Retreat, Hell!

Best known for cult thriller Gun Crazy, B-movie director Joseph H Lewis here turns in a conventional combat movie set during the Korean War. All the character clichés are firmly in place - the heroic commanding officer (Frank Lovejoy), the reservist worried about the wife and kids he has left behind (Richard Carlson), the fresh young recruit (Russ Tamblyn) - but some of the battle scenes are well done. Produced while the Korean War was actually being fought, this was one of Lewis's few movies backed by a major company, and it isn't a patch on his lower-budget ventures.