Watch Retreat, Hell! For Free

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

RETREAT, HELL! is a fun and patriotic little Korean War movie with a greater emphasis on characterisation than most B-flicks of the era. Shot in black and white on a low budget with the copious use of (decent) stock footage of the real war, this follows a reluctant captain (played by CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON's Richard Carlson) as he leads his men against overwhelming numbers of Chinese and North Koreans during that violent escapade. The film's script is snappy and the characters are well drawn, even if only a few of them get our focus: Frank Lovejoy's no-nonsense lieutenant colonel stands out here, as does Russ Tamblyn's ever-so-youthful recruit (and it must have been one of the few times that an actor's age matched that of the character he played). RETREAT, HELL! doesn't have the finest action scenes you'll see, but it doesn't prove to be boring either, and I rather liked it.

RETREAT, HELL! - 1952 This film, one of several that more or less, tell the same story about the U.S. Forces retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.The film starts in the States with ex-Marine officer, Richard Carlson being called back to active service. Carlson is not all that happy with the recall but reports. His commanding officer is hard as nails, Frank Lovejoy. It is the job of the few World War Two veterans to train the fresh recruits and whip them into combat ready soldiers.Training is somewhat rushed because of the desperate situation going on in South Korea. The Reds have overrun most of the country and pushed the few surviving forces into a pocket on the southern end of the country.U.S. Forces launch a counterattack by landing at Inchon and flanking the North Korean Army. The Reds soon cave and the chase is on all the way up the peninsula. Just as it looks like the war might end, the Chinese Red Army comes boiling over the border from China. This catches the U.N. forces by surprise forcing, shall we say, a rather retrograde manoeuvre.The film follows Lovejoy's Marine battalion from training, through the Inchon landing, up through the North, and as they make their way back south.The Marines are badly outnumbered, low on ammo and poorly supplied with winter equipment. The Chinese Reds throw massive human wave attacks at the unit. This causes a dangerous run on medical supplies, and further depletes the already low ammunition reserves.It is only the odd air supply mission and constant air support that gives the Marines a chance to make their way to safety. Soon their trucks are out of fuel and they are forced to carry their growing collection of wounded. The Marines work their way through several more Red attacks and ambushes. Lovejoy gets wounded and Carlson must take command.They are joined along the way by various other retreating units, including some British Royal Marines. Needless to say they manage to make it safely to the coast and are evacuated by sea.The film, like, Alan Dwan's HOLD BACK THE NIGHT, Sam Fuller's THE STEEL HELMET, FIXED BAYONETS and Anthony Mann's MEN AT WAR all deal with this same retreat. This Joseph H. Lewis directed work is quite watchable, by not quite as good as these others. Alan Dwan directed the superb WW2 Marine film, SANDS OF IWO JIMA.The acting is fine, and the look of the film is quite good with ex special effects man, Warren Lynch at the cinematography controls. The film's director, Joseph Lewis is best known for several cracker-jack film noir such as, SO DARK THE NIGHT, MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS, THE BIG COMBO and of course, GUN CRAZY.

Reteat hell is a great movie for those that enjoy the old black and white war classics. Frank Lovejoy plays a good role as all the actors are in this movie ,and the battle scenes are great. What i can't understand is why this movie is not on DVD it seems that the studios are finally starting come around and starting to release the movies that are worth watching and putting in your collection two other movies that should be on DVD are PT109 with Cliff Robertson from 1963 and Merrill's Muraders with Jeff Chandler from 1962. Sam Fuller's Steel Helmet is in a box set with some other films by Fuller but what gets me is that you figure that you could buy Steel Helmet bye its self but you can only get the movie by buying the whole set.

The local Fox channel in Los Angeles must have harbored a cell of fans of Retreat, Hell!, because it seemed as if they showed this film at least once a month in the hours between 2 and 5 a.m. I was hooked after one viewing, although I know I came in somewhere in the middle; it was some time before my erratic sleep patterns fell into synch with the program schedule. I can't recommend it too highly--it is a tribute to all cliches of all war movies to that date, without the distraction created by interesting characters, plot or technical skill. Watch it again and again and you'll understand.