Tonight's Movie: The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Gary Cooper stars in THE COURT-MARTIAL OF BILLY MITCHELL (1955), recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

I was previously unfamiliar with this film, based on a true story. It was written by Milton Sperling and Emmet Lavery, with direction by Otto Preminger.

In the years following World War I, Col. Billy Mitchell (Cooper) crusades for the future importance of air power, but his hopes to improve America's air force are ignored by top brass, who simply aren't interested in the possibilities.

More importantly, existing planes and dirigibles are allowed to deteriorate to the extent that they become death traps. Following a series of fatal accidents, including a dirigible disaster which kills his friend Lt. Commander Zack Lansdowne (Jack Lord), Mitchell decides to inform the public what is happening and gives an inflammatory statement to the press.

Mitchell is court-martialed for going outside proper military channels and leveling his public criticism, leading to a lengthy trial sequence which includes the dramatic testimony of Lansdowne's widow Margaret (Elizabeth Montgomery, in her film debut).

Given the story and top cast, the movie had the potential to be something special, but I frankly found it disappointing for a number of reasons.

The performances in this film are all over the map. I like Cooper, but I felt he underplayed so much in this as to be dull. He's given very little background, with limited mention of his family, and he's very emotionally constrained.

We know Billy is upset about lost friends, but very little of that is shown directly. Interestingly, I've found a still (seen here) with Cooper visiting Montgomery's widowed character which did not appear in the film. A scene or two like that might have gone a long way to give his character more emotional shadings. 

Ralph Bellamy and James Daly are likeable as Mitchell's defense attorneys; indeed, Bellamy breathes life into every scene. Unfortunately Fred Clark and Rod Steiger overacct as the prosecutors. Clark, in particular, is a completely unsympathetic cartoon character here, rather than a professional doing his job, and Steiger wasn't much better. They're simply nasty men.

The cast also includes Charles Bickford, Peter Graves, Darren McGavin, Will Wright, Ian Wolfe, Griff Barnett, and other familiar faces. The movie runs 100 minutes. It was scored by Dimitri Tiomkin.

THE COURT-MARTIAL OF BILLY MITCHELL frankly has an odd overall look, for multiple reasons. It's not a surprise that many of the backgrounds are drab, given the army setting, not to mention the warehouse where the trial is conducted -- but what's with the pink walls of Ralph Bellamy's office? Even where the film's look might have been improved by the set designers, there doesn't seem to have been much effort.

The use of CinemaScope, as filmed by Sam Leavitt, is especially curious. When Elizabeth Montgomery testifies, there are some close-ups, but in a number of the shots she's a tiny dot to the right of the screen with part of her left side cut off. Perhaps the director wanted to emphasize the small woman speaking out surrounded by so many hostile men, but in my opinion these shots diluted the impact. There were some other choices in camera blocking which were hard to understand, and that's not something that I typically notice and mention in a film review.

Kino Lorber's Blu-ray print is from a 2023 HD master from a 4K scan. It is not of the typical high Kino Lorber quality, but I suspect that has to do with the original source material rather than lack of effort on Kino Lorber's part. The film was shot in WarnerColor, which is rather notorious for inconsistent-looking prints which have not held up well over time.

The print color changes dramatically within a scene, most noticeably during Steiger's cross-examination of Cooper, with the look spanning the spectrum from washed-out to dark and overly harsh. There are also occasional speckles and scratches, but there are no skips or jumps.

I'd stop short of saying the film was bad; it was watchable enough, thanks largely to the deep cast. However, its various issues, including performances, scripting, set design, and cinematography, combined to make it rather surprisingly disappointing.

The film is presented by Kino Lorber as a special edition, with a cardboard slipcase. Disc extras consist of a commentary track by Steve Mitchell and Steven Jay Rubin along with a gallery of eight trailers for other movies.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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