''Up from the Beach'' is a 1965 French-American

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companies ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...

directed by

Robert Parrish Robert R. Parrish (January 4, 1916December 4, 1995) was an American film director, screenwriter, editor and former child actor. He received an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his contribution to ''Body and Soul (1947 film), Body and Soul ...

and starring

Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 196 ...

Red Buttons Red Buttons (born Aaron Chwatt; February 5, 1919 – July 13, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role in the 1957 film ''Sayonara''. He was nominated for awards for his acting work i ...

and

James Robertson Justice James Robertson Justice (15 June 1907 – 2 July 1975) was a British actor. He is best remembered for portraying pompous authority figures in comedies including each of the seven films in the ''Doctor'' series. He also co-starred with Grego ...

. It was based on a 1959 novel by George Barr called ''Epitaph for an Enemy''.

Plot

Following 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 ...

Omaha Beach Omaha Beach was one of five beach landing sectors designated for the amphibious assault component of operation Overlord during the Second World War. On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded German-occupied France with the Normandy landings. "Omaha" r ...

, an American

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

frees a group of French hostages but takes several casualties in an assault in

Vierville-sur-Mer Vierville-sur-Mer (, literally ''Vierville on Sea'') is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy region in northwestern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. ...

. They capture a German officer who has treated the French in his jurisdiction with kindness, but the American sergeant discovers that no one on the busy

beachhead A beachhead is a temporary line created when a military unit reaches a landing beach by sea and begins to defend the area as other reinforcements arrive. Once a large enough unit is assembled, the invading force can begin advancing inland. The ...

wishes to be bothered with prisoners.

Production

The film was filmed in

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

with a French cast and was set in the aftermath 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 ...

where a group of Allied soldiers attempt to shelter Frenchmen who faced execution by the Nazis. As the

US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

did not cooperate with the film, the American soldiers were played by French soldiers. Robert Parrish recalled that

Darryl F. Zanuck Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. He played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of ...

made the film to use unused footage from '' The Longest Day'' with the film then marketed as a sequel. Cliff Robertson said he was given the

Messerschmitt Bf 108 The Messerschmitt Bf 108 ''Taifun'' (English: "Typhoon") was a German single-engine sport and touring aircraft, developed by Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in the 1930s. The Bf 108 was of all-metal construction. Design and development Originally desi ...

used in the film. Robertson claimed Zanuck wanted to make the film to showcase his girlfriend

Irina Demick Irina Demick (16 October 1936 in Pommeuse, Seine-et-Marne – 8 October 2004), sometimes credited as Irina Demich or Irina Demik, was a French actress with a brief career in American films. Biography Born Irina Dziemiach, of Russian ancestry, i ...

who had appeared in ''The Longest Day''. Robertson called the film "Up From the Bitch"

and

Fernand Ledoux Fernand Ledoux (born Jacques Joseph Félix Fernand Ledoux, 24 January 1897, Tirlemont – 21 September 1993, Villerville) was a French film and theatre actor of Belgian origin. He studied with Raphaël Duflos at the CNSAD, and began his ca ...

appeared in the original "The Longest Day".

Oskar Werner Oskar Werner (; born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer; 13 November 1922 23 October 1984) was an Austrian stage and cinema actor whose prominent roles include two 1965 films, '' The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' and ''Ship of Fools''. Other notable ...

was the first choice for the German officer eventually played by Marius Goring. Werner, a World War II Wehrmacht veteran refused on the ground that in his opinion no German officer of the time would have held such humane feelings as the officer portrayed in the film.

Reception

According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $4,200,000 in rentals to break even and made $2,645,000, meaning it made a loss.

References

External links

* 1965 films French World War II films 20th Century Fox films Operation Overlord films Films directed by Robert Parrish English-language French films Films with screenplays by Stanley Mann 1960s English-language films American World War II films 1960s American films 1960s French films {{WWII-film-stub