Home of the Brave (United Artists) (1949)

General Credits —Advance Feature lllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllll OFFICIAL BILLING SCREEN PLAYS CORP. “Home of the Brave"* with DOUGLAS DICK FRANK LOVE JOY JAMES EDWARDS STEVE BRODIE JEFF COREY LLOYD BRIDGES Produced by STANLEY KRAMER 25% Directed by MARK ROBSON 25% Associate Producer, ROBERT STILLMAN 25% Screenplay by CARL FOREMAN 25% Based on an original play by ARTHUR LAURENTS 25% Musical Score by DIMITRI TIOMKIN 25% RELEASED THRU UNITED ARTISTS 15 % Running Time: 86 minutes & THE SYNOPSIS (Not for Publication) GI Peter Moss (James Edwards) is a battle casualty, paralyzed from the waist down, suffering from the shock of his experience on a small South Pacific atoll, aggravated by his deep-rooted sense of persecu¬ tion because he is a Negro. In the sympathetic hands of an army psychiatrist (Jeff Corey) Mossy begins to relive the hateful incidents of his past. It begins on the day he reports to young Major Dennis E. Robin¬ son, Jr. (Douglas Dick) who was setting out on a dangerous map¬ making mission with four men to aid him. They included Tech Ser¬ geant Carl Mingo, 30, Finch (Lloyd Bridges), Mossy’s age, and Corporal T. J. Everitt, or “T.J.” as he was known in the Army (Steve Brodie), in his late thirties, and Mossy. The five men set out for the is¬ land. Finch, Mingo and the Major don’t care about Mossy’s being a Negro. Finch because Mossy was an •*L old school friend. Mingo because ^ the thought never occurred to him, and the Major because the Colonel (Cliff Clark) had assigned Peter Moss, a surveying specialist in the Corps of Engineers, to the job. But to T.J., Negroes were inherently “yellow-bellied Niggers.” The men spend four days on the island, during which they map the terrain, indicate appropriate land¬ ing beaches, key artillery posts and defense positions. Jap snipers, the dripping growth of the jungle, the mosquitoes, the heat and the immi¬ nence of danger begin to work on all the men. T.J. is the first to break. The situation becomes tense. Jap snipers have spotted their encamp¬ ment and are closing in fast. All but final details have been worked into the invasion map by map-maker Finch. The tenseness mounts between the men. The Major gives the signal for the men to head back to the beach. Finch forgets his map case and calls on Mossy to try and recol¬ lect where he left it. The breaking point comes when Finch, in a burst of frustrated wrath, shouts out: “I’m not asking you to stay, you yellow-bellied. ...” A sniper’s shot drops Finch. With his last strength be commands Mossy to get his map case and head for the beach with it. On the beach, Mossy realizes he has left his best friend, Finch, dying in the jungle. He rushes back to clasp Finch in liis arms and then makes his way back to the beach. When the Major orders his men to wade out to the boat that has come for them, Mossy finds he cannot move — bis legs are paralyzed. When the doctor lifts the suc¬ cessive veils of hate and persecu¬ tion from Mossy’s past, he realizes just what the man needs — reassur¬ ance that he is no different from other men. A chance remark of Mingo’s back at the island base headquarters, that he had experi¬ enced a secret exhilaration that the Jap sniper’s bullet hadn’t got him but had gotten someone else — in this case. Finch — was another revelation to Mossy. Persecution had pounded inferiority and shame into Mossy. Now he understands the sameness of men and is prepared to fight artificial barriers. In a burst of energy he rises from his hospital bed and walks. THE CAST (In Order of Appearance) Major Robinson T. J. Doctor Finch Mingo . Moss. Colonel Douglas Dick Steve Brodie Jeff Corey Lloyd Bridges Frank Love joy James Edwards Cliff Clark THE CREDITS Produced by Stanley Kramer; Directed by Mark Robson; Associate Producer, Robert Stillman; Screenplay by Carl Foreman; Based on an original play by Arthur Laurents; Production Design by Rudolph Sternad; Music Composed and Conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin; Photoplay by Robert De Grasse; Film Editor, Harry Gerstad; Pro¬ duction Manager, Clem Beauchamp; Assistant Director, Ivan Volk- man; Set Decoration, Edward G. Boyle; Wardrobe, Joe King; Make¬ up Servision, Gus Norin; Sound Engineer, Jean Speak; Dialogue Director, Don Weis, Head Grip, Morris Rosen; Special Effects, J. R. Rabin; Poem, Eve Merriam. THIS CLIMACTIC SCENE from Stanley Kramer’s talked-about screen venture, “Home of the Brave”, playing at the Theatre, shows Major Robinson (Douglas Dick) and T.J. (Steve Brodie) struggling to persuade Moss (James Edwards) to desert the body of his high school chum, Finch (Lloyd Bridges). To remain means certain death, yet Moss fights to do so. “Home of the Brave” is the first motion picture to deal forthrightly with the Negro problem. Still No. SP-64 MAT (3C) “Home of the Brave/' Sensational Hit, Produced by Stanley Kramer in Secret (Advance Feature) “Home of the Brave,” Stanley Kramer’s daring screen adaptation of Arthur Laurents’ Broadway hit, which United Artists will release at the . Theatre on ., can lay claim to three spectacular film firsts. The adventurous tale of five men of varying backgrounds brought to¬ gether on a South Pacific island, it is the first entertainment film ever to be made in Hollywood on its daring theme. It is the first major picture to be completed — from the time the original story was pur¬ chased to the day a print was de¬ livered to United Artists ready for release — in less than two months. It will also go down in Hollywood history as the first film made in that gossip-ridden town that was planned, written, cast and produced — an operation involving 600 peo¬ ple — in complete secrecy. This Herculean feat was accom¬ plished by Stanley Kramer, cur¬ rent wonder-boy of the motion pic¬ ture industry, a good-looking, mild mannered young man of 35. Con¬ nected with various phases of film- making since his graduation from New York University in 1933, he has been a writer, swing-gang worker, scene shifter, studio car¬ penter, technician, researcher, film editor and associate producer. During the war, he worked on training and orientation films for the Signal Corps and it was in that Army unit, no doubt, that he first discovered that an elaborate film enterprise can be conducted as a top-secret. JAMES EDWARDS as the volun¬ teer surveyor on the desperate in¬ vasion mission depicted in Stanley Kramer’s production, “Home of the Brave”, showing at the Theatre through United Artists release. Still No. SP-19A MAT (IB) “It was my intention,” he says, “to make an important entertain¬ ment feature without the usual dis¬ tracting publicity. We did the whole thing in six weeks’ time, without a word having leaked through to out¬ side members of the industry.” Kramer rehearsed the cast for two weeks, as if for a stage play. James Edwards, who plays the leading role, had had no previous film experience. His only profes¬ sional acting job had been in the theatre, where he performed the role of the Negro GI in “Deep Are The Roots.” Of the other featured actors, Frank Lovejoy, from the radio, is also making his motion picture debut; Lloyd Bridges comes from the Broadway stage and has had featured roles in such films as “Sahara,” “Moonrise,” and “Red Canyon”; Douglas Dick played the role of the crippled son in “The Searching Wind” and has also ap¬ peared in “Casbali,” “The Rope,” and “The Accused;” while Steve Brodie and Jeff Corey are both screen veterans. Once it had been thoroughly re¬ hearsed, “Home of the Brave” was filmed in three weeks, three produc¬ tion units shooting simultaneously: one at the studio, a second at the beach and a third company on loca¬ tion at Baldwin Park for jungle sequences. While shooting was go¬ ing on, the film was also being edited, so that three days after the cameras stopped grinding, Kramer had a fully-edited feature-length entertainment film ready for United Artists release — and at a cost of only 8525,000! Page Seventeen