HELL IS FOR HEROES (1962) **1/2 Steve McQueen is a stylish machinegunner who knows what he is doing. Which means that he drinks a lot, doesn't shave or take orders, mostly ignores French hookers, and spends a lot of time profiling with furrowed brow. He's very good in this type of role that doesn't require much speaking, and if you think about it that's more of a complement than an insult. He emotes pre-boiling. The title is probably unintentionally ambiguous: are heroes required for storming hell or do war heroes go there? Very realistic war-time feel as they sit around most the while hoping that the Nazis don't attack and when the the big moment for an American offensive comes it amounts to little more than taking a pillbox. James Coburn hadn't yet been permanently typecast and is a sensitive guy who enjoys doing things like making jeeps backfire so that they sound like tanks; Bob Newhart is himself, offering "typing" as his primary warrior skill but ultimately contributing the most by engaging in a triumphantly inane conversation into a telephone with no one on the other end of the line.