Does anyone remember this film?

Subject: Great Ending Sequence!
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 12:21 PM

Not the usual thing found here but this has been bugging me for ages and I'm sure someone here will know the answer.

I remember seeing a film on the box some years ago which had the most unusual ending. The film involved two soldiers who, for one reason or another, were tried for desertion. At the end of the film they were led out over a snowy landscape to face the firing squad and, as the camera panned back, the music started with the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - chilling.

I thought the film was called the "Victors" but I watched that and it wasn't the same (maybe ther's more than one film of that name?). Any ideas?

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: Rog Peek
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 12:30 PM

I also thought it was 'The Victors'. Are you sure iit isn't?

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: Wesley S
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 12:38 PM

Could this be it? The Victors

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: fretless
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 01:00 PM

The shooting in The Victors takes place during, but not at the end of, the movie. But the scene is otherwise as Ray described.

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: The Walrus
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 01:02 PM

I remember the execution scene in 'The Victors' - I still can't hear "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" without getting a mental flash of that scene - chilling indeed.

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: 14fret
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 07:52 AM

I'm (almost) sure the film is, 'Paths Of Glory', by Stanley Kubrick in 1957, starring Kirk Douglas.

Couldn't get the link to work but c&p the following, it should take you to the site.

http://www.timeout.com/film/70863.html

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 11:54 AM

I was sure that the scene came at the end following the lads deserting (one of them didn't really want to and only went to persuade his mate to come back) and their being tried. Guess I'll just have to buy them both and find out - "Paths of Glory" is only £4.99 delivered on play.com - the review at timeout.com is close but not quite what I remember. Any other contributions?
Ray

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 01:19 PM

"The Victors," 1963, is available used on VHS from a few sellers. Ebay offers are the best place to look. A long film, 2 1/2 hours.
Actors were Vince Edwards, Albert Finney, Peter Fonda, George Hamilton, George Peppard, Eli Wallach, and other notables.

This VHS has not been re-issued. An excellent film, but it failed at the box-office.

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 05:23 PM

Ah - Albert Finney da da da da da
Johnny in his pocket and brylcream in his hair!!

---

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Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: GUEST,Murray on Salt Sprng
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 06:45 PM

"Paths of Glory", starring Kirk Douglas, is one of the best antiwar films ever made. Three French soldiers are picked at random to be executed for cowardice; KD attempts to defend them. They're shot, of course, and at the end there's a very moving scene where a captured German girl is made to sing for the soldiers. She strikes up "Der Treu Hussar", a very poignant song, and gradually the weary soldiers join in.
The film was I think banned in France.

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 06:47 PM

"Please note that anonymous posting is no longer allowed at Mudcat. Use a consistent name [in the 'from' box] when you post, or your messages risk being deleted.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-
"
hopefully... mods are starting to rgain some sense and discretioary judgement..

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: GUEST,BanjoRay
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 08:12 PM

Paths of Glory is set in WW1, While the Victors was based on the battle of the bulge in WW2, and is definitely the one with Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Both excellent films.
Ray

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: JJ
Date: 16 Jun 07 - 08:55 AM

Definitely THE VICTORS, perhaps the most bitter World War II film ever made. We follow the war in Europe through a series of unconnected, picaresque sequences, each more cynical than the last (or so I remember it).

The "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" sequence is loosely based on the execution of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American to be executed for desertion since the Civil War. There's a book by William Bradford Huie that tells the story of this once-famous case, and how poor Eddie, like the French soldiers in PATHS OF GLORY, was railroaded in order to serve as an example.

Albert Finney appears in the last sequence -- as a Russian soldier! He and another member of the Allies get into a drunken fight and kill each other, their bodies falling in a "V" as the soundtrack blares out the opening of Beethoven's Fifth.

Saw this film at a drive-in the year it came out (1963), and it's still with me all these years later...

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 16 Jun 07 - 11:02 AM

The Victors. Carl Foreman director. I saw him give a televised lecture once and he said he made it as an anti-war film and that his using Frank Sinatra's Have Yourselves was described by the film's detractors as "a cheap trick". According to Foreman the critics spoke more truly than they knew because Sinatra did it for nothing. I also remember him pointing out that we hadn't had a single day, including Christmas days, that were entirely free of war since World War 2. That was about thirty years ago. Not a lot has changed.

Subject: RE: Does anyone remember this film?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jun 07 - 01:31 PM

"The Victors" is one of the classics on VHS, never re-issued, that I am getting onto cd before the old tapes give out.

Off subject, I have the old VHS (1936) of "Showboat" with Paul Robeson singing. There are remakes available on cd, but I can't find this one- I have heard of a cd but it may be pirated; it can't be found at the usual dealers.
Any old film buffs know anything about it?