The Red Beret

The Red Beret is a 1953 British war film directed by Terence Young and starring Alan Ladd, Leo Genn and Susan Stephen. It is the fictitious story about an American who enlists in the British Parachute Regiment in 1940, claiming to be a Canadian. It is notable as the first film made by Irving Allen's and Albert R. Broccoli's Warwick Films, with many of the crew later working on various films for Warwick Films and Broccoli's Eon Productions. It is partly based on the 1950 non-fiction book with the same title, about the Parachute Regiment and its first operation, Operation Biting, in February... 1942, written by Hilary Saint George Saunders. The lead character was originally intended to be British, but when Richard Todd, who had been a paratrooper during the war, turned down the role because he felt it was "too far fetched", Albert R. Broccoli offered it to the American Alan Ladd and the story was rewritten by Ladd's personal screenwriter Richard Maibaum in order to fit him in. Steve MacKendrick , nicknamed "Canada" because that is where he claims he is from, volunteers in 1940 for the British Army's paratroop school.
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