MovieChat Forums > Hell Is for Heroes (1962) Discussion > Hills are for Heroes and Combat!

Hills are for Heroes and Combat!

posted 17 years ago by DelendaEst
15 replies | jump to latest

Have any of you seen Combat? It has a very similar premise in the episode hills are for heroes. James Coburn a combat! regular. Not to mention hell is for heroes was shot on the same french village back lot that was used for combat. Also Robert Pirosh wrote hell is for heroes. He wrote some 78 episodes of combat. Most of the ones he wrote were the best. Leonard Rosenman also conducted the score, he also scored combat. It is a very gritty show Anyone who loves hell is for heroes could appreciate the show and especially the episode hills are for heroes , many of the same themes are discussed. Get it on dvd asap.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0055666/

[–] XKSS 17 years ago

Plus, Combat's Vic Morrow is just as cool as McQueen in at least the first three seasons. Top notch stories and great acting. In addition, in Combat you always have great guest stars - like Lee Marvin, Coburn, Robert Duvall, etc. Plus great directors Robert Altman, Richard Donner etc.

[–] DelendaEst 17 years ago

oh good! im glad someone else who visits the hell board knows about the show

[–] XKSS 17 years ago

Can't be a fan of Hell's without being a fan of Combat - I always wanted to see McQueen do a guest star on Combat - Morrow and McQueen on the same show - now that would have been wild!.

[–] DelendaEst 17 years ago

yeah it would have been one hell of an episode. i'd imagine it be sorta something like the episode cat and mouse. two equally smart sergeants. McQueen's character probably more willing to take risks. Meanwhile Morrow would take up the roll of Sgt. Pike from hell is for heroes. More worried about the safety of his men than the mission. Man that would have been some powerful stuff. No such thing as man's man's actors these days ya know?

[–] XKSS 17 years ago

Or how about McQueen in the Dean Stockwell role - where he beleive's he's gonna be killed - so, why not go out fighting.

Even better have Saunders encounter Reese - now that would be interesting

[–] DelendaEst 17 years ago

ahhh that would be awesome as well

[–] ridge-m-1 8 years ago

FYI, the two-part episode of "Hell Is For Heroes" was directed by Vic who went way over budget and the allowed shooting schedule but he thumbed his nose at the money people with relish. In Europe, this two-parter was edited and released as a motion picture. This episode has Saunders injured early in order for Vic to concentrate on directing. Therefore the episode features Rick Jason in probably his finest performance in "Combat". This episode was shown during Season 4, which is the best season of the series. It is generally acknowledged by "Combat" aficionados that "Hell Is For Heroes" is the best episode of Combat. Too bad Steve never made a guest appearance on the show.

[–] thevampirerachelus 17 years ago

Great to know there are more "Combat!" fans around here ;-) Altho I'm afraid James Coburn wasn't a series regular, just a guest star in one ep. And Robert Pirosh only wrote the pilot for the series, none of the rest of the eps. But if you dig "Hell is for Heroes" you should definitely try to get your hands on a season or two of "Combat!" because it has much of the same flavor of gritty realism, usage of actual war footage, etc. And some excellent acting from the regulars and guest stars too! When you've got people like Coburn, Lee Marvin, and Charles Bronson wanting to guest on a show, you know it must be good, eh?

[–] superjett_1 15 years ago

I'm so happy to see that there are so many COMBAT! fans out there, I am probably one of the biggest fans of the show that there ever will be!!! I'm too young to have caught the show in it's original run but I grew up watching re-runs of the show on Cleveland's WUAB Channel 43, every night at 8pm all through the 1970's. Recently, I bought all 5 seasons of the show on dvd, my only complaint is how they split the seasons up, like for example; 'Season 1: Mission 1' or 'Season 1: Mission 2' etc, I think it complicated things for some fans trying to buy/collect the entire series, not to mention made it more expensive in the long run. I wish they would re-release some dvd sets of COMBAT! only this time having sets divided up as COMPLETE FIRST SEASON, COMPLETE SECOND SEASON and so on... How do some of you feel about this? I really shouldn't complain as I'm just glad that the show was finally made available on dvd, for years all I had were a few vhs tapes that I had found on Ebay, very poor picture quality and which only contained about 8 or 9 episodes in total. Talk about a TEASE!! Then several years ago when they ran the entire 5 seasons on Encore's Action channel I was finally able to get every single episode on vhs tape which I then later burned to dvd. However, the commercial dvds have much better picture quality plus they contain a lot of extras such as director's and star's commentaries on selected episodes, and photo galleries etc. One last word, Vic Morrow was one of the most under-rated and under-appreciated actors of all time...and he left us way too soon. Vic, here's to you...

[–] HorodyskiJ 17 years ago

James Coburn appeared on Combat twice in 5 years - I would hardly call that being a "regular".

[–] davidwile 10 years ago

Hey folks,

I may be wrong, but I think Coburn was only in one episode of Combat!. It was titled Masquerade, and he played a German infiltrator wearing a GI uniform.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

[–] Clintessence 10 years ago

Hey David,

You are correct about James Coburn only appearing in one episode of "Combat!" And what a performance! "Masquerade" is one of the stand-out episodes of the series.

Hubba Hubba Hubba!

Best wishes,
Clintessence

[–] davidwile 10 years ago

Hey Clint,

Yes, I really liked that episode, but I sure did get tired of hearing Coburn saying, "Hubba, hubba, hubba." I don't think I ever heard a person in real life use that expression. It seems like I only ever heard it used in different films. I think that is what made Saunders suspicious of him.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

[–] davidwile 10 years ago

Hey Clint,

I forgot to mention that Masquerade was the one and only Combat! episode where Rocky Marciano also made an un-credited cameo appearance. Near the beginning of the episode an ambulance quickly turns around near a building, and Marciano is either the driver or talks to the driver. Just a few words, but you can clearly see it is Marciano. With Coburn as the guest star, however, Marciano is pretty much overlooked and is not listed in the credits.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

[–] Clintessence 10 years ago

Hey Dave,

That's right, I forgot Rocky was in that episode. When you mentioned that, I thought he was in "The Devil's Brigade" too, but that was Gene Fullmer. Jersey Joe Walcott was in "The Harder the Fall", and Archie Moore was in "Breakheart Pass".