Jack Is Dead!

Last week Jack Palance died. He was one of the best American actors. Before his career in the movies he was a professional heavyweight boxer, and a WWII hero. He was a B24 bomber pilot, and during a training he was trapped in his plane destroyed by fire. His face, severely burned, was rebuilt with plastic surgery and became unique. He was the perfect villain. Moviemaker Elia Kazan said that "only his mother could love his face." One of his rare friends was Lee Marvin, former Marine and WWII hero, too. Here I offer you this splendid cover from a French photonovel (a "ciné-roman", see my previous post about Star Ciné Cosmos). It’s taken from the film ATTACK, a masterpiece of Robert Aldrich. Aldrich, one of the most famous Hollywood’s mavericks, made stories about pure violence and survival. In ATTACK, Jack Palance plays Lt. Costa, a strong soldier fighting the German Army during the Battle of the Bulge. Betrayed and abandoned, he will be crushed alive by German Panzers.