The Day of the Trumpet

A tiny Filipino village has just got shot of the occupying Spanish when an American cavalry troop arrives to try to control some local guerrilla fighting. Nobody actually asked for their "help" and so, naturally, they don't all get the warmest of receptions initially. "Sgt. Norcutt" (John Agar) is a ... decent sort of soul, though, and with his squad he tries to befriend the locals, help them with their school and generally make a positive difference to their fairly subsistence existence. "Capt. Maxalla" (Pancho Magalona) is a bit of a brute and is determined to undermine their efforts - and that results in more than a few outbreaks of fisticuffs as this meanders along for eighty minutes of frankly rather pointless cinema that simply appears designed to suggest that the US occupiers were better than their forebears. The acting, script and story itself are all pretty weak and although it does look like it was filmed in a real jungle environment, much of that doesn't really matter as the grudges and romantic interludes just rob the thing of what ever pace it had at the start. Agar's smile can only do so much here, sorry... read more