Never So Few | | Cast : | Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida | | Director : | John Sturges | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | December 07, 1959 | | DVD Released Date : | May 31, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 11, 2005 | | Summary | Good war, but a lousy romance | Content
 | It never fails to amuse me why someone talks the producer into making war movies into romances. The vast majority that have romance in them have done poorly. In fact "From Here To Eternity", "Casablanca", and "To Have and Have Not" are the only ones I recall that did not fail. I say the producer because they pay the bills so everyone else just listens to what they want. I didn't read the book so I suppose the writer may have put it in the book. Whatever the case it should have been cut from the movie. This movie along with many others would have been stand out movies if not for romance with poor acting females. Perhaps that is why the term bombshell was used. Because they made the movie bomb. The movie is till worth seeing, just get yourself a snack during romance scenes or fast forward. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | Compelling World War II Film | Content
| "Never So Few" is a film with kind of a split personality. When it concerns itself with battle sequences and the waging of the war it is interesting. Unfortunately, the film devotes too much time to a romantic subplot involving star Frank Sinatra and Gina Lollobrigida that is not only a distraction but goes nowhere. Lollobrigida is a stunner, but let's face it, her acting ability is the consistency of wood. What redeems the film is the main story involving the soldiers who fought on the Burmese front. The film also poses the question as to the nature of honor in the time of conflict. Is it more honorable to follow the book or when you take the law in your own hands when it is morally justified? Sinatra is solid as maverick Captain Tom Reynolds. Steve McQueen, in his first major motion picture(well, maybe "The Blob"), nearly steals the show as streetwise Cpl. Bill Ringa. Good supporting turns are on display here by Richard Johnson as Reynold's British subordinate, Charles Bronson as a Navajo code talker, and old hand Brian Donlevy as the General. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 09, 2005 | | Summary | Sinatra, McQueen, Henreid (Casablanca), Ahn (Kung Fu), more | Content
| 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. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 03, 2005 | | Summary | strong cast, great cinematography | Content
| Spectacular cinematography and a strong cast make this a film worth watching, despite a script that is sometimes stilted. Sinatra as always fills the screen with his presence, and he is backed by one of my favorite British actors, Richard Johnson, and stealing every scene that he's in is Steve McQueen, in one of his early post-"The Blob" roles. Also excellent is Brian Donleavy, and another early appearance of a future star, Charles Bronson,
There is a big romance, and here is where the film lags. The bathtub scene should have been left on the cutting room floor, and a few others trimmed. Gina Lollobrigida however is exquisitely beautiful in the thankless role of a woman living with an older, wealthy man (Paul Henreid), until Sinatra saunters into her life. Others in the cast include Peter Lawford, Dean Jones, and if you don't blink, you'll see the future Star Trek Captain Sulu, George Takei, complaining about his hospital food.
The WWII plot is about jungle combat with the Kachin native troops in Burma, with both the Japanese and Chinese as the enemy. Captain Reynolds (Sinatra) and his men are outnumbered, and break rules for the sake of survival. Reynolds is unconventional, sometimes brutal when necessary, and smart; it's a great part for Sinatra, and he makes the most of it.
There are wonderful vistas, filmed by William Daniels (the cinematographer for many Sinatra films), and the screenplay by Tom Chamales was based on his novel.
The direction by John Sturges is good in the action sequences, and Sturges was so impressed with McQueen's work, that he cast him in his next film, "The Magnificent Seven", and two years later in "The Great Escape".
Total running time is 125 minutes.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 27, 2005 | | Summary | OSS in Burma | Content
| A good shoot-em-up loosely based on the exploits of OSS Detachment 101 who organized the Kachin Tribesmen in Burma to fight the Japanese in WW2. Not an Academy Award winner but a good story and plot with Gina along to provide a distraction. Steve McQueen is good in his role as a young "hot-shot" and Sinatra does OK as the "leader" of the group. Good action/war movie. Worth buying. |
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