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Darby's Rangers

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"Darby's Rangers" was director William "Wild Bill" Wellman's second from last film. An ace pilot in WW1 "Wild Bill" Wellman went to Hollywood and directed "WINGS," the first film to win an Academy Award. "Darby's Rangers" released in 1958 deals with Major William Darby's formation of a crack ranger outfit. The studio wanted an aging Wellman to turn out another formula war film late in his career but thanks to the charisma that James Garner brings to the role of Major Darby this movie works much better than expected. The movie deals with the Ranger's exploits on and off the field of battle. Cinematographer William Clothier's images are well filmed and stalwart Composer Max Steiner once again gives us that old `guts and glory' scoring. The good cast includes Jack Warden, Edd Byrnes, Stuart Whitman, Peter Brown, Torin Thatcher, Murray Hamilton and David Janssen.

For those of you interested in World War II history, especially as it relates to the training and operations of commando units, this video is a must see. James Garner offers a wonderful portrayal of Major Darby, the founder of the modern-day Rangers. Hollywood fluff is at a minimum in this stirring account of Ranger missions. Sit back and enjoy.

Near the end of his eccentric and notorious career William "Wild Bill" Wellman directed "Darby's Rangers" for Warner Brothers. Despite the studio's budget, which limited the production to formula action-war-adventure status, Wellman used the dialogue to create interesting characterizations from his young contract players. Focusing on James Garner as Darby and the personal lives of his men, on and off the field, Wellman delivered a to the point and appealing film still memorable to anyone who has ever seen it.

The hardest part of writing a review for this movie was selecting a myriad of titles that filled my imagination: "Fell on its Own Plunger," or "Navy Recruiting Film," or "Pull the Pin on this One and Release the Charging Handle, " or "Weapons Free at the Movie Marquee."

Although I have a great memory for the good things, I also have one for those which are bad, and this is bad. It's bad enough to make John Wayne's "The Green Berets" look like a Cannes Festival Film Classic, and this ranks as the worst military movie I have ever seen, being right down there with "The Blue Max."

It is 1942 and Colonel Darby played by James Garner is marked as a "comer" in the army. That was the term of the day for someone who was destined for the stars, at least on his epaulettes. Darby wants to form an elite commando unit modeled on the British of the same name, but he wants to give it a distinctly American title. He will call them rangers. This is where you should get up to get a two-hour snack or do your laundry leaving the flick on PLAY.

They train in Scotland being put up by the local population, and one, wee Scottish lassie falls in love with an Elvis Presley look-alike ranger candidate billeted with her and husband. As if the training isn't tough enough, he sneaks out at night to go back to the house for some wee Scottish hospitality and infidelity. She is ready to leave her pot and pan when she finds out her bonnie American lover was killed in a wee bit of training. I hate it when the rope breaks, don't you?

The next scene is North Africa where they perform so well in combat, they are called "gangsters" by the Germans. "We're famous," chortles Darby. But he is unaware that the fate of his rangers, and the script for his audience is going to end up in the beaten zone of bad writing. I have to hand it to the acting of James Garner when one of his rangers confides in him, "Sir, war is a big stink." He keeps a straight face as Colonel Darby and reassures him in a paternal tone, "I know, son." (Blechhh)! This is where my half-masticated popcorn tossed out shrapnel-like kernels faster than the muzzle velocity of an M-1 rifle aimed right at the screen at the other kind of colonel. My reaction was like a dismal Delphic oracle of what was to come.

Following bad orders in real life, and in the film, Darby takes his battalion of rangers out into the Italian countryside where they are surrounded by German armor that wipes out his unit. (The Germans will parade 600 captured rangers through the streets of Rome). Darby is depressed as he heads toward the beach without a command. But faster than you can recite your third general order, a soldier notices the ranger patch on Darby's shoulder and says, "Wow! There's a ranger." Darby gets all perky like he has just downed a whole bottle of Shaklee vitamins with a full canteen of potable water.

Just when I was thinking of going into full retrograde (the formal military term for what civilians call retreat, or haul a** in the military vernacular), finally, the credits start to "go rolling along."

The film, mercifully, has come to an end.

This movie has more formula than a nipple of Enfamil. The script is so bad that I would have rather eaten fortified peanut butter from a box of C rations without water or crackers! I would rather have gone through the CS Chamber without a gas mask! Okay, you get the idea.

This movie is a big stink! It is the mother of bad film-making; it is the WMD of forgettable pictures.

Put this one in a body bag, and give it a proper burial.

MEN of true grit and derring do, Darby's Rangers is the Hollywood version of the true story of the American Airborne Ranger battalion formed during the dark days of WW2 and trained initially by the elite British Commandos. The Commandos were formed by PM Winston Churchill to conduct covert warfare behind enemy lines with as Churchill put it, "an iron hand to pluck the german sentries from their posts".

The Rangers too saw much action in WW2. Their most famous raid being during D-Day when they climbed the cliffs of Pinte du Hoc under heavy enemy fire from a well dug in enemy. It was a nearly 100-meter-high cliff, with perpendicular sides jutting out into the Channel. It looked down on Utah Beach to the left and Omaha Beach to the right. There were six 155mm cannon in heavily reinforced concrete bunkers that were capable of hitting either beach with their big shells. On the outermost edge of the cliff, the Germans had an elaborate, well-protected outpost, where the spotters had a perfect view and could call back coordinates to the gunners at the 155s. Those guns had to be neutralized. The Rangers successfully neutralised the target which was a threat to the allied amphibious assault.

World War II was largely responsible for Darby's rapid promotion to the grade of lieutenant colonel. Darby (8 February 1911 - 30 April 1945) was with the first U.S. troops sent to Northern Ireland at the outbreak of WW2. There, he became interested in the British Commandos. This resulted in his assignment to direct the organization and training of the US Army Ranger units.

"Darby's Rangers" trained with their British counterparts in Scotland at the Commando Training Center in Achnacarry Castle in a very remote and rugged part of Scotland, near Spean Bridge. I have hiked all around there. My good friend, Herbert Walton, served with No.1 Commando in WW2.

In 1943, the 1st Ranger Battalion made its first assault at Arzew, North Africa. Darby was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for his actions during that operation.

The following is from the citation presented:

"Lt. Col. Darby struck with his force with complete surprise at dawn in the rear of a strongly fortified enemy position. Always conspicuously at the head of his troops, he personally led assaults against the enemy line in the face of heavy machine gun and artillery fire, establishing the fury of the Ranger attack by his skillful employment of hand grenades in close quarter fighting. On March 22, Lt. Col. Darby directed his battalion in advance on Bon Hamean, capturing prisoners and destroying a battery of self propelled artillery."

On 30 April 1945, while Darby was issuing orders for the attack on Trento to cut off a German retreat, an 88mm shell burst in the middle of the assembled officers and NCOs, killing Darby and a sergeant while wounding several others. Relying on the inspiration of their late commander, "Task Force Darby" continued on with their mission. Two days later, on 2 May 1945, all German forces in Italy surrendered.

Camp Darby near Fort Benning Georgia is named in honour of Brigadier General Darby.

Having just read James Altieri's "The Spearheaders" about his experience in Darby's Rangers, I was so stoked for watching this movie. Enthusiasm quickly waned as most of the film is about chasing broads and finding beautiful dames in the most unlikely spots. Some allusion is made by Garner about his "finely honed" troops (which the Rangers were and then some), but you'd never know it from this movie. The viewer is not surprised at the end when, in one of the few action scenes, the Rangers are quickly chewed up by German guns. Obviously these guys spent too much time on their love life instead of training for war. Garner seems great casting for Darby, if they had only tried to do a REAL Darby's Rangers movie instead of this soap opera. I think the influence of "From Here to Eternity" has something to do with this, as that was such a popular hit dealing with soldier's private lives with the war as a backdrop. Doesn't work here! DR's plot should have been mostly harsh training and harsher combat. There's plenty of drama in a man reaching down to see what he's got in order to persevere and survive. True, even war has it's humor, but the comic antics in this film just don't seem to belong.
On top of that, many in the cast are rather unlikeable lot with the exception of Stuart Whitman, who steals the movie. Of unworthy note is Edd Byrnes, who is painful to watch, his acting is so bad. Unless you're a Whitman fan, I would skip this entirely and watch "The Devil's Brigade", a MUCH better dramatization of an elite combat group in WWII.

In 1958 the computer technology didn't exist and Steven Spielberg was just a kid. In spite of these two major handicaps,,,this movie was made. This was a great story about some great men. I saw this movie on the silver screen. It probably had a lot to do with my joining the Army to be a Paratrooper in '66,,,as did a lot of other guys.
This movie had a Heavy Duty Cast to go along with a Heavy Duty Story. I'm sure there was a lot of 'Literary Lisense' applied,,,but the story was told.
Unlike many Commanders,,,Darby led from the Front. That says a lot about the Man.
One of the best things I liked about the movie was that here wasn't a Tom Hanks type trying to play a Ranger.
If you can get by the last scene where the guy says ''Hey,,,Look at that Ranger Patch'' without getting choked up,,,You're a dirty commie pinko fag.

My dad was a member of Darby's Rangers and even he hated this movie as being too "Hollywood"
When the film was being made there was a lot of press interest and talk of reunions during the filming.
Shame that two very famous rangers who were consulted--Alteri and Murray--could not have improved it.
One scene rang true (no pun intended) when the Rangers kill an Italian sniper in a bell tower.
What actually happened in Gela, Sicily was some rangers killed an Italian tank crew with a Malatov cocktail.
One Italian made it out, but he was in bad shape.
Turned out he was from a local unit and his mother ran out and cradled him in her arms until he died, crying all the time.
Personally I liked the training scenes, especially the hand to hand combat ones, and I loved the last line,
"Hey, get a load of that ranger patch."

DARBY'S RANGERS (1958)

Directed by William Wellman. Score by Max Steiner. Based on the book by James Altieri.

Starring James Garner ( Col. William Orlando Darby), Torin Thatcher, Stuart Whitman, Murray Hamilton, Andrea King, Frieda Inescourt, Reginald Owen, Wills Bouchey (as Brigadier General Lucien Truscott), Raymond Bailey, Thomas Browne Henry and Jack Warden.

The story of Darby's Rangers--the innovative American commando unit formed during the Second World War to act as an advance unit for the American Army as it advanced across North Africa and into Italy from its formation to its annihilation by the Herman Goring Division at Anzio. Along the way, many of the rangers get into romantic and/or tragic situations as the case may be with various European women.

Another of the endless 50s Hollywood WW2 films attempting to cash in on the enormous success of Universal's TO HELL AND BACK. In this case, Warner's contribution to the field. While that particular film was deservedly a success, these type of 50s Platoon films are usually not very satisfying and usually all for the exact same reasons.. all present here.

While the opening training sequences are well done and several of the romance plots are both well acted and contain some of the most jaw dropping sexual innuendoes this viewer can recall seeing outside of a Joseph Von Sternberg/Marlene Dietrich picture......especially for the 50s, the film never really works as a World War 2 film. The picture glides quickly through the Invasion of North Africa and the German defeat at Tunisia with shocking speed, gives only slightly more attention to Sicily before finally giving the war buff a decent battle scene at Anzio but by that time, the guys just want to go home. The picture is that dreaded beast--the always ill-advised War movie for chicks flick. The film is basically a romance film with the occasional War bits to justify the title. This can only annoy anyone wanting to see a movie actually about Darby's Rangers and one doubts the ladies were stampeding to see a film with that title.

One believes this is the only time Lucien Truscott was ever portrayed on the screen but that is not saying much. It is interesting to see an American film where the Germans in effect win. However, save for a nice bit involving an Italian sniper---it is always rare to see a soldier of Fascist Italy not played as comic relief to the Germans---and a truly nerve-wracking sequence of the Rangers sneaking by a column of German tanks in the fog, there is really nothing much here for the history buff.

The film does have a cast of the most staggeringly attractive group of English, Scottish and Italian women one can ever recall seeing in a picture of this type. Tis a wonder our boys were able to tear themselves away to fight the war. The cast is filled with a large number of 50s players that might please fans of things as varied as 50s Sci Fic films and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES so there is pleasure to be found there. Surprisingly Garner is incredibly blah as Darby with no screen presence at all. Warden, Whitman, Thatcher and Hamilton so thoroughly hold one's attention throughout that Garner becomes a bit player in his own movie.

It is not a bad film. It is perhaps a painless time pleaser but it is unessential and has no reason to exist.

I had ordered a used DVD from a "Marketplace" seller. Instead, I got a new DVD-R that had been recorded by Amazon. Quality was good, though. Black and white with good tonal range - in the 16:9 format. A bare bones DVD - no subtitles, scene selection, special features, etc.

I liked the movie, but the casting was curious. Edward "Kookie" Byrnes as a Ranger? Give me a break. A French actress (with a French accent) playing an Italian girl? Please. But I liked James Garner and Jack Warden in their roles.

A flawed pic, but I enjoyed it.