Up from the Beach (1965)

By CinemaSerf

This is quite a curiously pointless wartime adventure for Cliff Robertson. He is "Sgt. Baxter" who liberates the residents of a French village after the D-Day landings and then, with "Pte. Devine" (Red Buttons) spends the rest of the film ferrying these 21 civilians from pillar to post getting different instructions from a superior officer at every junction. Along the way, he does manage to find time for a little romance with "Lili" (Irina Demick) but must always be on his guard as the Nazis - including his sophisticated captive Commandant (Marius Goring) are still very much in the game. Their escapades are not without their tragedy and there is a general sense of the horror of war as buildings are bombed out, their column is strafed by fighter aircraft and they must sleep where they can foraging as they go. It's filmed on location, which adds a degree of authenticity to the proceedings and the writing is not without some pith now and again. Perhaps it's sarcastically looking at the futility of war? Interestingly novel take on this genre.