Michael_Elliott Never So Few (1959) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Set during WWII, Captain Tom Reynolds (Frank Sinatra) is in the jungle of Burma where he must keep his men in order while making sure no sneak attacks happen. While on leave he strikes up a relationship with the beautiful Carla Vesari (Gina Lollobrigida) who might just be connected to a smuggler.NEVER SO FEW is an entertaining movie to watch but at the same time, when it's over, you can help but be somewhat upset that the film isn't much better. After all, you've got a fantastic director in John Sturges and you've got an all-star cast with a fairly interesting story. So, what went wrong? Well, it's hard to make two types of movies and smash them into one, which is what happened here.The problem with the movie is that the screenplay is incredibly uneven and I'd argue it's also out-of-focus. I say this because the film starts off on a very high note with the men in the jungle and all of this is entertaining. We then get some more entertaining stuff when we get back to civilian land and get to see Sinatra work his magic. The problem is that the love story is so forced and at times so silly that it really takes away from the war drama. A lot of war pictures are "male bonding movies" and Sturges would specialize this years later with THE GREAT ESCAPE. The problem with NEVER SO FEW is that the romance is pretty much in the center of the picture and really breaks any tension or drama in the war stuff.With that said, there's no doubt that the terrific cast helps keep the movie entertaining. Sinatra is in good form as the tough Captain who does things his own way and stands up for what he believes. There's no doubt that Lollobrigida is easy on the eyes and especially during her bath scene. The supporting cast is wonderful and a lot of fun. Bronson is very good in his role as a Navajo solder. Steve McQueen is a lot of fun and even at this stage of his career that essence of cool comes across even with his scenes with Sinatra. We also get Peter Lawford, Richard Johnson, Paul Henreid, Whit Bissell, Dean Jones and Brian Donlevy among others.NEVER SO FEW contains a lot of explosion and the action scenes are nicely directed. The court-like drama at the end isn't all that successful but the film still gives you plenty of entertaining but there's no doubt that it should have been better.

Spikeopath An allied guerrilla unit led by Capt. Tom Reynolds (Frank Sinatra) deals with the Japanese army and warlord controlled Chinese troops out in the Burma jungle."In the hills of North Burma, gateway to the vast prize of Asia, less than a thousand Kachin warriors, fighting under American and British leadership of the O.S.S., held back 40,000 Japanese in the critical, early years of World War II. It has been said NEVER have free men everywhere owed so much to SO FEW".Killer Warrants and The Unprecedented War.Directed by John Sturges and featuring Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Peter Lawford, Brian Donlevy, Gina Lollobrigida, Richard Johnson and Paul Henreid. Never So Few it's fair to say has a iffy reputation, originally conceived as a rat pack war film, it has some great strengths and some annoying weaknesses. The story itself is great, a part of the war that deserves to have been portrayed on the big screen, but why the makers didn't exorcise the whole romantic thread remains not just a mystery, but nearly a film killer.As lovely as Miss Lollobrigida is, her whole character arc, and the relationship with Sinatra's stoic Reynolds, is surplus to requirements. It serves absolutely no purpose to defining other characters or for narrative invention. This strand of the story carries the film to over two hours in length, without this strand it's a film of 90 minutes focusing on the brave souls who fought in the Burmese conflict. Which is what it should have been.When dealing with the conflicts, both outer and inner, the film does excite. The wily Sturges knows his way around an action scene and all the efforts here are gripping. Cast are fine and dandy, with McQueen dominating his scenes, Johnson the class act on show, while Sinatra, once he gets rid of the fake beard, shows his knack for tortured emotion to the point you just can't help but root for him even when he's being pig-headed (not a stretch for old blue eyes of course).Tech credits are mixed, the studio sets are easily spotted, but conversely so are the real and pleasing location sequences filmed in Ceylon. The Panavision photography (William H. Daniels) is beautiful, a Metrocolor treat, but Hugo Friedhofer unusually turns in a lifeless musical score. All told it's not hard to see why it's a film that divides opinions, it's very episodic and that romance drags it something terrible. But still strong merits exist and it at least gets the core of the real story out in the public domain. 6/10

edwagreen Burma World War 11.This war film showcases Frank Sinatra in a military role. The film soon comes to be one of corruption among the Chinese warlords, who raid and kill Americans. Upon discovering this, Sinatra abandons military protocol and executes many. It is only Brian Donlevy's character who eventually exonerates him while refusing to apologize to the Chinese.As in many war films, there is romance with Sinatra falling for Gina Lollobrigida who works for Paul Henreid, a business dealer. Later, it's determined that both work for American intelligence.Henried is completely wasted in the role, as is Charles Bronson as an American Indian soldier harboring plenty of prejudice of his own.Peter Lawford comes off as the doctor who is really anti-war and Steve McQueen shoots it up all the way.The picture really lacks depth of characters.

nerdomatic10-937-667230 This flick was in heavy rotation on TCM recently; I guess because it was Steve McQueen's big break. He does a fine job, as does Charles Bronson, but "NSF" is a perfect unintentionally funny, entertainingly bad movie. When Frank Sinatra was genuinely interested in playing a sympathetic and vulnerable character in a top-notch movie, he was most excellent. "The Manchurian Candidate" is one of the best films ever. But most of the time his ego was totally out of control, and that's definitely the case here. He looks like the 98-lb weakling "before" in Charles Atlas's body-building cartoon ads, and is laughably unconvincing as a jungle warfare commando. Frank weighs about 120 lbs here, and there's good reason why he never took his shirt off in his flicks. He's skinny, but not in shape. Don't get me wrong, he went through an entire telephone book of gorgeous women, so he clearly had what it takes in real life. But watching him play a Lee Marvin-type guy just doesn't work, not even for a second. He looks very scrawny in his fatigues and wears an immaculate bush hat with one brim turned up on the side, Australian-style, along with possibly the worst beard in movie history.Frank's romance with Gina Lollobrigida is pretty comical, although it's not meant to be. Gina plays a kept woman being employed by a wealthy war profiteer, but he conveniently drops out of the picture whenever Frank's around. Gina is stunning, but is a terrible actress. Luckily, she knows how to breathe deeply while wearing low-cut bodices. Frank's romantic patter is no more convincing than his tough-guy banter: "I'll keep you barefoot and pregnant and living on the edge of town." Of course, a world-class beauty steeped in luxury would immediately fall head-over-heels for such a smooth line. Frank was one of Hollywood's greatest ladies' men, so he fully realized the silliness here, but he played it straight and never winked at the audience. Throughout the entire movie, Frank is able to frequently switch back and forth between the jungle and Gina's hotel suite. Not a bad deal."NSF" is based on a WWII novel written by Frank's character, and it's probably an interesting book, but the movie fails to do it justice. He's a U.S. military adviser training Burmese Kachin tribesmen to wage guerrilla warfare on the Japanese. There's a lot of great exterior shots of the Burmese countryside and cities and temples and monuments, but everything else was filmed on Hollywood sets, presumably so the Chairman of the Board could hit the LA bars immediately after completing his scenes for the day. So the combat scenes are excruciatingly and distractingly fake-looking. One big moment is when Frank and his men paddle silently downriver to a huge Chinese encampment in broad daylight. Hundreds of soldiers, and every last one of them is in a deep and restful sleep, including the sentries. They're all piled up on top of each other, even though they have plenty of room all around, and seem to enjoy napping in an enormous cluster. Frank's men surround them and they meekly surrender when Frank orders them to. Much to their regret, because Frank later orders them all shot as a demonstration of his ruthlessness. The Kachin are appropriately servile and grateful to their Great White Saviors. They actually apologize to Frank when they get shot and have to die in his spindly arms. One of them gets badly wounded and the unit doesn't have any medicine or a doctor, so Frank shoots him to put him out of his misery; just like you'd do to a loyal dog. At least the poor guy doesn't say "Thanks, Frank" before the Chairman pulls the trigger. Even Mr. Sulu from "Star Trek" is there and plays pretty much the same part as he later does in "The Green Berets", another inadvertent howler.Anyway, this flick is well worth the time, although not for the reasons its makers intended. I only gave it a 6, but for entertainment value it really rates much higher. Bad-movie fans are guaranteed to find every moment enjoyable in a perversely satisfying way.