Never So Few
by John Sturges
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Actor: Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Richard Johnson, Steve McQueenDirector: John Sturges
Cinematographer: William H. Daniels
Editor: Ferris Webster
Producer: Edmund Grainger
Writer: Millard Kaufman
Writer: Tom T. Chamales
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 125 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-31
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Never So Few
DVD Review: Sinatra, McQueen, Henreid (Casablanca), Ahn (Kung Fu), more
Summary: 4 Stars
1959 WWII movie. Steve McQueen's first big-budget film. An MGM film. War in Burma, and something of a love-story during war-time. Also known as "Campaign Burma."
DVD Features: The DVD is very basic, containing just the film (can be heard in English or French, or read in English, French or Spanish), a film trailer (makes a big point of Sinatra and Lollobrigida meeting for the first time on film), and a "Wanted: Dead or Alive Season One" trailer (a Steve McQueen starring Western TV series, with McQueen a bounty hunter).
Credits: The stars are Frank Sinatra (Capt. Tom Reynolds; "From Here to Eternity"), and Gina Lollobrigida (Carla Vesari; her first Hollywood film; "Miss Italia"). The co-stars are Peter Lawford (Capt. Grey Travis; "Rosebud"), Steve McQueen (Corporal Bill Ringa; "The Thomas Crown Affair"), Richard Johnson (Capt. Danny DeMortimer; "Khartoum"), Paul Henreid (Nikko Regas; "Casablanca"), Brian Donlevy (Gen. Sloan; "The Virginian"), Dean Jones (Sgt. Jim Norby; "The Love Bug"), Philip Ahn (Nautaung; TV: "Kung Fu"), Robert Bray (Col. Fred Parkson; TV: "Lassie"), and Charles Bronson (Sgt. John Danforth - a racist American Navajo; "Death Wish"). The Director is John Sturges ("The Great Escape"), and the writer is Millard Kaufman ("The Klansman") based on the book by Tom T. Chamales ("Go Naked in the World").
Plot: Captain Tom Reynolds leads a group of O.S.S. combatants and native fighters in WWII Burma (and spends two weeks on holiday). As the opening writing notes: "less than a 1000 Kachin warriors, fighting under American and British leadership . . . held back 40,000 Japanese" in Northern Burma. Meanwhile, US ally China has issued its warlord's with warrants that, in effect, allow them to attack US troops. This creates an international incident.
Review: The movie opens with the credits, and shows a long line of soldiers walking through a river, with good music by Hugo Friedhofer in the background. Then impressive air shots of an Asian landscape (the film locations, apparently, were Burma, Sri Lanka and Thailand). The movie starts off slowly, before some Japanese attack the Allies camp. Then Capt. Reynolds returns to a city to search for a doctor, morphine, and the movie slows again.
Captain Reynolds, sporting odd chin hair, is a hard man that cares about his troops and doesn't want them to suffer (and has been a soldier for three years). I believe that Capt. DeMortimer is British co-leader of the Reynolds group (and he has cerebral malaria). Captain Travis is a doctor that treats DeMortimer while the Capt. is on vacation, and ends up rounded up by Reynolds to be his group's doctor. Col. Bray is Reynolds direct commander. Sgt. Danforth dislikes having to work with the native Kachins and has some personality issues with Sgt. Norby (who he calls "rich boy"; Danforth is also the "native-talker" the one who knows the special code). Norby is the radio man and wears glasses (vaguely Radar-like, of M*A*S*H). Corporal Ringa is a young looking corporal that is the driver for Col. Parkson at the beginning of the movie (until Reynolds requests him), and a man that knows how to handle nosy MPs. Nikko Regas is the old man Carla Vesari is attached to at the beginning of the movie, and is a business man, believed to be into the opium trade. Vesari is the "love interest" for Sinatra/Reynolds in the movie, and a woman that does not mind bathing in front of a man she is not involved with (Vesari doesn't want anything to do with Reynolds until he forces himself onto her; of course she wants him after that; Reynolds is very aggressive in pressing the relationship). A bit player looks like Sulu from Star Trek (George Takei's work went uncredited).
An interesting look into a part of the war that I've been less aware. I could have lived without the whole Carla Vesari-Captain Reynolds affair, though I suppose that was supposed to humanize Reynolds. For the most part, the acting, plot, scenery, everything seems to be solid, but there's just some vital spark that is missing in this film. For the most of the movie, there's little tension, and the relationship between Carla and Reynolds just seems forced. A certain amount of interest and tension picks up when they decide to chase some renegade Chinese into China, but it takes a long time for this particular part of the movie to come about. Overall, I would not recommend this movie unless you particularly like one or more of the actors, or really want to see all of McQueen's films (McQueen is particularly good in the movie in his small role). Despite that statement, I would give the movie 3.96 stars.
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