Short Day of Private Putman is a story of a green recruit who lacks the necessary maturity to deal with his squad. And for good reason - he does not belong; an incongruity and anachronism slipped through the cracks.
Private Orville Putman (excellently played by Beau Bridges) pitifully tries to be a seasoned veteran, but it's an act of futility.
Fauvette (well played by Lilyan Chauvin) has some excellent dialog with "Put" and becomes his first reality check along the way.
The rest of the squad get the picture in short order and realize he's green. And Put does not disappoint in proving it out. Putnam and Saunders have excellent on screen chemistry and dialog while Caje is genuinely frustrated and projects it well on screen. In usual form, Kirby is spontaneously sarcastic in a humorous way about Put's exploits.
There's a lot of action and director McEveety does an excellent job with his specialty. I'm only critical of a couple of scenes whereby the German snipers are pitifully poor shots. I would have added two more squad members and lost them in the fray. It would have been well worth it for believability purposes.
Screen writers Esther & Bob Mitchell did a fine job with this one, very believable and even funny in parts. A good analogy highlighting Put in combat would be rookie pilot Lieutenant May running from the Red Baron; the same exact inspiration applies. The ending was beautifully written and well applied to Put the "botanist"; and I vividly remember it from when I was 8 years old having seen the original broadcast. It's fun after 50 years to see it all over again.
Private Orville Putman (excellently played by Beau Bridges) pitifully tries to be a seasoned veteran, but it's an act of futility.
Fauvette (well played by Lilyan Chauvin) has some excellent dialog with "Put" and becomes his first reality check along the way.
The rest of the squad get the picture in short order and realize he's green. And Put does not disappoint in proving it out. Putnam and Saunders have excellent on screen chemistry and dialog while Caje is genuinely frustrated and projects it well on screen. In usual form, Kirby is spontaneously sarcastic in a humorous way about Put's exploits.
There's a lot of action and director McEveety does an excellent job with his specialty. I'm only critical of a couple of scenes whereby the German snipers are pitifully poor shots. I would have added two more squad members and lost them in the fray. It would have been well worth it for believability purposes.
Screen writers Esther & Bob Mitchell did a fine job with this one, very believable and even funny in parts. A good analogy highlighting Put in combat would be rookie pilot Lieutenant May running from the Red Baron; the same exact inspiration applies. The ending was beautifully written and well applied to Put the "botanist"; and I vividly remember it from when I was 8 years old having seen the original broadcast. It's fun after 50 years to see it all over again.
