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Attack (1956)

Attack
I swear by all that's holy, I'll come back. I'll come back and take this grenade and shove it down your throat and pull the pin!
—Lt. Joe Costa, Fox Co.
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Author Pat Kirkham discusses the opening titles for Attack, from her authoritative book Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design.

For this title sequence, Saul created a montage of off-duty soldiers relaxing in a near-deserted Belgian village during World War II. It cuts in after a dramatic live-action opening in which sixteen men are slaughtered. The segue to the titles features the helmet of a dead soldier rolling down a  hill. It stops at a spot where a solitary daffodil grows and fades neatly into the circular mouth of a loudspeaker broadcasting swing music.

Saul's stylish sequence uses the beat to focus on close-ups of men walking, eating, stamping their feet, sitting on steps and warming their hands over a brazier. The sequence closes with the same circular form of a loudspeaker, from which a woman's voice from Armed Services Radio announces, “That's all for today fellas goodbye.”

The release of Attack was announced in the Hollywood Reporter in an unprecedented ten-page advertisement designed by Saul, which itself reads as a moving sequence. Each double-page spread features the same blood-red still with men in combat gear moving across the frame, while the credits unfold in clear type within bullet-like white circles.

IMAGE: Trade ad

Ten-page advertisement designed by Saul Bass

Pat Kirkham is Professor in the History of Design, Decorative Arts and Culture at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture, New York. She has written and edited a number of books, including Charles and Ray Eames (1998) and Women Designers in the USA 1900–2000 (2001).

©2011 Laurence King Publishing Ltd. Used with permission.

  • Credits

Titles Designed by: Saul Bass
Music by: Frank De Vol

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SAUL BASS: A LIFE IN FILM AND DESIGN

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Title sequence

  • Title Designer

    Saul Bass
  • Category

    Film
  • Styles

    1950s, black and white, live action, main title
Attack
  • Film Director

    Robert Aldrich
  • Release Date

    October 17, 1956
  • Aspect Ratio

    1.37:1
  • Studio

    United Artists
  • Country

    USA
  • Languages

    English, German
  • Reviews

    Reviews on Letterboxd
  • IMDb has full details

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