Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Gallant Men...again

The pilot of the old television show the old television show 'The Gallant Men' at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbzUNcmIs1M.  This show was broken down into six parts on YouTube.  Though this episode was directed by Robert Altman, it has an entirely different feel that that of his 'Combat!' involvement.  The battle scenes and integration of stock war footage, I thought, was better than most of the Combat! episodes.  The Gallant Men, at least from the pilot, was shot like a movie.  'The Story of G.I. Joe' comes to mind.  The war, and those American G.I.'s fighting it are seen through the eyes of a war corespondent much like that of Ernie Pyle.

Like Combat!, The Gallant Men was also an ABC production.  Altman decided to get himself transferred over to Combat!, because the concept appealed to him.  I remembered watching Combat! as a kid, and only vaguely remembered The Gallant Men.  I've blogged about this before.  I'm blogging about this show again because someone posted the pilot episode on YouTube.  It's great to get to finally see this show.

4 comments:

Bobby said...

I loved Combat but I don't remember Gallant Men. I'll watch the youtube video to see if it jogs my memory.

David Finlayson said...

Bobby, The Gallant Men had a very short run - lost out to the more popular Combat.

Anonymous said...

Gallant Men was a Warner Brothers Production.

JOE S. HILL said...

"THE GALLANT MEN" (1962-63) was a Warner Bros. Television production that ran for 26-hour-long episodes. Warner Archive released the series in 2013-2014 onto the MOD DVD format. In addition to leading stars, Robert McQueeney and William Reynolds, other cast regulars included Richard X. Slattery, Rolland LaStarza, Roger Davis, and Robert Ridgley, who later became a cartoon voiceover for "TARZAN, LORD OF THE JUNGLE" (1976), "THUNDARR, THE BARBARIAN" (1980), and "FLASH GORDON" (1979). Robert Ridgley's last film role was in Warner Bros' "FIRE DOWN BELOW" (1997) with Steven Segal.