Battle Circus (1953) ***

Release Date: March 6, 1953

Running Time: 90 minutes

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, June Allyson, Keenan Wynn

Directed By: Richard Brooks

Modern audiences coming into Battle Circus will have a hard time not comparing it to the much more successful film M*A*S*H from 1970 and its even more successful series on network TV. Those comparisons are apt as both share many of the same type of characters. The primary difference between the two properties is tone. M*A*S*H plays things very broadly with tongue firmly in cheek while Battle Circus mostly plays things seriously.

The story begins with Army Nurse Ruth McCara (June Allyson) newly assigned to M*A*S*H unit 8666 (referred to throughout the film as simply the 66th). She immediately runs afoul of Chief Surgeon Jed Webbe, a no nonsense, hard drinking man who is getting burned by the mobility part of a Mash unit made necessary by the ever shifting battle lines. In the last 23 days there have been 7 moves, all overseen by Sgt. Orvil Statt (Keenan Wynn), and the repetition has worn down the morale of everyone in the camp. 

Soon afterwards Jed starts making advances on Ruth but the nurse is only interested in a lasting relationship, the type that leads to a wedding. This frustrates Jed but does not stop his advances which eventually wears down her resolve, despite warnings from her fellow nurses that Jed is a notorious womanizer who never talks about his home life away from the war including whether he may already be married. 

The central drama here is the blossoming romance between Jed and Ruth, two people not expecting to fall in love behind the lines of the Korean War. What threatens to derail it is the forcefulness behind Jed’s methods to get with Ruth. He is pushy, forceful and takes liberties that would never play with modern sensibilities. It makes it hard to be on his side early on. Fortunately these hard edges smooth out in the later parts of the film as he starts to really care for her. 

Ruth on the other hand is not much of a character at first. She starts out naive and uncomfortable with her surroundings. Her character blossoms though when she stands up for a young Korean child who has been injured by shrapnel and will die if not operated on. Her determination to save this child pushes Jed into extreme measures to save the young boy when he otherwise wouldn’t have operated on him in the first place. It brings a depth of humanity to her that rubs off on the otherwise callous Jed. 

This film lives or dies based on our investment in the relationship between Jed and Ruth. Fortunately Battle Circus allows that relationship to grow naturally throughout the film in such a way that when the war interferes and forces the two apart we care whether they will find each other again. It is well staged if a little abrupt in the end. Still, the two leads do an adequate job at portraying the romance and keeping audiences invested. The two leads are likable and make for a solid drama behind the lines of a war that was playing out even as the film was being made.