''Suicide Battalion'' is a 1958 World War II film directed by

Edward L. Cahn Edward L. Cahn (February 12, 1899 – August 25, 1963) was an American film director. Early life and education Cahn was born in Brooklyn, New York. He went to work at Universal Pictures in 1917 while still a student at UCLA. Career ...

and starring

Mike Connors Krekor Ohanian (August 15, 1925 – January 26, 2017), known professionally as Mike Connors, was an American actor best known for playing private detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series ''Mannix'' from 1967 to 1975, a role which earned ...

and John Ashley, who made the film while on leave from the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. In 1968, it was remade for television by

Larry Buchanan Larry Buchanan (January 31, 1923 − December 2, 2004), born Marcus Larry Seale Jr., was a film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a " schlockmeister". Many of his extremely low-budget films have landed on "worst movie" lists or ...

as ''

Hell Raiders ''Hell Raiders'' is a 1969 American made-for-television war film directed by Larry Buchanan Larry Buchanan (January 31, 1923 − December 2, 2004), born Marcus Larry Seale Jr., was a film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a ...

'', which was the film's original

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 ...

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...

originally released it as a

double feature The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera ho ...

with '' Jet Attack''.

Premise

The story takes place during World War II in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. A group of American soldiers are recruited for a dangerous mission to destroy an enemy base and keep strategic documents out of the reach of the invading

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

Main cast

as Major Matt McCormack * John Ashley as Pvt. Tommy Novello * Jewell Lain as Elizabeth Ann Mason *

Russ Bender Russ Bender (January 1, 1910 – August 16, 1969) was an American actor. Career Before becoming an actor, Bender wrote detective stories for magazines. That part of his life was interrupted when he joined the Army. By the time he returned to c ...

as Sgt. Harry Donovan *

Bing Russell Neil Oliver "Bing" Russell (May 5, 1926 – April 8, 2003) was an American actor and Class A minor-league baseball club owner. He was the father of Hollywood actor Kurt Russell and grandfather of ex–major league baseball player Matt Franco ...

as Lt. Chet Hall * Scott Peters as Pvt. Wally Zagorsky *

Walter Maslow Walter Maslow (born January 16, 1928) is an American film, stage and television actor. Life and career Maslow was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 16, 1928. After high school, he served for two years in the United States Navy, performin ...

as Pvt. Marty Green * John McNamara as Colonel Craig * Clifford Kawada as Colonel Hiosho * Bob Tetrick as Pvt Bill *

Marjorie Stapp Marjorie Stapp (September 17, 1921 – June 2, 2014) was an American actress who was mainly in low-budget pictures. Biography Stapp began her film career when she signed a contract with the film studio 20th Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her firs ...

as Beverly *

Jan Englund Jan Lowell ( Englund; August 23, 1927 – January 16, 2018) was an American screenwriter and actress known for her work on exploitation films from the 1950s through the 1970s. She often worked alongside her husband, writer-actor Mark Lowell. Aft ...

as Annette * Isabel Cooley as Julie *

Hilo Hattie Hilo Hattie (born Clarissa Haili, October 28, 1901 – December 12, 1979) was a Hawaiian singer, hula dancer, actress and comedian of Native Hawaiian ancestry. Early life and career Hattie was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She loved to dance the hul ...

as Mama Lily *

Sammee Tong Sammee Tong (April 21, 1901 – October 27, 1964) was an American film and television character actor. One of Tong's more notable roles was that of Peter Tong on the sitcom '' Bachelor Father'', which aired on all three national networks fro ...

as Papa Lily *

Art Gilmore Arthur Wells Gilmore, known as Art Gilmore (March 18, 1912 – September 25, 2010) was an American actor and announcer heard on radio and television programs, children's records, movies, trailers, radio commercials, and documentary films. He also ...

as Captain Hendry *

Jackie Joseph Jackie Joseph (born November 7, 1933) is an American actress and writer. She is best known for her role as Jackie Parker on ''The Doris Day Show'' (1971–1973) and Audrey in '' The Little Shop of Horrors'' (1960), as well as a supporting role i ...

as Cho-Cho

Production

The film was an original story by Lou Rusoff reportedly based on the capture of General William Dean during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. It was announced for production in November 1955 as ''Hell Raiders''. It was to star

Lance Fuller Lance Fuller (December 6, 1928 – December 22, 2001) was an American actor. Biography Born in Somerset, Kentucky, he worked as a contract actor for most of the 1950s with Universal-International. With many uncredited roles for the firs ...

who had made ''

Apache Woman Apache Woman may refer to: * Apache Woman (1955 film), an American Western directed by Roger Corman * Apache Woman (1976 film) ''Apache Woman'' ( it, Una donna chiamata Apache) is a 1976 Italian Spaghetti Western film, written and directed by ...

'' for producer Alex Gordon and had signed a ten-film deal with AIP (or ARC as it was then known), to make two films a year for five years. Filming was to begin January 1956. Filming was pushed back and Fuller did not make the movie. In April 1956 AIP announced that

Richard Denning Richard Denning (March 27, 1914 – October 11, 1998) was an American actor who starred in science fiction films of the 1950s, including ''Unknown Island'' (1948), ''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' (1954), '' Target Earth'' (1954), ''Day the ...

would star and that

would direct. Denning ended up not appearing in the film either, which was not made until late 1957. Filming began on 12 November 1957. Star John Ashley was doing a six-month stint in the army at the time. The producers got him an early release to make the movie. Ashley later had a noted association with filmmaking in the Philippines.

Reception

"A very poor man's half-Naked half-dead" wrote the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''. "The good basic idea is hopelessly messed up with tritisms." Jackie Joseph called it "this B minus war movie."

Premise

Main cast

Production

Reception

See also

References

External links