Battle at Bloody Beach
Battle at Bloody Beach, (aka Battle on the Beach in the UK and Australia),[2] is a 1961 American CinemaScope drama war film directed by Herbert Coleman and starring Audie Murphy who had previously worked together in Posse from Hell. The film also features Gary Crosby and introduces Alejandro Rey. Battle at Bloody Beach is only the second Audie Murphy movie set in World War II, after his autobiographical To Hell and Back.[3] The film was shot on Santa Catalina Island[4] by Robert Lippert's Associated Producers Incorporated and was released by 20th Century Fox.[5] The film was produced and co-written by Richard Maibaum along with frequent Audie Murphy collaborator Willard W. Willingham.[6][7][8]
Battle at Bloody Beach
Richard Maibaum
Willard W. Willingham
Richard Maibaum
Jodie Copelan
- June 1, 1961
80 minutes
United States
English
$430,000[1]
Plot[edit]
Craig Benson (Audie Murphy) is a civilian working for the Navy helping arm and supply guerrilla insurgents in the Philippines. His main purpose, however, is to find his wife Ruth (Dolores Michaels), from whom he was separated by the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.
Coming ashore Benson kills two Japanese soldiers who have ambushed his contact Sgt. Marty Sackler (Gary Crosby). The two initially meet a band of dubious guerrillas who act as bandits led by a renegade American M'Keever (William Mims) who desires the weapons Benson brought but concealed. Realising M'Keever is a dead loss, the two fight but actual guerrillas led by Julio Fontana (Alejandro Rey) and an American boxer trapped in the Philippines Tiger Blair (Ivan Dixon) defeat M'Keever's bandits and kill him.
Benson agrees to arm Fontana's guerrilla band and meets a group of American civilians he will evacuate to Australia including his wife Ruth (Dolores Michaels) who believed him killed and is romantically involved with Fontana.