Tunisia and Italy.
    The friendships that grow out of his coverage lead Pyle
    to relate the misery and sacrifice inherent in their plight and their heroic endurance of it.
    Although the company has the designation of an actual unit, that unit did not participate
    in the combat in Italy that makes up the preponderance of the film,
    and actually stands in for the units of the 34th and 36th Infantry Divisions
    that Pyle did cover in Italy, and thereby represents all American G.I.s.


    Although filmed with the cooperation of Pyle, the film premiered two months
    to the day after he was killed in action on Ie Shima during the invasion of Okinawa.
    In his February 14, 1945, posting entitled "In the Movies", Pyle commented:
    "They are still calling it The Story of G.I. Joe. I never did like the title,
    but nobody could think of a better one, and I was too lazy to try."[


    User Review

    Quote

    War Was Fought In The Trenches...
    4 April 2002 | by Craig Smith (Toledo, Ohio)


    And war was fought in the rain and the mud and the cold....
    In today's wars fought on film there is very rarely a look at the true living conditions that existed.
    This movie does not clean up the actors (as most films do). You see here all of the gritty, day-to-day, living during the war.
    These guys did not clean up every day. This is a good story about WW2. Be sure to see it. 8/10

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • I noticed in the cast list, the name of Nino Tempo, who played the begging boy. I wonder if it's the same Nino Tempo who became a well known recording artist and producer back in the early 60's. He sang with his sister, April Stevens, and had hit songs, Deep Purple and All Strung Out.


    Just looked it up and yes it is. Never knew he acted. Appeared in just over a dozen movies and tv shows beginning with The Story Of G.I. Joe in 1945 and into the 50's.