The Private War of Major Benson

The Private War of Major Benson is 1955 American military comedy film starring Charlton Heston, Julie Adams, Sal Mineo and Tim Hovey, about a tough-talking U.S. Army officer who must shape up the JROTC program at Sheridan Academy, a Catholic boys' military academy, or be forced out of the Army. The film was shot on St. Catherine's Military School campus in 1955, with cadets as the actors in all but the leading roles. Universal-International chose St. Catherine's cadets and location for their humorous comedy about the challenges facing the new commandant of a military school by the antics of a group of grade school cadets. The picture featured a full battalion of St. Catherine's students. The film has not been remade, but its basic premise was done twice in the following forty years, such as Hard Knox (1984) for TV and most notably with Major Payne (1995), another Universal picture. Plot summary Major Barney Benson, a hard-bitten combat soldier with a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and a Combat Infantry Badge, runs afoul of the Army bureaucracy with his theories concerning troop training in peacetime. As penance for ruffling the military's feathers, he is assigned as the Commandant of Sheridan Military Academy, a boys military school run by Roman Catholic nuns under the JROTC system.