Review of Take the High Ground! (New York Times 20 November 1953)

Review Summary

"You guys will never be soldiers!" With these words, Richard Widmark opens and closes Take the High Ground. Widmark plays tough drill sergeant Thorne Ryan, whipping his recruits through basic training in preparation for shipment to Korea. Merton Tolliver (Carleton Carpenter) is the standard-issue private who just can't seem to cut it, despite Ryan's (Widmark) relentless special attention. To prove that the behemoth sergeant has a tender side, the script contrives a romantic triangle involving Ryan, Julie Mollison (Elaine Stewart), and Sgt. Laverne Holt (Karl Malden). The film is an amalgam of rugged realism and Hollywood hokiness, withWidmark terrific as the topkick you love to hate. Filmed at Fort Bliss, TX, Take the High Ground utilizes several real-life soldiers in the drill sequences (you can recognize the real ones; they aren't afraid of Richard Widmark). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

MOVIE REVIEW

Take the High Ground (1953)

THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; ' Take the High Ground,' With Richard Widmark, Opens at Mayfair Theatre

By BOSLEY CROWTHER

Published: November 20, 1953

The pleasures and satisfactions that a young man is likely to derive from basic military training make a pretty tough bill of goods to sell, and respect for a hard-as-nails drill sergeant is slightly difficult to put across, too. But Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has boldly tried it in a big, booming Ansco-colored film that goes by the name of "Take the High Ground" on the Mayfair's enlarged and widened screen. Individual response to its persuasions will depend on how susceptible one is to the old spit-and-polish tradition, march music and sentimentality.

For those are the rousing inducements that are worked to a blazing fare-thee-well in this obvious job of underlining the necessity of preparing for war. Masculine horseplay in the barracks, grim performance on the drill and training fields and the inevitable griping of soldiers at unmerciful orders and rules are flavored with tangy portions of rugged romancing with a girl and a bit of terminal tear-dropping over the soft-heartedness of good old Sarge. And all of it is ordered to the strong strains of a Dimitri Tiomkin march that whispers or booms with frank emption over the might and glory of the infantry.

Set at Fort Bliss, Tex.

As a recruiting poster or a preface to greetings from Uncle Sam, this is as able an achievement as a practical-minded critic can conceive. The script by Millard Kaufman is an assembly of simple episodes that have color, colloquial humor and straight, ready-made character. The setting, arranged by Dore Schary on the actual Texas base of Fort Bliss, provides for authentic exhibition of military training in detail. And the acting by all and sundry under the direction of Richard Brooks has the slickness and precision of movement of a well-geared machine.

Richard Widmark as the hardboiled sergeant who approaches his trainees with disdain but develops a choking fondness for them as the difficult weeks go by plays the No. 1 character in the picture, and he wrestles both manfully and well with the complexities of schooling soldiers and conducting his own off-base battle with a girl. Karl Malden stands up straight and stoutly as his slightly less hard-pushing pal, and Elaine Stewart is slinky and voluptuous as the interestingly crazy, mixed-up girl. Russ Tamblyn as a sharp, wise-cracking gymnast, Carleton Carpenter as a loose-limbed Texas kid and William Hairston as a poetry-reading Negro are conspicuous in the ranks of the trainees.

There are unabashed bits of hot heroics scattered here and there and the whole picture seems to urge indifference toward the intrusion of the female sex. Both of these are characteristics that may be disturbing, variously. But it does move with vigor and excitement. The Texas training base is colorful And that march of Mr. Tiomkin's—well, it does cause a ringing in the ears.

TAKE THE HIGH GROUND,story and screen play by Millard Kaufman; directed by Richard Brooks; produced by Dore Schary for Metro-Coldwyn-Mayer. At the Mayfair.
Sgt. Thorne Ryan . . . . . Richard Widmark
Sgt. Laverne Holt . . . . . Karl Malden
Julie Mollison . . . . . Elaine Stewart
Paul Jamison . . . . . Russ Tamblyn
Merton Tolliver . . . . . Carleton Carpenter
Lobo Naglaski . . . . . Steve Forrest
Elvin Carey . . . . . Jerome Courtland
Daniel Hazard . . . . . William Hairston
Donald Quentin Dover IV . . . . . Robert Arthur
Franklin D. No Bear . . . . . Maurice Jara
Soldier . . . . . Chris Warfield
Sgt. Vince Opperman . . . . . Bert Freed

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