Budd Boetticher's instantly engaging, 1952 Red Ball Express stars Jeff Chandler as U.S. Army Lt. Chick Campbell, tasked with leading a post-D-Day convoy of military trucks over dangerous terrain in France, with the objective of delivering much-needed fuel and ammo to General Patton's tanks. It's a classic movie device: a literal journey by a disparate group of characters mirroring an audience's journey as we watch a narrative charge ahead. The script by John Michael Hayes (who wrote four Hitchcock classics, including To Catch a Thief and Rear Window) invents all sorts of physical obstacles—landmines, towns on fire, German snipers—as well as personal ones. A grudge held by the platoon's Sgt. Red Kallek (Alex Nicol) toward Campbell is not entirely believable for the reasons behind it, but that doesn't matter. The tension between the two men ratchets up the film's overall, escalating drama as the convoy and its exhausted drivers keep bringing diesel to those tanks. Hayes and Boetticher even manage to include a few women, mostly hardy Red Cross support workers, but also a French mademoiselle (Jacqueline Duval) whose instant romance with a clownish private (Charles Drake) adds some comic charm to the enterprise. Slightly on the edge of the principal story is Hugh O'Brian as a disgruntled soldier, while Sidney Poitier has a memorable part as a Black private who mistakes Campbell's remoteness during the mission as racism. Controversy emerged over the film's casting. The Army drivers in the real life-Red Ball Express (the original name of the convoy) were 75% Black personnel, men essentially given a suicide mission. But U.S. military cooperation in the making of Red Ball Express was contingent on whitewashing the truth, much to Boetticher's dismay. Despite that, Boetticher (The Tall T, Decision at Sundown) brings his trademark snap and vigor to the production, as well as his usual tone of a righteous cause lifting ordinary men to great heights. Strongly recommended. Aud: E, I, J, H, C, P. (T. Keogh)