PARATROOPER, known as The Red Beret in England, is a minor effort from 1953, noteworthy only for trivia.  It was the first movie produced by Albert R. Broccoli, who would grow rich and famous a decade later showcasing James Bond.  His team—director Terence Young, scriptwriter Richard Maibaum, camera operator (later cinematographer) Ted Moore and stuntman (later stunt coordinator) Bob Simmons—all tagged along on the 007 bandwagon.

Alan?  Wake up, Alan.

The story of a British paratroop unit, it stars Alan Ladd (as a Canadian, to pre-soothe ruffled bowlers) in his first follow-up to his classic Shane. Though the 88-minute snooze made money (supposedly $8,000,000 worldwide on a budget of $700,000) and set the producers up nicely, it was a critical comedown for Ladd, who’d bounced back with the hit western. This indifferent flick unfortunately set a second-rate tone that dogged most of the insecure star’s subsequent output. Maybe laying Ladd’s progressive fade onto this unexciting wanker is too much: the try-to-stay-awake story is drag enough. Some of the 19 films he’d headline over the next decade did well enough (we like Santiago!) but none approached the quality or garnered the respect of Shane. Ironically, his biggest hit, The Carpetbaggers, was released after his death in 1964.

With Leo Genn, Harry Andrews (debut), Susan Stephen, Donald Houston, Anthony Bushell, Stanley Baker, Anton Diffring and Walter Gotell.