Objective, Burma! (Full Frame)

VHS, NR, 142 minutes, WARNER

Mission accomplished! Errol Flynn, known for bringing a sense of boyish bravado to "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "Dodge City", "Gentleman Jim" and more rousing screen yarns, puts aside eager heroics for a mature and widely praised performance as the leader of a paratrooper patrol stranded in Burma. "One of the few features of which I am proud," Flynn would later say, "is 'Objective Burma!'" Film anthologies agree there's plenty of reason for pride. "This is one of the finest World War II films made during the war," The Movie Guide says. "One of the best war movies," Danny Peary wrote in his Guide for the Film Fanatic, "and among the grimmest." Raoul Walsh directs the hard-hitting action, shooting in rugged California locations so similar to Burma that some veterans of that campaign refused to believe the crew hadn't somehow sneaked into Asia.