Back Advance to The Rear Welsh Le Bataillon des lâches (film, 1964) French Compagnia di codardi? Italian Advance to the Rear Portuguese Advance to the Rear SIMPLE
| Advance to the Rear | |
|---|---|
 Australian film poster | |
| Directed by | George Marshall |
| Screenplay by | Samuel A. Peeples William Bowers Robert Carson (uncredited) |
| Based on | Company of Cowards 1957 novel by Jack Schaefer, inspired by 1956 article Saturday Evening Post by William Chamberlain |
| Produced by | Ted Richmond |
| Starring | Glenn Ford Stella Stevens Melvyn Douglas |
| Cinematography | Milton Krasner |
| Edited by | Archie Marshek Leonard Lieberman |
| Music by | Randy Sparks Hugo Montenegro performed by The New Christy Minstrels |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,100,000 (US/ Canada)[1] |
Advance to the Rear is a light-hearted 1964 American Western comedy film set in the American Civil War. Directed by George Marshall, and starring Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, and Melvyn Douglas. The film is based on the 1957 novel Company of Cowards by Jack Schaefer, whose inspiration was an article by William Chamberlain, published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1956. Chamberlain recounts the apocryphal Civil War stories of "Company Q" (19th century army slang for the sick list), a unit composed of coward soldiers who are given a second chance to prove their bravery. The film had the novel title in pre-production and when released in the United Kingdom. However, the novel had none of the comedic elements of the film which retained only the basic idea of a unit formed out of men who had been court-martialed for cowardice and sent out west as well as some character names. The story may have been the inspiration for the later ABC-TV sitcom F-Troop (1965-1967).[citation needed].
- ^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1964", Variety, 6 January 1965 p. 39. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to distributors not total gross.