DeLuxe Color
DeLuxe Color or Deluxe color or Color by DeLuxe is Deluxe Laboratories brand of color process for motion pictures. DeLuxe Color is Eastmancolor-based, with certain adaptations for improved compositing for printing (similar to Technicolor's "sele ...
1956
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
war film
War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...
made by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
Charles Brackett
Charles William Brackett (November 26, 1892 – March 9, 1969) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He collaborated with Billy Wilder on sixteen films.
Life and career
Brackett was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the son of ...
from a
screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, f ...
by Ivan Moffat and Harry Brown, based on the 1955 novel, ''The Sixth of June'' by
Lionel Shapiro
Lionel Shapiro (February 12, 1908 – May 27, 1958) was a Canadian journalist and novelist. A war correspondent for ''The Montreal Gazette'', he landed at the Allied invasion of Sicily, Salerno and Juno Beach on D-Day with the Canadian forces.
...
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
, Special Force Six, a joint American-British-Canadian commando unit, embarks to destroy an especially well-defended German coastal gun emplacement on the
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
coast. As the landing ship steams towards it, its commander, an Englishman, and one of his subordinates, an American, reflect on their love for the same woman.
Captain Brad Parker, an American paratrooper invalided out because of a broken leg suffered during a
parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, w ...
jump, is posted to the headquarters of the
European Theatre of Operations
The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with th ...
in London. At the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
club, he meets and, despite being married, falls in love with Valerie Russell, an Auxiliary Territorial Servicesubaltern. Valerie is the daughter of a crusty
brigadier
Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. ...
who's been on sick leave since being wounded at
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.
. Valerie is also already in love with Captain John Wynter of the
British Commandos
The Commandos, also known as the British Commandos, were formed during the Second World War in June 1940, following a request from Winston Churchill, for special forces that could carry out raids against German-occupied Europe. Initially dra ...
, a friend of her father.
Both officers are posted overseas, but later return. Parker has volunteered to join what becomes Special Force Six, to be led by his former commander, Lt. Colonel (now full Colonel) Timmer.
With only a few hours before the operation is due to embark, Timmer goes to pieces (partly as a result of his earlier bad experiences in the failed
Dieppe Raid
Operation Jubilee or the Dieppe Raid (19 August 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied amphibious attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe in northern France, during the Second World War. Over 6,050 infantry, predominantly Canadian, s ...
) and is arrested whilst drunk and breaking security (this incident is clearly based on a similar breach of security by Major General
Henry J. F. Miller
Henry Jervis Friese Miller (September 10, 1890 – January 7, 1949) served as a general in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.
While serving in the European theater, Miller made publicly recorded comments about the top secre ...
). Wynter, now a colonel, who has recovered from being badly wounded, is brought in to command the operation. The operation is a success, despite several killed and wounded. Parker is badly wounded and evacuated. Wynter is wounded as well, and while he is awaiting evacuation, is killed when he steps on a mine.
In the hospital, and due to be repatriated, Parker sees Valerie for the last time. She does not tell him that Wynter has been killed.
John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...
as Brigadier Russell
* Robert Gist as Major Dan Stenick
*
Richard Stapley
Richard Stapley (20 June 1923 – 5 March 2010), also known by the stage name Richard Wyler, was a British actor and writer.
Early life
Stapley was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England in 1923. A writer, Stapley published his first nove ...
as David Archer
*
Ross Elliott
Ross Elliott (born Elliott Blum, June 18, 1917 – August 12, 1999) was an American television and film character actor. He began his acting career in the Mercury Theatre, where he performed in '' The War of the Worlds'', Orson Welles' f ...
as Major Mills
*
Alex Finlayson
Alex Finlayson is an American playwright whose sly irreverent plays found more success on the English stage than in the United States. After winning Finlayson a Mobil Oil International Playwriting Prize, ''Winding the Ball'' was produced by Th ...
The Montreal Gazette
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...
'' who landed at the
Allied invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It b ...
,
Salerno
Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...
and
Juno Beach
Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles, a village just east of the British beach Gol ...
on D-Day with the Canadian forces. His 1955 romantic novel ''The Sixth of June'' was awarded the
love triangle
A love triangle or eternal triangle is a scenario or circumstance, usually depicted as a rivalry, in which two people are pursuing or involved in a romantic relationship with one person, or in which one person in a romantic relationship with ...
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
in 1956. Robert Taylor echoes his appearance in '' Waterloo Bridge'' by wearing a
trenchcoat
A trench coat or trenchcoat is a variety of coat made of waterproof heavy-duty fabric, originally developed for British Army officers before the First World War, and becoming popular while used in the trenches.
Originally made from gabardine, ...
and romancing English lady Dana Wynter. Wynter called it her favorite of all her films, being an unresolved love story.
Though originally planned to be filmed in Britain with
Jean Simmons
Jean Merilyn Simmons, (31 January 1929 – 22 January 2010) was a British actress and singer. One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets", she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Great Britain during and aft ...
as the female lead, ''The Sixth of June'' (the
working title
A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...
of the film) was made on the Fox
backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction.
Uses
Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...
with naval scenes filmed at the
Long Beach Naval Shipyard
The Long Beach Naval Shipyard (Long Beach NSY or LBNSY), which closed in 1997, was located on Terminal Island between the city of Long Beach and the San Pedro district of Los Angeles, approximately 23 miles south of the Los Angeles Internation ...
, featuring the hospital ship USS ''Haven'' (AH-12), whilst the beach landing was made at Point Dume California. Before the days of
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The image ...
director Henry Koster had to make his landing look convincing on his limited budget with two LCVPs and eighty soldiers. In the invasion scene soldiers running out of the two landing craft appear in front of a back projection scene of another take of the same scene giving the appearance of twice as many landing craft and soldiers as there actually were.
Unlike many American
war film
War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...
s ''D-Day the Sixth of June'' presents the viewpoints of British characters and features Canadian troops in action. The film's microcosm version of the
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
is a
Pointe du Hoc
La Pointe du Hoc () is a promontory with a cliff overlooking the English Channel on the northwestern coast of Normandy in the Calvados '' department'', France.
Pointe du Hoc was the location of a series of German bunkers and machine gun posts. ...
type assault featuring an imaginary "Special Force Six" made up of British, American and Canadian troops in equal quantities. When Taylor's character is wounded it is Todd and the British and Canadians who destroy the big gun that is the force's objective.
Edmond O'Brien's character is relieved of command in a similarity to
US Army Ranger
United States Army Rangers, according to the US Army's definition, are personnel, past or present, in any unit that has the official designation "Ranger". The term is commonly used to include graduates of the US Army Ranger School, even if t ...
Major Cleveland A Lytle. Lytle who was to command three companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion in the assault at Pointe du Hoc heard that
Free French
Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...
sources reported the guns thought to be there had been removed. Lytle became quite vocal that the assault would be unnecessary and suicidal and was relieved of his command at the last minute by Provisional Ranger Force commander Colonel
James Rudder
James Earl Rudder (May 6, 1910 – March 23, 1970) was a United States Army major general. As a lieutenant colonel, he commanded the historic Pointe du Hoc battle during the Invasion of Normandy. He also commanded the US troops at the Battle of ...
. Rudder felt that Lytle could not convincingly lead a force with a mission that he did not believe in. Lytle was later transferred to the 90th Infantry Division where he was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries.
*Distinguished Service Cross (Australia)
*Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
*Distinguished Service Cross (U ...
.
Technical adviser Colonel Dan Gilmer had been General Eisenhower's Secretary in SHAEF during the D-Day preparation and landings.p.136-7 ''Assembly'', Volume 43 United States Military Academy. Association of Graduates
Association of Graduates, United States Military Academy, 1984