Copyright 1956 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at Loew's State: 11 October 1956. U.S. release: October 1956. U.K. release: 4 February 1957. Australian release: 28 February 1957. Sydney opening at the Regent. 8,421 feet. 94 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A somewhat prejudiced and standoffish Young Southerner finds true comradeship in the U.S. Army.
COMMENT: Fox's 64th CinemaScope feature is somewhat disappointing. The novel has undergone several important and basic changes for the screen which have considerably weakened its vitality, its originality and its moral theme. It was Gwaltney's contention that war, despite and because of its horror and brutality, could do some good on the individual level, namely it could awaken a social conscience and an awareness in a previously selfish person who lived only for himself (shades of "The Best Years of Our Lives").
But this all-important theme has been completely dropped from the film, whereas the war scenes themselves (which now have no reason for existence other than one-dimensional shoot-em-up heroics) have been retained. Aside from Crawford's powerful performance as the neurotic Grimes, the film has little to offer beyond the competently routine and mediocre conventional.
SYNOPSIS: A somewhat prejudiced and standoffish Young Southerner finds true comradeship in the U.S. Army.
COMMENT: Fox's 64th CinemaScope feature is somewhat disappointing. The novel has undergone several important and basic changes for the screen which have considerably weakened its vitality, its originality and its moral theme. It was Gwaltney's contention that war, despite and because of its horror and brutality, could do some good on the individual level, namely it could awaken a social conscience and an awareness in a previously selfish person who lived only for himself (shades of "The Best Years of Our Lives").
But this all-important theme has been completely dropped from the film, whereas the war scenes themselves (which now have no reason for existence other than one-dimensional shoot-em-up heroics) have been retained. Aside from Crawford's powerful performance as the neurotic Grimes, the film has little to offer beyond the competently routine and mediocre conventional.