DKosty123 Rod Serling was writing a lot of great scripts in the 1950's. While some of his scripts are great like Patterns which is brilliant, this one while good is not quite great. This film was originally written for live television and was on the US Steel Hour. Thank goodness MGM decided to film it, for several reasons.Paul Newman who career was just starting to boom did this and the underrated "Somebody Up There Likes Me" in 1956 and his performance here is the glue for this one. So much support here with a very limited performance from Lee Marvin to a brilliant effort from Edmund O'Brien. This is a case where the actors elevate the script into something more special than it ought to be.What would have made it better would have been a conversation Newman recalls with Marvin in his final speech at the end of the film. If only that conversation had been included in this film, as I felt like something was missing because it wasn't.Paul Newman was fortunate to come along into his prime at a time when Serling was in his prime. Arnold Laven who directed this was mostly a television director. If there had been a director like Walsh with this one, the film might have been better. This is one time where it appears MGM was not willing to spend the money to make this one better, and it does suffer a bit for that. Still, any fan of Serling, Newman, Marvin should consider this one a must see.

wes-connors Paul Newman (as Captain Edward W. Hall Jr.) returns home from the Korean War, on a stretcher, after being held in an enemy prison camp. At first, Mr. Newman is treated as a recovering war hero. After evidence surfaces to reveal he collaborated with the enemy, Wendell Corey (as Major Sam Moulton) serves Newman with court-martial papers. This doesn't sit well with military-minded father Walter Pidgeon (as Colonel Edward W. Hall Sr.). Newman's widowed sister-in-law, Anne Francis (as Aggie Hall) is more understanding...A re-make of the Rod Serling's television version "The Rack" (1955), with Mr. Corey reprising his thankless prosecutorial role; this is a very well-acted, thought-provoking drama. It is also one of Newman's best early feature film performances. Smaller parts, like those essayed by Cloris Leachman (as Caroline) and James Best (as Cassidy), provide an added incentive to watch. However, the ending, whatever the filmmakers' intentions, is not very well-handled.****** The Rack (11/2/56) Arnold Laven ~ Paul Newman, Walter Pidgeon, Wendell Corey, Anne Francis

Nazi_Fighter_David Newman is an Army captain who returns to the U. S. after having been a POW for over two years in Korea, and is promptly charged with collaboration… Most of the film centers on his court-martial, which reveals that he did indeed cooperate with his captors after intensive psychological torture… Since he admits that he never reached the breaking point, he is found guilty, but the film suggests that society is responsible in not better preparing soldiers for the new methods of torture… From the moment he first appears in a wheelchair to be interviewed by a psychiatrist (evoking memories of Brando in "The Men"), through intense scenes with his father (Walter Pigeon), a cold, stern career officer, to the climactic confession, Newman projects the brooding, nervous, introverted quality of a man still in a state of emotional shock… Method mannerisms that Newman carries from film to film first appear here, and although sometimes overdone, they are generally effective: his glistening eyes, nervously moving lips and rapid blinking; his habits of rubbing his head, looking away from people and putting his hand over his mouth while speaking… All of these suggest a man burdened with guilt, withdrawn into his own world of shame and bitter memories… Newman is at his best during the trial, when he describes the prison camp horrors… Staring straight ahead, he recites his experience in a cool, deliberate manner, to prevent himself from breaking down… But he finally cries when recounting the fear of loneliness that led him to give in—a fear that was born, in his childhood, when his mother died and his father never had time for him… He cries out: "My father never kissed me!" Thus ultimately the film's focus is the alienation between child and parent, which places it in the tradition of many mid-fifties movies, including Dean's "Rebel Without a Cause" and "East of Eden." That theme would continue in Newman's films: from "Somebody Up There Likes Me," through "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and others, to "Hud," he plays men with serious problems in relating to a father or father-figure… In that context, "The Rack's" central scene, which follows the confession, has the father attempting a reconciliation… The two sit in a car, with Newman again staring straight ahead, maintaining the barrier between them… He stiffens as his father puts his arm around him, but finally gives in as the old man does kiss him… It's the film's most poignant moment—a personal victory for the soldier, who loses everywhere else

Robert J. Maxwell This is an early effort of Paul Newman's -- made after Silver Chalice but not released until after Somebody Up There Likes Me -- and it shows. Newman tries too hard and, indeed, most of the performances of the fine cast are below their usual levels, elementary and overspecific, done by the numbers, as if aimed at an audience of high school kids. Rod Serling's script isn't entirely to blame. There is less of his poetics, only the occasional "horizon of endurance limits" or whatever. But the plot is fully sketched in, with nothing left to the imagination. What is visualized and covert in Cool Hand Luke, is here overt and not visualized, the action being confined to a courtroom and one or two other sets. A major problem with The Rack is the direction. None of the performances is modulated. The witnesses speak rapidly and clearly and loudly, in a way no one does in life off the screen. When Newman's character is called upon to mumble part of his testimony because of its intimate and personally revealing nature, he does so with his hand in front of his mouth, as if the audience were too insensitive to otherwise realize he was mumbling. Worse, his defense counsel tells him openly that we can't hear him clearly because he is holding his hand in front of his mouth -- in case we missed the fact that he was holding his hand in front of his mouth before. All that's missing to drop the scenario down to an elementary school level is for Newman to look up and ask something like, "You mean they can't hear me because I'm holding my hand in front of my mouth?" And for defense counsel to reply, "That's right. You're holding your hand in front of your mouth, so they can't hear you." Yet, the issue dealt with -- should we hold an otherwise brave man responsible for finally giving up in the face of nearly hopeless odds -- is treated with some maturity. The ending doesn't leave us with the kinds of easy answers we might expect. None of the cast or crew are at their best here, but it's not a boring film either.