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Battle Hymn (1957) is a Universal Studios feature film starring Rock Hudson as Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real-life United States Air Force fighter pilot in the Korean War. Hess's autobiography of the same name was published concurrently with the release of the film. He donated his profits from the film and the book to a network of orphanages he helped to establish. The film was directed by Douglas Sirk and produced by Ross Hunter. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hess was a minister in Ohio. The attack prompts him to become a fighter pilot. Hess had accidentally dropped a bomb on an... MORE

Battle Hymn (1957) is a Universal Studios feature film starring Rock Hudson as Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real-life United States Air Force fighter pilot in the Korean War. Hess's autobiography of the same name was published concurrently with the release of the film. He donated his profits from the film and the book to a network of orphanages he helped to establish. The film was directed by Douglas Sirk and produced by Ross Hunter. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hess was a minister in Ohio. The attack prompts him to become a fighter pilot. Hess had accidentally dropped a bomb on an orphanage in Germany during World War II, killing 37 orphans. At the start of the Korean War, he volunteers to return to the cockpit and is assigned as the senior USAF advisor/Instructor Pilot to the Republic of Korea Air Force, flying F-51D Mustangs. As he and his cadre of USAF instructors train the South Korean pilots, several orphaned war refugees gather at the base, and he solicits the aid of two Korean adults (En Soon Yang, played by Anna Kashfi, and Lun Wa, played by Philip Ahn) and establishes a shelter for the orphans. When the Communists begin an offensive in the area, Hess evacuates the LESS