A relentless but engrossing study of a platoon of men during the Korean War, FIXED BAYONETS offers a fine cast and excellent direction by director Samuel Fuller, a war film specialist (STEEL HELMET, 1951; THE BIG RED ONE, 1980). Basehart is an intellectual, refined soldier who functions
well under the orders of others, but when his superiors (Evans, O'Shea, and Hill) are picked off one by one in a rear guard action on some snowy mountaintops, Basehart finds he must take command and assume responsibility for the lives and deaths of others. He almost falters but at the last minute
takes a firm hand and saves a near-hopeless situation. Remnants of the platoon survive under his leadership and rejoin their retreating regiment. There is nothing glamorous about this film. Fuller documents the mental and physical strain the infantryman must undergo, a grimy, weary existence
dependent on the ability to wield the cold steel of a bayonet. Basehart is excellent as the introspective soldier, and Evans and O'Shea are also terrific as the seasoned veterans who take as routine the rear guard order to lay down their lives, if necessary, to save their comrades. This film had
particular box-office appeal in that it was released during a time when Korean War truce talks were being conducted. Though the story for the film was based on a novel by John Brophy, another source was also cited. According to director Fuller, "This was an original, but Darryl Zanuck decided to
credit also an old film 20th made, THE IMMORTAL SERGEANT (1943), because it dealt with a timid soldier. The stories have nothing in common whatsoever." The realistic sets were all photographed beautifully by master cinematographer Ballard on Stage 8 of the Fox Studio, where art directors Wheeler
and Patrick and set decorators Little and Rhode superbly re-created the Korean terrain ravaged by war.
