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The Story of G.I. Joe, also credited in prints as Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe, is a 1945 American war film directed by William Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. This was the film that established him as one of the world's biggest movie stars.
The story is a tribute to the American infantryman ("G.I. Joe") during World War II, told through the eyes of Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle, with dialogue and narration lifted from Pyle's columns. The film concentrates on one company, ("C Company, 18th Infantry"), that Pyle accompanies into combat in Tunisia and Italy. The friendships that grow out of his coverage led Pyle to relate the misery and sacrifice inherent in their plight and their heroic endurance of it. Although the company has the designation of an actual unit, that unit did not participate in the combat in Italy that makes up the preponderance of the film, and actually stands in for the units of the 34th and 36th Infantry Divisions that Pyle did cover in Italy. The 18th Infantry Regiment was in Italy and N Africa with the 1st Infantry Div.
Although filmed with the cooperation of Pyle, the film premiered two months to the day after he was killed in action on Ie Shima during the invasion of Okinawa. In his February 14, 1945, posting entitled "In the Movies", Pyle commented: "They are still calling it The Story of G.I. Joe. I never did like the title, but nobody could think of a better one, and I was too lazy to try."
Original Release
07/13/1945
US Release
07/13/1945
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Burgess Meredith | Ernie Pyle - Scripps-Howard War Correspondent / Ernie Pyle |
Robert Mitchum | Lt. Walker / Bill Walker |
Freddie Steele | Sergeant Warnicki / Sgt. Steve Warnicki |
Wally Cassell | Private Dondaro / Pvt. Dondaro |
Jimmy Lloyd | Private Spencer / Pvt. Spencer |
John R. Reilly | Private Murphy / Pvt. Robert 'Wingless' Murphy |
William Murphy | Private Mew |
Combat Veterans of the Campaigns in Africa Sicily and Italy | U.S. Army Soldiers |
William 'Billy' Benedict | Pvt. Whitey |
Michael Browne | Sergeant |
Directors
Writers
Leopold Atlas, Guy Endore, Philip Stevenson, Ben Bengal, Alan Le May, Ernie Pyle
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Burgess Meredith | Ernie Pyle - Scripps-Howard War Correspondent / Ernie Pyle |
Robert Mitchum | Lt. Walker / Bill Walker |
Freddie Steele | Sergeant Warnicki / Sgt. Steve Warnicki |
Wally Cassell | Private Dondaro / Pvt. Dondaro |
Jimmy Lloyd | Private Spencer / Pvt. Spencer |
John R. Reilly | Private Murphy / Pvt. Robert 'Wingless' Murphy |
William Murphy | Private Mew |
Combat Veterans of the Campaigns in Africa Sicily and Italy | U.S. Army Soldiers |
William 'Billy' Benedict | Pvt. Whitey |
Michael Browne | Sergeant |
Dorothy Coonan Wellman | Nurse Lt. Elizabeth 'Red' Murphy |
Bob Hope | Bob Hope (Voice on Radio Program) |
Kenneth Kendall | Extra |
Yolanda Lacca | Amelia, Italian Girl |
Barney Noto | Staff Sergeant Barney Noto |
Tito Renaldo | Lopez |
Dick Rich | Sergeant at Showers |
William Self | Pvt. Cookie Henderson / "Gawky" Henderson |
Nino Tempo | Begging Child |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Lester Cowan | Producer |
David S. Hall | Producer |
Editors
Year | Type | Category | Won |
---|
1946 | Oscar | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Nominated |
1946 | Oscar | Best Writing, Screenplay | Nominated |
1946 | Oscar | Best Music, Original Song | Nominated |
1946 | Oscar | Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Nominated |