Jump into Hell
Jump into Hell is a 1955 war film directed by David Butler. The film stars Jacques Sernas (billed as "Jack Sernas") and Kurt Kasznar. The first contemporary Hollywood war film of the war in French Indochina, the story is a fictionalized account of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Plot. In 1954, Dien Bien Phu, a French-controlled fortress in Indochina, is under siege by Viet Minh rebels. Commanding officer De Castries (Arnold Moss) discovers a Red Chinese officer (Philip Ahn) among his Viet Minh prisoners. The General is desperate for new leadership for his men. He  radios the French high command at Hanoi for help to send volunteer officers. At French headquarters in Paris, Captain Guy Bertrand (Jacques Sernas), a former prisoner of war for three years during World War II, volunteers to join the fray. He wants to see action as well as rendezvous with a former love, Gisele (Patricia Blair), who is unhappily married to Bonet, a major at the fort. Also on their way are Captain Callaux (Kurt Kasznar), goaded into it by his nagging, social-climbing wife; Lieutenant Heldman (Peter van Eyck), a former Afrika Korps soldier who is now a legionnaire ; and the naive but eager Lieutenant Maupin (Norman Dupont). The men parachute in and, with great difficulty, get to the fort. A monsoon rages and the fight drags on for weeks. Heldman heroically staves off enemy soldiers armed with explosives and kills them with a grenade before meeting his own fate. Bonet attempts to stop the Viet Minh attack by approaching enemy lines under a white flag, but is gunned down. Bertrand tries in vain to rescue him. Low on ammunition, water and other supplies, Callaux, despondent after having learned in a letter that his wife has been unfaithful, volunteers  to get water from a nearby river. He changes his will, leaving her nothing, and has it sent off via helicopter. He returns to the fort with the water, but dies just as he delivers it. The situation is hopeless. The enemy is tunneling in and, now without ammo, the Frenchmen must resort to hand-to-hand combat. In his final act, de Castries orders Bertrand and Maupin to try to escape. De Castries takes a last look around, realizing that the end for him is near. Production. Principal photography on "Jump into Hell" began on September 23, 1954, and  lasted until late October. Battle scenes were shot at the Janes Ranch in Conejo, California. Additional battle scenes combined Warner-Pathe newsreel footage of the fall of Dien Bien Phu with live-action scenes. Reception. Reviewer Frank Miller in the "Turner Classic Movies" website saw "Jump into Hell" as typical of the period when films were examples of Cold War "jingoism". "The spoken prologue compares the Battle of Dienbienphu to fall of the Alamo and the British evacuation at Dunkirk. An early confrontation between French general Arnold Moss and captured Chinese officer Philip Ahn clearly identifies the enemy not as  the Viet Minh, but international Communism. Little is said of the fact that the French defeat, with massive casualties before and after the surrender, helped inspire the nation to withdraw from its former colony. For all its jingoism, the film has its charms, particularly in the performances of an international cast."Leonard Maltin considered "Jump into Hell", as a, "Neatly paced actioner of paratroopers involved in Indochina war."