Cry of Battle
| Cry of Battle | |
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Original film poster
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| Directed by | Irving Lerner |
| Produced by |
Joe Steinberg Eddie Romero |
| Written by | Bernard Gordon |
| Based on |
Fortress in the Rice by Benjamin Appel |
| Starring |
James MacArthur Van Heflin Rita Moreno Leopoldo Salcedo |
| Music by | Richard Markowitz |
| Cinematography | Felipe Sacdalan |
| Distributed by | Allied Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cry of Battle is a 1963 American coming of age war film based on the 1951 novel Fortress in the Rice by Benjamin Appel who was a journalist and special assistant to the U.S. Commissioner for the Philippines from 1945-46. The film stars Van Heflin, James MacArthur, Rita Moreno, Leopoldo Salcedo and Sidney Clute. Set during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, the working title was To Be a Man.
The film begins on December 8, 1941 with the Japanese attacking the Philippines. Dave McVey Jr., the son of a rich American businessman with extensive holdings in the Philippines, is attacked by murderous bandits. He is rescued by Careo, a Filipino patriot who has put together a group of anti-Japanese Filipino guerrillas. Carero hides Dave with an elderly Filpino and his granddaughter who teach Dave Tagalog.
Careo returns again to tell Dave that his father has left the Philippines, but Dave is joined by a fellow American, Joe Trent, a rough merchant sailor who was third mate on a cargo ship that was sunk by the Japanese. Joe's ship was part of a merchant line owned by Dave's father. Joe figures that Dave's father will reward him for keeping his son safe. Joe gets drunk and rapes the teenage granddaughter. When the girl starts screeming, Dave has no choice but to flee with Joe.
They meet a band of armed Filipinos led by Atong and the English-speaking woman Sisa. The quick-thinking Joe tells the band that if they bring them to Colonel Ryker, an American officer in charge of a guerrilla unit, Ryker will reward them. Ryker tells Dave that the Japanese would probably give him a comfortable existence and might repatriate him to the United States due to his father's extensive business dealings with Japan. Dave replies that his father's connections to Japan were from before the war and he would rather fight with the guerrillas. The group join Ryker's unit in fighting the Japanese.
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Wikipedia