The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Otto Preminger's "The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell" isn't that well known and it's easy to see why. It's something of a dull history lesson about the court-martial of a former general, demoted to colonel for disobeying orders and now charged with accusing the powers-that-be with criminal intent for their disregard of a fledgling airforce. Mitchell himself is played by Gary Cooper, looking stiff in his uniform, and old-timers Ralph Bellamy and Charles Bickford are the men for and against him. Rod Stieger is also on hand, lending the film a touch of gravitas as a hotshot army lawyer, a role George C Scott would play in Preminger's much better contribution to the courtroom drama, "Anatomy of a Murder". Preminger shoots the film in widescreen and visually it is impressive but it's also more than a little on the turgid side.

Now available on an Olive Films DVD, this movie is a pretty faithful account of Colonel Billy Mitchell's fight against the army and his well-publicized court martial for daring to speak out against and condemn senior officers who were ordering young pilots to their deaths in planes that had no right to be sitting in hangars let alone flying high in the skies. Despite the fact that it's rather static, the court martial itself is the highlight of the movie – especially with the surprise appearance of a young Rod Steiger who takes over the role of cross-examiner. Gary Cooper is okay, but somewhat muted as Mitchell. I always thought Mitchell was much more of a fire-eater than the rather gentle if stubborn character that Cooper and the scriptwriters let loose. By way of contrast, Fred Clark tends to over-act as the chief prosecutor. All told, this bio rates as a creditable re-enactment that holds the interest for 100 minutes despite a somewhat static script and rather disappointingly dull direction from Otto Preminger.

I have always found this picture fascinating, perhaps, unwittingly, almost a milestone. The other contributors on this page have got quite worked up about the historical context and accuracy of the movie. What they have to say is very interesting and I am sure very valid. I confess I was content to enjoy the film as an involving, and at times quite compelling, drama.What has always interested me however about this movie is the acting. And the real sense of, in this one film, the baton as it were, being passed.For about the first three quarters of the movie the acting is exactly as one would expect from almost any "stiff upper lip" Hollywood military drama of the time. Dear old Gary Cooper (getting a bit long in the tooth) hitting his one note and doing it very well. And a few old stalwarts like Ralph Bellamy dutifully plowing the same furrow. And even the younger actors content to mimic the same stodgy expository style of their elders.And then...in comes Steiger. Fluid, fluent, naturalistic, delivering his lines twice as fast as everyone else. In short a real character, as opposed to a cut-out, hits the screen.I guess what you could call it is new acting mets the old. Now by the time this movie had come out, "The Method" had already had lots of screen time...Clift, Brando, Shelley Winters, Steiger himself. But they were in their own movies. Well perhaps "Red River" might be another example (Wayne and Clift); but this movie is the best example of all.When I saw the movie I knew nothing of the actual events portrayed, and I suppose, as I was watching it, I assumed that we would plod through in a totally acceptable way to Mitchell's certain triumph. And then wham! Rod blows the whole film out of the water.In the actual story Mitchell was "beaten" by Gullion (and historians I know that statement is a travesty...but allow me my soundbite point.) In the movie Cooper is knocked cold by Steiger.

This movie which is supposed to be about Billy Mitchell, an early proponent of air power and of his subsequent court martial for insubordination was entertaining, but as with most Hollywood productions which are made from true stories, was filled with errors.During the first part of the movie, Billy Mitchell allegedly violated orders by using one-ton bombs that he was told not to use. That is a falsehood. Mitchell had permission to use the heavier bombs. In addition, in the movie, the general overseeing the bombing tests was a General Guthrie. There was no such person.The movie showed Mitchell being reduced in rank for violating orders which was another falsehood. He was reduced in rank, but not for this reason. As previously stated, Mitchell had permission to use the heavier bombs.The movie also portrayed Mitchell as being a bachelor, when in reality, he was married. In fact, pictures of Mitchell at his court martial show his wife sitting next to him!The movie also showed Mitchell telling Congressman Reed, that he wouldn't go along with Reed wanting to challenge Army members of the court for prejudice. In reality, Mitchell had one general removed for that reason. After his removal, the general remarked that he and Mitchell were now enemies.Just once, I wish that Hollywood, when making a movie of a true event, would make it like it really happened and stop changing things to suit what they want the public to see.I think the biggest mis-casting was having Gary Cooper playing Billy Mitchell. The real Billy Mitchell was a firebrand who wasn't afraid to speak his mind. Cooper, in the movie, was more laid back and just didn't impress me as being the right actor to play Mitchell.