Imitation General
It's 1944, in France, during WWII. In the aftermath of a big battle, scattered American ground troops find themselves disorganized and surrounded on all sides by German forces. Cut off from their comp…
Imitation General
It's 1944, in France, during WWII. In the aftermath of a big battle, scattered American ground troops find themselves disorganized and surrounded on all sides by German forces. Cut off from their company, and without a radio, U. S. Army Brigadier-General Charles Lane (Kent Smith), MSgt. Murphy Savage (Glenn Ford) and Cpl. Chan Derby (Red Buttons) come upon a group of five leaderless soldiers. After their shock of seeing a general out in the field, they accept Lane's encouragement and orders to set about trying to find help and work their way out of their situation. The general decides that a nearby, mostly intact farmhouse, will serve at their headquarters. He orders the five men to fan out and find any other stragglers they can, sending any officers and non-coms to him at the farmhouse. While checking to make sure the farmhouse is safe, Cpl. Derby comes upon a beautiful young French woman, Simone (Taina Elg), inside taking a bath. Simone is none too happy to see him inside her home, but it's also odd that she'd be all alone, in an unlocked and war-damaged farmstead, taking a bath. General Lane comes into the main room of the farmhouse and asks Derby what's going on. He explains that there's a naked woman in the other room. They wait for her to come out and attempt to calm her down and explain what they are doing there. Lane realizes, upon examining his map, that they are in the middle of a two-mile gap in the American line. Although Simone, who speaks no English, blames the Allied bombings for the destruction of her farm and the nearby local village, she grudgingly allows the men to set up an impromptu command post. She is very happy when the men offer her some C-rations. Murph and Derby are surprised by Lane's determination to remain in the field, to organize and lead a new offensive to plug that two-mile gap. As a general, he really sees that they have no other option. Standing outside and scanning the nearby hills with binoculars, Lane spots a German observation post atop a ridge. As Murph takes a look, gunfire erupts and Lane shoves Murph to the ground, but Lane is struck down, hit by fire from a German machine-gun nest hidden in a nearby ditch. Derby comes rushing out to see what all the shooting was about. He sees General Lane, lying dead on the ground. He and Murph work together to attack and destroy the German machine gun nest. After taking Lane's body to the farmhouse cellar, Murph and Derby lament his death and wonder what to do next. About that time, Corporal Terry Sellers (Dean Jones), who had been roaming around lost and confused, was sent to the farmhouse by the men that General Lane had earlier ordered to fan out and see who they could find. Seeing Murph holding Lane's helmet, Sellers believes that Murph is a general. Murph initially attempts to explain the reality of the situation to Sellers, but seeing that Sellers was on the verge of completely losing his mind from stress, he decides to save that for later. Sellers collapses onto a chair, in desperate despair, until Murph rouses him, speaking as General Lane would. Recalling Lane's assessment that leadership was desperately needed to rally the disorganized troops, and wanting to honor his long time commander, Murph decides to continue impersonating Lane in order to carry out the general's plan. Derby can't belief that Murph is actually serious about impersonating the general. He asks Murph if he's worried that life after the war is gonna be too dull for him, such that he'd prefer to spend it in prison, or even be executed. But, after witnessing the rather miraculous emotional recovery on the part of Sellers, and after some rather smooth talking that Murph directs at Derby, Derby decides to go along with the Murph's ruse. Uncertain of Murph's intentions, Simone grows suspicious when Murph asks her to pin Lane's star on his collar. Her attraction to Murph appears to overcome any doubts she has and she agrees to go along. Murph orders Sellers to drive the general's Jeep out to the group of five American soldiers, plus maybe half a dozen more they'd come across, gathered not far away. Murph is startled by the appearance of Lt. Jeff Clayton (John Wilder), who is very surprised to see a general out there. After Murph confirms that Clayton had never laid eyes on him before, he is assured that his disguise is safe and he resumes giving orders to all the men. Lt. Clayton and the men are impressed when Murph declares that he and Sellers will take out a German observation post that was giving them fits, thus convincing Clayton that the courageous "general" was a West Point graduate. Murph has the men use telephone wire to attach and piece of damaged galvanized steel from a boiler tank to the front of the Jeep to act as a shield. Meanwhile, back at the farm, Derby is dismayed by the appearance of Pvt. Orville Hutchmeyer (Tige Andrews), his and Murph's former master sergeant in boot camp. Having been busted to private after Murph turned him in for cheating, Hutchmeyer longs for revenge, and demands to know where Murph is. Derby tells Hutchmeyer that Murph was dead. Murph appears to accept that explanation, and turns his attention to Simone. Murph drives and Sellers shoots his machine gun as they attack the enemy observation post and destroy it, to the cheers of the American soldiers below. As they are returning to the farmhouse, Derby flags them down to tell Murph of Hutchmeyer's presence, but Derby assures him that Hutchmeyer has been sent away from the HQ building by the anxious to please Lt. Clayton. Derby tells Murph that Simone has helped medics turn the barn into an aid station and that two American tanks were parked in some nearby woods. They'd stopped in search of directions to the nearest fuel source. Hutchmeyer doesn't stay away for long, and Derby and Murph hear him whistling as he approaches on his bicycle, with some silk stockings he'd found someplace to give to Simone. Murph hurries to lock himself in the bedroom/bathroom, only Simone is in there, naked again, preparing to get dressed. She shouts at him to get out and won't respond to his entreaties for her to be quiet. Meanwhile, Derby does his best to figure out a way to get rid of Hutchmeyer, deciding to tell him that there's a general in the other room, with Simone. By then, Murph had decided to go ahead and let Simone shout and scream, figuring maybe that would scare Hutchmeyer away, but he doesn't anticipate Simone escaping into the main room and trying to lock him inside. Hutchmeyer is prepared to go in and take on the general for attacking Simone, when Derby decides to try some reverse psychology, encouraging Hutchmeyer to go ahead, but announcing that he was taking off, because he didn't want to get in trouble for breaking up the general's fun. Hutchmeyer decides that's a good point, so he rushes outside and knocks Derby off the bike and takes off. After Hutchmeyer's departure, Murph does his best to apologize to the bewildered Simone. She only seems to understand when Derby also offers his own version of events with gestures and sign language. Then, she laughs. Murph takes Derby and Sellers with him to go find the tanks in the woods. He leads them to a small bridge near some severely damage farm buildings, where he suspects the Germans may attempt to cross a creek with their own tanks. Lt. Clayton appears with a captured German officer, who reveals that a Panzer brigade is fast approaching. Realizing there are only two creek crossings within range, that bridge and a natural low area about a mile or two upstream, Murph sends Lt. Clayton to defend the low area, while he positions his two tanks inside the shells of the damage farm buildings. He wants to place a sign on the bridge, worded in German, warning that the bridge is mined with explosives. One of the American soldiers says he knows enough German to do that. The plan is that the tank commanders will decide to just take their tanks down one side of the small creek and up the other, which would expose their undersides to his own tank fire. While waiting for the Panzers, Murph confesses to Derby his apprehension about putting so many men at risk, and perhaps ruining General Lane's reputation. The man who lettered the sign also suddenly says he hoped he got the words right. Clayton then arrives and reports that four Panzers have broken through further up the creek. He says his men stopped two of the tanks, but the others were approaching the farmhouse. Two Panzer tanks arrive at the bridge and, as Murph had hoped, they begin to cross the creek ditch. They enter the creek bed at different times, so only the first one is vulnerable to a killing shot. The other tank turns and takes off, chased by the two American tanks. They are able to shoot and disable it. Murph then takes Derby and Sellers to set up an ambush for the German tanks that were on the way. They put mud in several of their men's helmets and take positions to wait. Sellers is directed to start firing at the tanks, in order to force their commanders and drivers to close their hatches. He is then to shoot at any following infantry. After Sellers opens fire on the tanks and the hatches close, Murph and Derby rush foward and jump onto the tanks and begin slapping the helmets and mud over the view ports. When the drivers and commanders can't see where they are going, they must stop. When the hatches pop open, Murph and Derby toss in grenades, killing the occupants. Lt. Clayton and his men move forward to assist, firing upon Murph, Sellers and Derby, mistaking them for Germans. Hutchmeyer is there by then too. He speaks German, and when Murph hears and then sees Hutchmeyer, he runs and hides behind a downed tree. Derby tells Sellers to play dumb about the general's hiding, then they "surrender." Derby then pretends that the "general" had departed and moved on to another area. A barrage of incoming fire sends the men scurrying for cover and Murph is knocked out by a piece of flying shrapnel. Derby can't hide the fact that they had an injured man, so he manages to cover Murph's face with a battle dressing so Hutchmeyer wouldn't recognize him. It's Hutchmeyer who grabs Murph and fireman carries him all the way back to the farmhouse. That evening when Murph regains consciousness, he's in the cellar. Simone is with him and she rushes to go get Derby. Derby relates the news that the bombardment they experienced was from Allied reinforcements, who arrived shortly after the tank assault. Lane's death had been reported by radio, and his body had been removed from the cellar. All the men who'd been involved in the tank battle had been removed to other areas, so Murph was able to resume his own identity. Relieved and pleased that Lane would be credited for the gallant stand at the farmhouse, Murph agrees with Derby that they must rejoin their outfit. He hates to leave Simone, but promises to return for her. He is very displeased to hear a drunken Hutchmeyer upstairs in the farmhouse, serenading Simone. Murph grabs a flashlight and ladder and climbs up to a window. He shines the light under his chin and calls out to Hutchmeyer, pretending to be his own ghost. He then switches off the light, so that Hutchmeyer suddenly realizes it is Murph, and very much alive. He rushes downstairs, ready to find and beat on Murph, but Derby smashes a chicken hutch over Hutchmeyer's head and tosses him into the back of the Jeep. Murph, driving, roars off in the Jeep, but has to pause briefly when Sellers comes running up, demanding to go along. He doesn't care if Murph is a general or not, he just wants to serve with him, so Murph tells him to get in and they take off.
Imitation General
Comedy,War
Film Details
It's 1944, in France, during WWII. In the aftermath of a big battle, scattered American ground troops find themselves disorganized and surrounded on all sides by German forces. Cut off from their company, and without a radio, U.
S. Army Brigadier-General Charles Lane (Kent Smith), MSgt. Murphy Savage (Glenn Ford) and Cpl.
Chan Derby (Red Buttons) come upon a group of five leaderless soldiers. After their shock of seeing a general out in the field, they accept Lane's encouragement and orders to set about trying to find help and work their way out of their situation. The general decides that a nearby, mostly intact farmhouse, will serve at their headquarters.
He orders the five men to fan out and find any other stragglers they can, sending any officers and non-coms to him at the farmhouse. While checking to make sure the farmhouse is safe, Cpl. Derby comes upon a beautiful young French woman, Simone (Taina Elg), inside taking a bath.
Simone is none too happy to see him inside her home, but it's also odd that she'd be all alone, in an unlocked and war-damaged farmstead, taking a bath. General Lane comes into the main room of the farmhouse and asks Derby what's going on. He explains that there's a naked woman in the other room.
They wait for her to come out and attempt to calm her down and explain what they are doing there. Lane realizes, upon examining his map, that they are in the middle of a two-mile gap in the American line. Although Simone, who speaks no English, blames the Allied bombings for the destruction of her farm and the nearby local village, she grudgingly allows the men to set up an impromptu command post.
She is very happy when the men offer her some C-rations. Murph and Derby are surprised by Lane's determination to remain in the field, to organize and lead a new offensive to plug that two-mile gap. As a general, he really sees that they have no other option.
Standing outside and scanning the nearby hills with binoculars, Lane spots a German observation post atop a ridge. As Murph takes a look, gunfire erupts and Lane shoves Murph to the ground, but Lane is struck down, hit by fire from a German machine-gun nest hidden in a nearby ditch. Derby comes rushing out to see what all the shooting was about.
He sees General Lane, lying dead on the ground. He and Murph work together to attack and destroy the German machine gun nest. After taking Lane's body to the farmhouse cellar, Murph and Derby lament his death and wonder what to do next.
About that time, Corporal Terry Sellers (Dean Jones), who had been roaming around lost and confused, was sent to the farmhouse by the men that General Lane had earlier ordered to fan out and see who they could find. Seeing Murph holding Lane's helmet, Sellers believes that Murph is a general. Murph initially attempts to explain the reality of the situation to Sellers, but seeing that Sellers was on the verge of completely losing his mind from stress, he decides to save that for later.
Sellers collapses onto a chair, in desperate despair, until Murph rouses him, speaking as General Lane would. Recalling Lane's assessment that leadership was desperately needed to rally the disorganized troops, and wanting to honor his long time commander, Murph decides to continue impersonating Lane in order to carry out the general's plan. Derby can't belief that Murph is actually serious about impersonating the general.
He asks Murph if he's worried that life after the war is gonna be too dull for him, such that he'd prefer to spend it in prison, or even be executed. But, after witnessing the rather miraculous emotional recovery on the part of Sellers, and after some rather smooth talking that Murph directs at Derby, Derby decides to go along with the Murph's ruse. Uncertain of Murph's intentions, Simone grows suspicious when Murph asks her to pin Lane's star on his collar.
Her attraction to Murph appears to overcome any doubts she has and she agrees to go along. Murph orders Sellers to drive the general's Jeep out to the group of five American soldiers, plus maybe half a dozen more they'd come across, gathered not far away. Murph is startled by the appearance of Lt.
Jeff Clayton (John Wilder), who is very surprised to see a general out there. After Murph confirms that Clayton had never laid eyes on him before, he is assured that his disguise is safe and he resumes giving orders to all the men. Lt.
Clayton and the men are impressed when Murph declares that he and Sellers will take out a German observation post that was giving them fits, thus convincing Clayton that the courageous "general" was a West Point graduate. Murph has the men use telephone wire to attach and piece of damaged galvanized steel from a boiler tank to the front of the Jeep to act as a shield. Meanwhile, back at the farm, Derby is dismayed by the appearance of Pvt.
Orville Hutchmeyer (Tige Andrews), his and Murph's former master sergeant in boot camp. Having been busted to private after Murph turned him in for cheating, Hutchmeyer longs for revenge, and demands to know where Murph is. Derby tells Hutchmeyer that Murph was dead.
Murph appears to accept that explanation, and turns his attention to Simone. Murph drives and Sellers shoots his machine gun as they attack the enemy observation post and destroy it, to the cheers of the American soldiers below. As they are returning to the farmhouse, Derby flags them down to tell Murph of Hutchmeyer's presence, but Derby assures him that Hutchmeyer has been sent away from the HQ building by the anxious to please Lt.
Clayton. Derby tells Murph that Simone has helped medics turn the barn into an aid station and that two American tanks were parked in some nearby woods. They'd stopped in search of directions to the nearest fuel source.
Hutchmeyer doesn't stay away for long, and Derby and Murph hear him whistling as he approaches on his bicycle, with some silk stockings he'd found someplace to give to Simone. Murph hurries to lock himself in the bedroom/bathroom, only Simone is in there, naked again, preparing to get dressed. She shouts at him to get out and won't respond to his entreaties for her to be quiet.
Meanwhile, Derby does his best to figure out a way to get rid of Hutchmeyer, deciding to tell him that there's a general in the other room, with Simone. By then, Murph had decided to go ahead and let Simone shout and scream, figuring maybe that would scare Hutchmeyer away, but he doesn't anticipate Simone escaping into the main room and trying to lock him inside. Hutchmeyer is prepared to go in and take on the general for attacking Simone, when Derby decides to try some reverse psychology, encouraging Hutchmeyer to go ahead, but announcing that he was taking off, because he didn't want to get in trouble for breaking up the general's fun.
Hutchmeyer decides that's a good point, so he rushes outside and knocks Derby off the bike and takes off. After Hutchmeyer's departure, Murph does his best to apologize to the bewildered Simone. She only seems to understand when Derby also offers his own version of events with gestures and sign language.
Then, she laughs. Murph takes Derby and Sellers with him to go find the tanks in the woods. He leads them to a small bridge near some severely damage farm buildings, where he suspects the Germans may attempt to cross a creek with their own tanks.
Lt. Clayton appears with a captured German officer, who reveals that a Panzer brigade is fast approaching. Realizing there are only two creek crossings within range, that bridge and a natural low area about a mile or two upstream, Murph sends Lt.
Clayton to defend the low area, while he positions his two tanks inside the shells of the damage farm buildings. He wants to place a sign on the bridge, worded in German, warning that the bridge is mined with explosives. One of the American soldiers says he knows enough German to do that.
The plan is that the tank commanders will decide to just take their tanks down one side of the small creek and up the other, which would expose their undersides to his own tank fire. While waiting for the Panzers, Murph confesses to Derby his apprehension about putting so many men at risk, and perhaps ruining General Lane's reputation. The man who lettered the sign also suddenly says he hoped he got the words right.
Clayton then arrives and reports that four Panzers have broken through further up the creek. He says his men stopped two of the tanks, but the others were approaching the farmhouse. Two Panzer tanks arrive at the bridge and, as Murph had hoped, they begin to cross the creek ditch.
They enter the creek bed at different times, so only the first one is vulnerable to a killing shot. The other tank turns and takes off, chased by the two American tanks. They are able to shoot and disable it.
Murph then takes Derby and Sellers to set up an ambush for the German tanks that were on the way. They put mud in several of their men's helmets and take positions to wait. Sellers is directed to start firing at the tanks, in order to force their commanders and drivers to close their hatches.
He is then to shoot at any following infantry. After Sellers opens fire on the tanks and the hatches close, Murph and Derby rush foward and jump onto the tanks and begin slapping the helmets and mud over the view ports. When the drivers and commanders can't see where they are going, they must stop.
When the hatches pop open, Murph and Derby toss in grenades, killing the occupants. Lt. Clayton and his men move forward to assist, firing upon Murph, Sellers and Derby, mistaking them for Germans.
Hutchmeyer is there by then too. He speaks German, and when Murph hears and then sees Hutchmeyer, he runs and hides behind a downed tree. Derby tells Sellers to play dumb about the general's hiding, then they "surrender." Derby then pretends that the "general" had departed and moved on to another area.
A barrage of incoming fire sends the men scurrying for cover and Murph is knocked out by a piece of flying shrapnel. Derby can't hide the fact that they had an injured man, so he manages to cover Murph's face with a battle dressing so Hutchmeyer wouldn't recognize him. It's Hutchmeyer who grabs Murph and fireman carries him all the way back to the farmhouse.
That evening when Murph regains consciousness, he's in the cellar. Simone is with him and she rushes to go get Derby. Derby relates the news that the bombardment they experienced was from Allied reinforcements, who arrived shortly after the tank assault.
Lane's death had been reported by radio, and his body had been removed from the cellar. All the men who'd been involved in the tank battle had been removed to other areas, so Murph was able to resume his own identity. Relieved and pleased that Lane would be credited for the gallant stand at the farmhouse, Murph agrees with Derby that they must rejoin their outfit.
He hates to leave Simone, but promises to return for her. He is very displeased to hear a drunken Hutchmeyer upstairs in the farmhouse, serenading Simone. Murph grabs a flashlight and ladder and climbs up to a window.
He shines the light under his chin and calls out to Hutchmeyer, pretending to be his own ghost. He then switches off the light, so that Hutchmeyer suddenly realizes it is Murph, and very much alive. He rushes downstairs, ready to find and beat on Murph, but Derby smashes a chicken hutch over Hutchmeyer's head and tosses him into the back of the Jeep.
Murph, driving, roars off in the Jeep, but has to pause briefly when Sellers comes running up, demanding to go along. He doesn't care if Murph is a general or not, he just wants to serve with him, so Murph tells him to get in and they take off..