The Red Beret

The Red Beret (1953)

Alan Ladd at his greatest in this ripcord thriller that rips at your emotions!

Steve MacKendrick resigns from the US Army after causing the needless death of a fellow officer. Wanting to serve in the war, he enlists as a Canadian in the British 1st Parachute Brigade. He proves himself exceptionally skilled for a recruit, arousing the suspicion of his commanding officer who starts an investigation. He redeems himself during combat. The film was titled "Paratrooper" in the US.

Date of release
1953-08-11
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (16)
Runtime
1h 28m
Genres
War, Drama
Director
Terence Young

Casting

Interesting facts

The Red Beret is a 1953 British-American war film directed by Terence Young and starring Alan Ladd, Leo Genn and Susan Stephen.

Production

The Red Beret was based on a non-fiction book by Hilary St George Saunders published in 1950. Film rights were bought by Irving Allen, who had a company with Albert R. Broccoli, Warwick Films. He was told he could get finance if they could get a star to play the lead role. In 1951, Allen originally announced Trevor Howard and Leo Genn for the leading roles.

Terence Young's original choice for the lead role of Steve "Canada" MacKendrick was former Second World War Para Richard Todd who turned the part down, saying "I did not like this script, probably because I was still rather serious-minded about anything to do with the Airborne Forces and thought it an over-fictionalised treatment." Ray Milland was also originally announced as landing the leading role.

Ladd wanted work done on the script and recommended Richard Maibaum, with whom he had worked several times while at Paramount. Warwick hired him and this began a long professional relationship between Broccoli and Maibaum which later included the James Bond films.

Although there was some public criticism of an American playing the lead in a British war film, British cinema owners responded that Hollywood stars filled their cinema seats, unlike most local actors. Ladd himself explained that his character had enlisted in the Parachute Regiment to learn from them.

The female lead role of Penny Gardner was originally meant to be played by Dianne Foster but she was unable to make it due to a scheduling conflict. She was replaced by Susan Stephen.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended