This film essentially begins immediately after the surprise Chinese attack upon United Nations forces during the Korean War with an American division commander being forced to retreat from his current position. To accomplish this rather perilous retreat, he calls upon a platoon to form a rear-guard action which will allow the rest of the division enough time to escape. Needless to say, none of the soldiers chosen for this mission are too happy about it, however, knowing that they only need to hold off the Chinese for a few days, they reluctantly dig and prepare for the worst. Along with that, they also realize that in order for them to have even a remote chance of surviving, they have to somehow convince the Chinese that they are a much larger force than they actually are. The problem is, once the Chinese realize just how few in numbers they really are, they will easily be overrun and killed. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an interesting war film which benefited by good performances from both Gene Evans (as "Sergeant Rock") and Richard Basehart ("Corporal Denno"). Admittedly, it does suffer to a certain extent from its limited budget, but even so, I enjoyed this film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
Review of Fixed Bayonets!
