Sergeant Ryker

Sergeant Ryker is a 1968 drama–war film directed by Buzz Kulik and starring Lee Marvin and Bradford Dillman.[2][3][3][4] The film was originally broadcast on television as "The Case Against Paul Ryker", a 1963 two-part episode of Kraft Suspense Theatre.[5] It was released as a feature film in 1968 to capitalise on Marvin's popularity from The Dirty Dozen. Its second run paired it as a double feature with Counterpoint.

Sergeant Ryker
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBuzz Kulik
Produced byFrank Telford
Written byWilliam D. Gordon
Seeleg Lester
StarringLee Marvin
Bradford Dillman
Vera Miles
Peter Graves
Music byJohn Williams
CinematographyWalter Strenge
Edited byRobert B. Warwick Jr.
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • February 1, 1968 (1968-02-01)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,000,000 (US/ Canada)[1]

Plot

Sgt. Ryker (Lee Marvin) is an American soldier charged with treason during the Korean War, he is court-martialled and prosecuted by Capt. David Young (Bradford Dillman) and convicted and sentenced to death.

Ryker's wife, Ann (Vera Miles), insists that her husband received an inadequate defense. She believes his story that he had been on a secret mission, assigned by a superior officer who has since died and can no longer vouch for him.

Capt. Young believes Ryker is guilty, but he too thinks Ryker received an inadequate legal defense. He persuades the commanding general to give Ryker a new trial. The general reluctantly does so, however he insists that this time Young must serve as Ryker's defense counsel. Ryker has already resigned himself to his fate, and has to be persuaded to go along with the re-trial. As it unfolds all the evidence is damning to Ryker, the best Young can do is establish that Ryker's version of events is not impossible. The defense is also undermined by several of Ryker's lies and omissions, which are exposed during testimony at the trial, and also by Ryker's occasional fits of temper. A further complication ensues when a romantic attachment develops between Young and Ryker's wife. Ryker is furious when he realizes it has happened, and the general on hearing about it tells Young he will be court-martialled as soon as Ryker's trial is over.

The prosecutor, Maj. Whitaker, unearths new evidence damning to the defendant's case, and all seems lost. At the last minute, however, Young learns some information from a Sergeant Winkler which verifies some aspects of Ryker's claim, and which when followed up on by Young, is enough to compel that Ryker be set free.

Cast
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gollark: Solution: don't vote, but then whenever anyone brings up the subject, just change the subject and distract them.
gollark: > Why is the IQ of everyone using Twitter, Facebook, etc all like 40? It’s amazing just how dumb people on social media areThey have incentives to show you stuff which will make you very outraged, to boost engagement.
gollark: I have, mercifully, been able to avoid it so far.

See also

References
  1. "Big Rental Films of 1968", Variety, 8 January 1969 p 15. Please note this figure is a rental accruing to distributors.
  2. "Sergeant Ryker". FilmAffinity. filmaffinity.com. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  3. "Sergeant Ryker". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved November 6, 2016.
  4. http://allmovie.com/work/sergeant-ryker-43755
  5. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063584/


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