Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

jr-565-26366 There are really good movies made about the Korean War that I would highly recommend such as, "Porkchop Hill", "Fixed Bayonets", "Retreat, Hell", "The Hunters", "Men In War" and the more recently Korean produced movie, "Brotherhood of War". If you can push past the distracting romance scenes in this movie it would be highly recommended if for the skillful way that actual battle scenes are integrated into the story line. Though some reviewers have dismissed this movie for its clichéd scenes, this movie was somewhat more realistic and graphic for its time. Leave it to Howard Hughes to leave no stone unturned while striving for authenticity in his movies.Our movie starts out from the view of two veteran senior KMAAG officers, Army Colonel Janowski (Robert Mitchem) and Air Force Colonel Parker (William Talman) in their attempts to train the South Korean military. These two probably thought that the worse they ever experienced in WWII was behind them until one Sunday morning in June 1950 when they are awakened to the dropping of bombs by the North Korean Air Force. Colonel Parker quips, "isn't this where we came in? Its even Sunday!" At first we see how the war progresses through their eyes, but then the movie transitions to the view point of American infantrymen desperately trying to stop the North Korean Army.This movie does a good job showing what the early days of the war was like depicting the haplessness of the poorly trained and unmotivated Americans hindered by the loss of their leaders and lack of air support. One soldier suggests "bugging out", but bristles when accused of cowardice. There are no heroics here, just a bunch of scared soldiers. Colonel Janowski arrives to provide leadership and organization after their commander is killed by mortar fire.Establishing contact with the Air Force, a series of air strikes is directed on the approaching enemy. Tanks are bombed and strafed by USAF F-80s in a scene that combined special effects with real film footage. Later, Royal Australian Air Force F-51s napalm North Korean soldiers on a hillside leaving them to die in a sea of fire. The North Koreans were skillful infiltrators and there is a realistic scene where they sneak in behind the frontlines to attack the valuable airstrip and command post until they are outgunned in a counter-attack led by a ring mounted .50 cal machine gun on a 2 1/2 truck.Soldiers die horrible deaths in this movie. North Korean soldiers die screaming in a sea of napalm while American soldiers are shot, strangled or bayonetted by North Korean infiltrators. In a graphic scene, a Hispanic soldier (Lalo Rios) foolishly attempts to take out a North Korean tank with only a hand grenade, and is killed by a flame thrower. The sergeant (Charles McGraw) calls him a fool, but Colonel Janowski corrects him by calling him a "magnificant fool". This is not Hollywood heroics. Things like this really happen in war. After a touching scene of leaving his family without saying goodbye, Colonel Parker is shot down while personally leading an aerial resupply mission and falls to his death when his parachute is set afire by AA fire. The scene reminds me of when I was a kid and used to wake up at 5:00 in the morning to see my dad in uniform preparing to leave for duty at the base.In another scene, an Air Force forward controller is seen taking photos of the devastation and is later killed by mortar fire with his camera shown lying next to his body. My dad who is a veteran of the early days of the Korean War warned me that that I have no business acting like a tourist if I ever went to war, that it would get me killed.In a memorable and controversial scene, the North Koreans attempt to use refugees to infiltrate the UN lines. A tactic of the enemy in any war is to generate waves of refugees that will require the use of critical resources to feed, house and care for them. That is what the communist forces in Korea did and there are breathtaking aerial scenes of miles of refugees clogging the roads. Colonel Janowski orders American artillerymen to fire on the refugee columns to turn them back. The US Army objected to this scene and threatened to withdraw support for this movie. But the military underestimated the political influence of Howard Hughes and the scene was left in the movie. As we know, these incidents actually happened, but unlike what some writers in the 1990s have asserted, these actions were not covered up. The first volume of the US Army's history of the Korean War published in 1962 devotes five pages discussing the problems of refugees and the various methods US commanders used to control them in the early days of the war to include shooting at them. Its amazing that someone actually received a Pulitzer Prize for doing a story on old news.Though filmed in the U.S. at Fort Carson, CO and at RKO's backlot studios using Korean War vets, the movie looks and feels like Korea of 1950, especially with the actual combat footage weaved into the various scenes. The equipment and uniforms for the North Koreans look authentic and their tactics in the movie are realistically portrayed.In an emotional scene, the movie ends with Anne Blythe's character praying for her soldier's safe return as the UN forces head north in pursuit of the defeated North Korean Army. My mother always liked the end because before she met and married my dad, she lived with the mother of a soldier who was MIA in Korea in 1950. She used to accompany her to church everyday where she prayed for the safe return of not only her son, but others who were serving in Korea. Anne Blythe's prayer reminds her of those dark days early in the war.

blanche-2 If you like battle scenes, "One Minute to Zero" is for you. Produced by Howard Hughes, it stars Robert Mitchum, Ann Blyth, Richard Egan, Charles McGraw and William Talman. Mitchum and the other men are fighting the Korean War and Ann Blyth, a war widow, is working for the United Nations. They fall in love, but she turns against him when she sees him give the order to kill refugees who are, he believes, probably guerrillas smuggling in weapons.Someone mentioned the score. Frankly, I thought if I heard the strains of "When I Fall in Love" one more time, I was going to throw something at the television.Mitchum does a fine job; Talman and McGraw are in unusual roles for them, and they handle them well. Talman would go on to be Hamilton Burger on "Perry Mason." Blyth is good, very pretty, and a far cry from that bratty Veda in Mildred Pierce.All in all, a pretty detached experience. It's filled with testosterone - the guys will love it.

doug2go This movie could have been made by the US Army but I am glad it wasn't. I found it to be entertaining, with good acting given a very familiar plot with lost of action. This is one of those movies the critics generally hate and the audiences like - there is nothing unique except the chemistry of the actors and fast moving action direction which makes for an entertaining movie for me. Ann Blyth wanted to be a singer but combined acting and singing in most of her movies somewhere. She and Robert Mitchum sing a duet of sorts which was very entertaining. I wonder how many people know Robert Mitchum had a #1 hit in the mid 50s " Thunder Road" - so he can sing some.

Melvin M. Carter "Pork Chop Hill" with Gregory Peck, "The Men" with Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray "Fix Bayonets" with Richard Basehart and "The Steel Helmet" with Gene Evans who also starred in "Fix Bayonets", are the top Korean War dramas. This one seems like a second bill WWII git them Nazis and Jap films. The romance angle: the reluctant widow/woman trying to fight off her addiction to gunslingers can be seen played out in westerns and gangster flicks. Robert Mitchum is not as human as he was in "The Story of GI JOE" instead this "Mustang" ( Old Army-ese for a ranker who made it to the officer class without a West Point, VMI, or a well placed political connection) just is Ares gift to the warrior class. Charles McGraw and William Talman two of the best sinister looking and sounding actors of their era, become bland nonentities in this flick. There are some grim moments: Talman's descent into a flaming hutch after his recon plane is shot down, the North Korean infiltrated refugee column being blasted apart,and the gradual attrition on Mitchum and McGraw's outfit ( the film is set right at the beginning of the Korean "ShootOut" before MacArthur's Inchon Landing temporarily turned the tide) but overall there is a lack of tension and good action set pieces to make this film a contender as a Good war movie/Action Film. Perhap's director Tay Garnett suffered from MGM-itis every thing must be pretty because this movie ain't hard or gritty enough. Now if Aldrich,Siegal, Fuller,or Milestone had directed it...