# Eight Iron Men

Eight Iron Men is a 1952 American World War II drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer. It stars Bonar Colleano, Arthur Franz, Lee Marvin, Richard Kiley and Mary Castle. Lee Marvin's plays the squad's leader in Dmytryk's noir style film with J. Roy Hunt's cinematography.
The screenplay by Harry Brown was based on his 1945 play A Sound of Hunting, which had featured Sam Levene, Frank Lovejoy and Burt Lancaster during its short run on Broadway from November 20 to December 8, 1945. "Burton" Lancaster had played Sgt. Mooney, Lee Marvin's role in the original play, Sam Levene played Pvt. Colluci and Frank Lovejoy played PFC Coke.

## Plot

Three American infantrymen—Carter, Ferguson and Small—are returning from patrol in a bombed-out town when they are pinned down by an enemy machine gun. Meanwhile, Coke, who was separated from the patrol, returns on his own to the squad's basement outpost where goof-off Private Collucci is sleeping, dreaming of beautiful women. A runner from company headquarters delivers a package for a squad member and tells the men that the regiment is being pulled off the line that night. Shortly after another patrol returns with Sgt. Mooney and privates Spiros and Muller.
Muller opens the package and finds a fruitcake, which he divides eight ways, one piece for each man. Carter and Ferguson manage to get back, but the clumsy Small is trapped in a shell hole by the machine gun fire. Sgt. Mooney asks his platoon leader, Lt. Crane, to rescue him that night. Crane refuses until Mooney tells him that they are being pulled back from the line that night. He takes the request to Capt. Trelawny, their company commander. A sniper kills Crane as he is returning from the company command post. Mooney is told that Trelawny turned down the request. He goes to see the captain, who orders Mooney not to attempt a rescue, saying that while he does not want to lose more men on what seems to be a "wild-goose chase." The men debate the pros and cons of going after Small, while Collucci tries to persuade Muller to let him eat Small's piece of fruitcake.
A runner alerts the squad that the company is pulling out in half an hour, but another burst of machine gun fire galvanizes Mooney. He disobeys direct orders and with Coke, Muller, and a mortar, goes for Small. The mortar fire fails to silence the gun, however. Trelawny hears the exploding shells and angrily heads to the squad's outpost, where he confronts Carter for not stopping Mooney. Collucci goes out while the two argue, but Carter persuades the captain to overlook the disobedience.
Mooney returns, saying they could not get close, but if Small had still been alive, he would have made a break for it during the mortar fire. When Collucci is nearly shot by the sniper and returns fire, the squad realizes that he has gone alone to retrieve Small. Using a destroyed tank as cover to get close, he tosses grenades that destroy the machine gun nest. Collucci returns as the squad is getting ready to move out, carrying Small. It turns out that Small sprained his ankle, injected himself with morphine, and slept through the whole ordeal. As all eight men leave, Collucci eats the last piece of fruitcake.

## Cast

* Bonar Colleano as Pvt. Collucci
* Arthur Franz as Carter
* Lee Marvin as Sgt. Joe Mooney
* Richard Kiley as Pvt. Coke
* Nick Dennis as Pvt. Spiros
* James Griffith as Pvt. Ferguson
* Dickie Moore as Pvt. Muller (as Dick Moore)
* George Cooper as Pvt. Small
* Barney Phillips as Captain Trelawny
* Robert Nichols as Walsh
* Richard Grayson as Lieutenant Crane
* Douglas Henderson as Hunter
* Mary Castle as Girl
* Angela Stevens as Girl in Daydream (uncredited)
* Kathleen O'Malley as Girl in Daydream (uncredited)
* Sue Casey as Girl in Daydream (uncredited)