One Minute to Zero

One Minute to Zero
Directed by	Tay Garnett
Written by	William Wister Haines Milton Krims
Produced by	Edmund Grainger Howard Hughes
Starring	Robert Mitchum Ann Blyth Charles McGraw William Talman
Music by	Victor Young
Distributed by	RKO
Release date	1952
Running time	105 min.
Country	United States

One Minute to Zero is a 1952 romantic war film starring Robert Mitchum and Ann Blyth set during the Korean War.

Plot

At the beginning of the film just prior to the North Korean invasion of South Korea, Regular Army World War II veterans Mitchum who has risen from Private (rank) to Colonel in 15 years, and Sergeant Charles McGraw are training ROK soldiers in the use of a bazooka to stop an enemy tank. Blyth a U.N. worker assisting refugees, and her fellow U.N. workers meet Mitchum who warns them away from the border as hostilities are expected. Blyth insists that the North Koreans wouldn't risk the wrath of world opinion, Mitchum replies by asking if it stopped Hitler.

Soon afterwards, Mitchum and his US Air Force counterpart Colonel William Talman are woken on Sunday morning and compare the attack to Pearl Harbor ("Isn't this where we came in?" "It's even Sunday morning!"). Mitchum, McGraw, Talman' and Blyth's paths cross in both Japan and South Korea as Mitchum returns to take over command of a US Army unit in action. Blyth is the widow of a professional Army officer who was awarded the Medal of Honor and is reluctant to fall in love with another professional soldier. The film emphaises United Nations cooperation with praise given to the Royal Australian Air Force and the British Army. In one of the film's memorable moments Mitchum has to stop a column of Korean refugees infiltrated by armed North Korean guerillas by calling artillery strikes on the refugee column.

In additon to the Mitchum/Blyth love story, the film's often grisly (people are napalmed, torched off by flame throwers, parachute into burning buildings, and garrotted as well as the usual bombings, strafings, shootings, stabbings and bayonettings) war scenes are balanced by wise cracking between Mitchum, McGraw, and Talman. Victor Young's score includes the love theme When I Fall In Love (song) that became a popular hit recorded by a variety of artists.

In additon to United Nations assisting the civilian population McGraw and another G.I. teach Korean children how to blow bubbles with bubble gum. Perhaps the use of bazookas and the use of bubble gum may be how Bazooka (chewing gum) acquired its name?

External links

One Minute to Zero at IMDb