everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Major Disappointment

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Audie Murphy (Craig Benson), Gary Crosby (Marty Sackler), Dolores Michaels (Ruth Benson), Alejandro Rey (Julio Fontana), Marjorie Stapp (Caroline Pelham), Barry Atwater (Jeff Pelham), E.J. Andre (Dr Van Bart), Dale Ishimoto (Blanco), Miriam Colon (Nahni), Pilar Seurat (Camota), Lillian Bronson (Delia Ellis), William Mims (M'Keever), Ivan Dixon (Tiger Blair), Kevin Brodie (Timmy Thompson), Sara Anderson (Mrs Thompson), Lloyd Kino (Japanese lieutenant).Director: HERBERT COLEMAN. Screenplay: Richard Maibaum, Willard Willingham. Based on a story by Richard Maibaum. Photography: Kenneth Peach. Supervising film editor: Jodie Copelan. Music composed and conducted by Henry Vars. Art director: John Mansbridge. Set decorations: Harry Reif. Wardrobe: Robert Olivas. Make-up: Vincent Romaine. Script supervisor: George Rutter. Property master: Wilbur L. Russell. Photographed in black-and-white CinemaScope. CinemaScope lenses by Bausch & Lomb. Production supervisor: Harold E. Knox. Assistant director: Francisco Day. Sound editor: Jack Cornall. Sound: Jack Solomon, Frank McWhorter. Sound facilities: Glen Glenn Sound Company. Producer: Richard Maibaum. Executive producer: Robert L. Lippert. An API Production for 20th Century-Fox. 2nd assistant director: George Batcheller. Made with the co- operation of the United States Defense Department and the United States Navy.Copyright 1 June 1961 by Associated Producers, Inc. New York opening at neighborhood theaters: 16 August 1961. U.S. release: June 1961. U.K. release: 23 July 1961. Never theatrically released in Australia. 80 minutes.U.K. release title: BATTLE ON THE BEACH.SYNOPSIS: During the Jap invasion of the Philippines, an American aids the guerrillas.VIEWER'S GUIDE: Not suitable for children.COMMENT: Yet another of those U.S.-Filipino war pics, this one is more routine than most. The direction only comes to life during the climactic battle. The rest of the film is pretty dull sledding, despite a few brief bursts of action and a heroine who tends to be more sultry than the script requires.OTHER VIEWS: Set during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, with Audie Murphy involved in a distinctly uneasy blend of marital problems and melodramatic heroics. The director handles the action scenes competently but both he and his cast are at the mercy of the unconvincing script when it comes to the personal affairs of the characters. It all rings much too hollow and the result is an overloaded melodramatic hodge-podge. — E.V.D.

Battle at Bloody Beach was one of Audie Murphy's attempts to get away from the western casting where he did so well and should have stayed in his career. It bears some resemblance to John Wayne's Back to Bataan and Tyrone Power's An American Guerrilla in the Phillipines in subject matter.But the latter had the advantage of great color cinematography and was shot in the actual scenes of the Phillipines. This particular cheapie was done on Catalina, it looks like it was done over a couple of long weekends.The plot as it were has Murphy as an American running supplies to the Filipino insurrectionists and discovering his wife, Dolores Michaels believing he was dead, having taken up with Filipino guerrilla Alejandro Rey both politically and personally. That leads to some tense moments as Murphy leads some refugees away from the oncoming Japanese.The battle itself is the climax as Murphy with Gary Crosby and assorted help mows down row after row of charging Japanese. Now why the Japanese commander didn't size up the situation and wait for some artillery before getting all his troops slaughtered in a charge is a mystery to me. I'll be willing to bet that somewhere in the financing of this film was Gary's father who was always doing things like that for his sons. Good thing Bing had the sense to keep his name off the credits if he did.

Small-scale story of individuals caught up in a giant war, as opposed to a big WWII blockbuster. Low-budget black and white movie, but that's OK since it is not a blockbuster. However, the combination of low budget, poor script and below-average direction prevents this film from being worthwhile. It appears to have been filmed very quickly, maybe in a matter of days or a couple of weeks.Audie Murphy has a lot of screen "presence" and he elevates what is otherwise not much here. Dolores Michaels is great as always and very watchable. Her leading-lady talent is far above this insignificant movie. Alejandro Rey is watchable as he again elevates one of his many B-movie roles and TV appearances (he had a remarkable ability to do this).The cheap California island location filming is surprisingly adequate as a substitute for the real would-be scene of the action.Can't really recommend this, but the movie's stars outshine the material and are individually fine.

Although only 45 years since it was made, almost everyone associated with the "Battle AT (not of) Bloody Beach" (actors-writers-directors) has been dead for a while now. It is unlikely that this project was given a prominent spot in any of their obits.I'm one of the unlucky few who paid to see this in a theater during its original summer of 1961 release. This type of low budget black and white junk was typical Saturday matinée fodder-although I think "Battle At Bloody Beach" was weak even by those standards. As a ten year-old who loved to play army the title was a real draw. We were driven to the theater by my friend's uncle who had us laughing the whole trip with funny variations on the title. The trip to the theater was a lot more entertaining than the movie. There is a beach, Catalina Island impersonating a small island in the Philippines during WWII, but there is no blood-just some fake looking combat and "day for night" filming. The middle (65% of the total running time) of the movie showcases a long hike by an assorted group of civilians from one side of the island to the other. The Japanese invaded the Philippines and other territories as part of their plans to create what they called a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Basically the idea was to expel foreign economic and military interests and to set up governments agreeable to Japan's plans for the region. Japan's industrial development was dependent on these areas for raw materials like oil, rubber, and iron ore. The Japanese are essentially faceless and behave moronically (tactically and otherwise), about the same treatment Japan got in propaganda films made during the war. There is a plot of sorts. Sgt. Marty Sackler (Gary Crosby) of the U. S. Army is living on a Japanese occupied island supplying Filipino insurgents with weapons to resist the Japanese occupation. Craig Benson (Audie Murphy), a civilian, comes to the island by submarine to set up a resistance network. He is also looking for his wife Ruth (Dolores Michaels) who he had to leave behind when he evacuated the place at the start of the war. Meanwhile she has fallen for Alejandro Rey who seems to be some kind of revolutionary insurgent. This is an incredibly lousy film which is rarely shown, so it should be easy to avoid. If you are forced to watch just be glad you are not a 10-year-old who just blew part of his meager allowance for a ticket.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.