General Stitwel (John Hoyt) assigns a dangerous mission to commander Merril (Jeff Chandler) and his 3000 USA Marines volunteers . As the tough officer commands a two-fisted regiment fighting in the jungles of Burma. In 1944 the exhausted unit achieves their latest aim and expects to be relieved . However , Merril has to lead his band throughout the Burmese jungles to his definitive mission in Japonese zone , beyond the enemy lines , at Mykyana . At the end of the movie there is a parade review that features the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.Action , adventure , war movie by the great Samuel Fuller in which Chandler leads a group of soldiers through the Burmese jungle and battling feared Japonese . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Ty Hardin , Claude Akins , Peter Brown , Andrew Duggan , John Hoyt and Will Hutchins . At the beginning , the film being produced by Warner Bros and hired Gary Cooper . However , Cooper died by cancer and then it was totally financed by screenwriter and producer Milton Sperling in a lower budget . Nicely played by Jeff Chandler , an ebullient actor who died by stroke before the movie was released . Colorful cinematography by William H. Clothier , John Ford regular . Well photographed in Warnerscope and Technicolor and shot on location in the Philippines Islands . Furthermore , a thrilling and moving score by Howard Jackson . The motion picture was well directed and co-scripted by Samuel Fuller for three months . Fuller has become something of a cult favorite , an essential and fundamental figure in the film world . Here Fuller excels at showing the mayhem and confusion of battles , giving spectacular frames as when it takes place a desperate pitched fighting at an enemy installation , as a railhead and other overwhelming bloody events . The cigar-chewing Fuller directed several classic movies , such as : ¨The naked Kiss¨ , ¨Pickup on South Street¨ , ¨Underworld USA¨ , ¨shock corridor¨ , ¨Hell and high water¨ , ¨Fixed bayonets¨ , ¨White dog¨ and ¨The big Red one¨.

Based on the true story of a brigadier general who led his troops through Burma during World War II despite fatigue and starvation, 'Merrill's Marauders' might sound like a simple slice of history, but with Samuel Fuller at the helm it is more than that. Fuller apparently did not have full control over the film, and the flag-waving, sentimental ending and heavy exposition early on ensure that the film starts and ends on a weak note. The bulk of the movie is very well done though, and as per 'Verboeten!' and 'Fixed Bayonets!', the film benefits from Fuller's penchant for dialogue over action scenes in his war movies. The battle scenes are in fact quite dull with lots of explosive noises but limited bloodshed or carnage - something that actually helps the dialogue scenes stand out. Memorable bits include the soldiers discussing lost time (they can't work out whether it is 'a.m.' or 'p.m.', let alone the day of the week), the soldiers debating how much Merrill really cares about them over his objective, and Merrill reluctantly accepting orders to keep his men fighting on for longer than they had agreed without food (there is a haunting part when one soldier rushes to some parachuted supplies). The film's best asset though is probably Jeff Chandler's commanding lead performance, having to hide his character's health problems and show a strong face to his men despite having mixed feelings about the mission himself. Chandler was reportedly quite unwell during filming, which no doubt helped him carve such a realistic performance; sadly he passed away before the film was even released.

Sam Fuller's "Merrill's Marauders" (1962) is a realistic account of U.S. Army soldiers fighting the Japanese in the jungles of Burma during World War II. Starring Jeff Chandler as General Frank Merrill, the movie captures the sheer exhaustion of these men as they battle typhoid, malaria, and the perils of jungle warfare under the worst conditions possible. Along for the ride are plenty of stock players from the Warner Brothers roster of the early 1960s including Will Hutchins, Peter Brown and Ty Hardin. Claude Akins also has a prominent role in the cast as does Andrew Duggan as the unit's top M.D. Pushing his men to the extreme, Merrill is soon scorned as a "butcher." What they don't know is that the General is practically dead on his feet himself. Obsessed with completing his mission and following his superior's orders, Merrill finally collapses in a heap. In the final reel, his men march by his outstretched body to go off and fight another brutal battle. Duggan mouths off some unnecessary patriotic nonsense at the end while cradling the stricken General in his arms. Luckily, it doesn't detract from the overall proceedings.Director Sam Fuller, a combat soldier from World War II himself, knows something about war and he instills enough realism in this film for viewers to feel the jungle sweat on their own faces. He later went on to make a movie about his own unit (1980's "The Big Red One"), but this film certainly ranks with his best work. The real Frank Merrill survived the war but died from a heart attack in the mid-1950s. Jeff Chandler didn't last long after this movie either, succumbing to a botched operation at the age of 42.

Though a war movie, "Merrill's Marauders" makes its deepest impressions in the scenes between the battles.As a unit of exhausted American soldiers claw their way along a rocky slope, one falls to a screaming death. The others pause a moment to watch, then resume climbing.At one village, a boy gives a crusty sergeant played by Claude Akins a bowl of rice. The sergeant tries to smile, only to break down instead."When you lead, you have to hurt people," General Merrill (Jeff Chandler) tells his prize officer "Stock" (Ty Hardin). "The enemy, and sometimes your own."Sam Fuller was a war vet as well as a director. In making his war films, he struggled to keep it real while at the same time delivering popular entertainment. "Merrill's Marauders" leans too much in the latter direction, with hokey battle scenes and gung-ho narration. But Chandler and Hardin provide sympathetic rooting interests. The cinematography by William Clothier captures riverine landscapes in all their harsh and wild beauty.The real story of the 5307th Composite Unit and its role in retaking Burma provides a solid backdrop for Fuller's cold view of war and its human toll. Of the 3,000 troops that started out, only 100 remained standing at the end, typhus and Japanese taking equal measure of the rest. Merrill's decision to press forward ("If they've got a single ounce of strength left, they can fight!") is portrayed as a cruel necessity, this much softened from the real GI take on Merrill's boss, Vinegar Joe Stilwell. Stilwell was roundly hated by the Marauders for pushing his boys too hard.This is something we don't see here. Cooperation with the U.S. military required some futzing on Fuller's part, which he did in hopes of following it with a pet project regarding his own World War II experience that would only emerge 18 years later: "The Big Red One".The battle scenes feel forced and phony. Fuller himself would complain nobody dies in war as neatly as in movies, and you see that a lot here. A perversely favorite moment for me is when a soldier named "Bullseye" shoots a Japanese soldier off of a watchtower. The soldier starts to fall, then pauses, grabs a baluster, and performs a neat tuck-and-roll in the direction of an offscreen mat.The one battle scene that works, even with the inane fanfare scoring that is this film's single worst element, is a fight through a maze-like warren of train-support blocks at the railhead town of Shaduzup. Japanese and American soldiers appear and fall in random, endless waves. I don't think soldiers in World War II really called each other "knothead", but moments like those at Shaduzup really connect and help to pull this film over the finish line - however raggedly.Though probably a bit too rah-rah for Fuller's fans, "Merrill's Marauders" packs a punch and some moments of affecting surprise.