1955’s The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell and 1956’s The Proud and Profane are two of the lesser-known war movies from the 1950s newly released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

Directed by Otto Preminger, Warner Bros.’ The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, set in the post-Worl World I years, was nowhere near the success of the studio’s World War II films, Miser Roberts and Battle Cry or for that matter, Paramount’s Korean War epic, The Bridges at Toko-Ri.

Billy Mitchell (1879-1936), known as the Father of the Air Force, was a U.S. Army officer who had a major role in the creation of the Air Force. After “the war to end all wars,” he was appointed deputy director of the Air Service and began advocating for increased investment in air power, believing that this would prove vital in future wars. He argued particularly about the ability of bombers to sink battleships and organized a series of bombing runs against stationary ships designed to test the idea.

He antagonized many administrative leaders of the Army with his arguments and criticism. In 1925, his temporary appointment as brigadier general was not renewed, and he reverted to his permanent rank colonel due to what was considered insubordination. Later that year, he was court-martialed for insubordination after accusing Army and Navy leaders of an “almost treasonable administration of the national defense” for investing in battleships instead of air power. Found guilty, he resigned from the service shortly afterwards.

Time, of course, has proven Mitchell right.

Gary Cooper was given the role of Mitchell against his family’s wishes. They wanted 5’5” volatile James Cagney who was more like Mitchell in both stature and temperament than 6’3” laconic Cooper to play him. Nevertheless, Cooper does a decent job in the role which falls just a bit short of his iconic performances from the late 1920s through the dawn of the 1960s.

The supporting cast includes Charles Bickford, Ralph Bellamy, Rod Steiger, Elizabeth Montgomery in her film debut as Cooper’s daughter, Jack Lord, Peter Graves, Darren McGavin, and Fred Clark.

Previously released on Blu-ray in 2013 by the now defunct Olive, the Kino release is from a 2023 HD master by Paramount which now owns the rights to the film. A new audio commentary is provided by filmmaker/historian Steve Mitchell, and Combat Films, American Realism author Steven Jay Rubin.

Directed by George Seaton, Paramount’s The Proud and Profane is making its home video debut on Blu-ray.

William Holden is top billed as a tough U.S. Army colonel in the South Pacific during World War II in a role that is not far removed from his role in 1955’s Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing. The film, however, revolves around Deborah Kerr as the widow of one of Holden’s men who is buried on the French controlled New Caledonia islands where she has volunteered as a Red Cross nurse. It’s closest in style to Seaton’s 1953 film, Little Boy Lost, in which Bing Crosby searches for the son he didn’t know he had in post-war Paris.

Kerr’s character is closer to her Oscar-nominated character in 1953’s From Here to Eternity than it is to either of her two best remembered characters of 1956 in The King and I and Tea and Sympathy. In fact, Holden’s first glimpse of Kerr is in a bathing suit reminiscent of the one she wore in From Here to Eternity as she sunbathes on the beach.

The best performance in the film, however, belongs to Thelma Ritter as Kerr’s Red Cross supervisor. Usually cast in subservient roles, the six-time Academy Award nominee has a rare role in which she is the person in charge and plays it as only she could with her usual deft mixture of plain-spoken humor and grit.

Standouts in the huge supporting cast are Dewey Martin as a soldier who was saved from prison as a youth by Ritter, and William Redfield as a war-weary chaplain.

This was the only film in which Kerr and Ritter, both of whom were nominated for six Oscars during Hollywood’s golden age but never won, appeared together. It was also the only film in which either appeared with Holden, and the only film directed by Seaton in which Kerr appeared. Holden was in Seaton’s 1954 classic, The Country Girl, and his 1962 World War II espionage thriller, The Counterfeit Traitor. Ritter’s first and last films, 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street and 1968’s What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? , were both directed by Seaton.

The Blu-ray is from a 2022 HD master by Paramount. A new audio commentary is provided by filmmaker/historian Steve Mitchell, and Combat Films, American Realism author Steven Jay Rubin who also provide the commentary for The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell among others.

Paramount itself has released a 4K Ultra HD of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, the studio’s first film in its wide screen Vista Vision process and the highest grossing film of 1954.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, the holiday classic stars Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Though often referred to as a quasi-remake of 1942’s Holiday Inn, which starred Crosby and Fred Astaire, it isn’t. It may be in the same spirit of the earlier film but its story is set entirely during the Christmas season whereas Holiday Inn featured several different holidays.

Crosby and Astaire were supposed to reunite for White Christmas but Astaire bowed out and was replaced by Donald O’Connor who was then relaced for Kaye. O’Connor would later join Crosby for 1956’s Anything Goes.

While the upgrade to 4K UHD for the film is superb, the many extras on the 2014 Blu-ray were not upgraded to 4K but are available on the accompanying disc, which is a reprinting of the old Blu-ray.

Those extras include a previously recorded commentary by Clooney who died in 2002.

Happy viewing.