Sinatra and Company Stick It To The Enemy

A Shoot 'Em Up War For Never So Few (1959)

Frank Sinatra alternates between China/Burma combat and R&R with Gina Lollobrigida. Among fighting force are soon-to-be-stars Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson, Never So Few a preview of the sort of actioners they'd engage as WWII movies became the stuff of 60's fantasy. This was among early occasion for enemy troops blowing up real good for always outnumbered, but never outfought, allies. Director John Sturges saw his future in said approach, increased distance from the actual war enabling battles to be staged in comic book terms. Still, that was what action viewership wanted, and if we're to trace back Hollywood's blockbusting mentality, Never So Few may be a place to start. The project was slated for travel, but only a second unit went, the principals held to Metro backlot and nearby locations.

I call this a Hugo Friedhofer movie because his score is the best thing about it. Sinatra romancing of Lollobrigida is a drag through which we await return to battle stations. McQueen shows vividly what a next generation of stars will look (and act) like. His gunfiring in place of words makes the rest look like over-talkers, SMc early on hep to fact that dialogue was something action men did best without. Politics jerk a rug from under a once-ally as Frank and troop expose betrayal of GI's by the soon-to-go-Red China, making it clear we were wrong to have ever trusted them. Payback is a third-act massacre they surprisingly get away with, a rare if not unique instance under the Code. Burmese scenics look great, but it's obvious Frank and friends stayed home, their jungle a same one Tarzan traversed at Culver. MGM was slow to recognize a public fed up with faking re backgrounds. Never So Few plays on Warner Instant in HD and looks terrific.