Thanks for the memories!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good movie but grossly overrated

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I understand this was directed by John Sturges but it's Frank Sinatra's movie all the way. Steve McQueen, in a supporting role, was a rising star at the time and constituted competition for the Chairman of the Board. According to the Presenter on TCM, here's how Old Blue Eyes handled the potentially disturbing relationship: "Here's how it works. I show up and say my lines, and if there's any light left over, you get it." McQueen was savvy enough to keep out of Frank's way. McQueen's part was supposed to be given to Sammy Davis, Jr., but the two had had a falling out and Davis was temporarily in the dog house.That's all okay. Sinatra was never noted for his reticence or his modesty. The problem is that he seemed at times to believe that his movie career could be carried along by the momentum provided simply by his presence. This is one of his lazier performances. (His better ones include "The Manchurian Candidate" and "From Here to Eternity.") The story has to do with Sinatra and his crew training Kachin tribesmen of the Burma highlands to wage war against the Japanese occupiers in World War II. The Kachin, for what it's worth, are well-known in anthropological circles. But this narrative, as simple as it seems, remains unfocused. There aren't any scenes of Sinatra's crew training the Kachin. You can't tell who is a Kachin and who is an ordinary Burmese.We can be sure that Gina Lollobrigida is not a Burmese. She's a glamorously made-up Hollywood star who is the mistress of Paul Henreid. After a brief period of emotional turbulence, she decides to run off with Sinatra. She doesn't sweat. The climate is that of a tropical rainforest and she doesn't sweat. Nobody sweats. Everyone's uniforms are clean and dry. Sinatra is outfitted in a faux military corduroy uniform and one of those AnZac hats with the brim curled up on the side. The shoulders are extraordinarily broad and the rest of the uniform loose and baggy. Watching him walk is a painful experience.There are some scenes of combat that are pedestrian but exciting anyway, even if they're just taken as a relief from the dreary love story between Sinatra and Lollobrigida.Nice photography by William Daniels. The score by Hugo Friedhofer is lush and romantic and eminently forgettable. You want a good war movie about battle in the China-Burma-India theater? Watch "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

"Never So Few" fails in so many ways; as a treatment of the Burma campaign in World War II; as a tough-nosed action picture; as an involving melodrama; and most especially, as a vehicle for star Frank Sinatra.Sinatra was too busy playing soldier and practicing his cool look to bother constructing an interesting character; a strange bitter vibe hangs over his performance. Oddly, it was another actor who managed to take the little "Never So Few" had to offer in the way of career advancement: Steve McQueen. Up to this point, he had done "The Blob" and TV, but his comfortable natural bearing around Sinatra's star wattage shows he could hold his own with the big boys, even when the script gave him little to work with.McQueen is Sgt. Ringa, a jeep driver who finds himself drafted for more dangerous duty when commando leader Tom Reynolds (Sinatra) takes a shine to his street-smart ways. Reynolds leads a small band of Kachin fighters in the hilly jungles of Burma, continually harassing a Japanese force many times its size."A regular Abe Lincoln in North Burma" is what rich merchant Nikko Regas calls him. Regas is part of the other story in "Few", the man whose girl (Gina Lollabrigida) Reynolds wants. The exotic Lollabrigida and the world-weary chain-smoking Sinatra are clearly meant to invite comparisons to Rick and Ilsa, and Paul Henreid cements the impression by playing Nikko as much the same character he was in "Casablanca".None of this comes together, though. In fact, the two parts fail to co-exist at all. You get 20 minutes of war followed by 40 minutes of earnest love talk, then back to the war. The war scenes are about as competently directed as an episode of "The Rat Patrol", with idiotically sequenced insert shots (like soldiers shooting up at people we then see falling in a river) and noble, servile Kachin dying with meek apologies to "Dua" Reynolds. War is hell for Tom, who loses both his monkey and his favorite gun caddy, a faithful Kachin who hands him a new automatic every time Reynolds empties a magazine on the enemy.The romance is even worse. Sinatra and Lollabrigida have no chemistry, she can't act, and director John Sturges' idea of story advancement is to focus on her bustline and hope you don't notice the dialogue. And what dialogue!Him: "I hanker for you alone."Her: "Why don't you go back to the hills and play with your popguns!"Henreid warns Lollabrigida he won't let her go then disappears for the rest of the movie, leaving Lollabrigida and Sinatra to kiss like dead fish in front of bad process shots.The film generates a bit of interest an hour or so in, when Reynolds and his men discover the Japanese are not the only force they have to fight. But the resolution of this angle is both trite and ugly, involving the wholesale slaughter of captured prisoners while the camera focuses on Sinatra, looking so sad his previously disapproving medic (Peter Lawford, better than usual here) has to pat his shoulder to let him and the audience know it's alright.McQueen at least mines his on-screen time to showcase his talents as an action man, and occasional scene stealer with the aid of handy props, like a slice of watermelon or a mortar. Competing with Charles Bronson, Brian Donlevy, and Richard Johnson as Reynolds' monocle-wearing British pal, McQueen hardly has to break a sweat.The worst performance here is Sinatra's, who just drips with self-importance, whether wearing an ugly goatee (Mitch Miller must have really got to him) or trying to sound like Hemingway with stiff lines like: "You have tasted the pain of wound in combat." Sinatra was not just good but great in parts where he allowed himself to project insecurity. But too often, when permitted to coast, he gave performances like this one, showcasing the boor he could be in life from time to time."Never So Few" drags for more than two hours, long enough to listen to four of his Capitol albums. Guess which is a better investment of your time.

Considering its high-powered cast (Sinatra, McQueen, Bronson, Gina Lollobrigida etc.) and its famous director (John Sturges), it's puzzling how this movie never got anywhere with the general public upon its release. It was a complete bomb. That's unfortunate because it really isn't all that bad. Some critics took exception to Frank Sinatra's weird-looking goatee, but mostly it was the mediocre performances and stale script that turned them off. Steve McQueen, however, fared better than the rest of his fellow actors. It was his first starring role in a major film and he made the most of it. His trademark independent streak and commanding screen presence were on full display and director Sturges took note of it all. He was soon casting McQueen in some of his most famous roles (e.g. "The Magnificent Seven", "The Great Escape"). As for Ms. Lollobrigida, she was never more beautiful than in this movie even while looking like she would rather be somewhere else. That might have been due to Frank's character slobbering all over her.The story is mainly about US Guerrilla warfare in Burma during some rough days in World War II. There's a heap load of blood and guts and the film's "body count" is staggering even for a war movie. Unfortunately, the grisly action never compensates for the weak script and run-of-the-mill performances. The rest of the cast includes Brian Donlevy, Paul Henreid, Dean Jones, and Richard Johnson; all fine actors who seem happy to be collecting a check for their services. "Never So Few" also had some 1950's style swear words in its dialogue that brought it some unwanted attention. Compared to movies of today, it's rather tame, to say the least. Despite its negatives, "Never So Few" is a good rental just for the opportunity to see Steve McQueen before he became a household name.

In and of itself, the idea of 97 lb. weakling Frank Sinatra playing an action hero is preposterous. I'm sorry but Mr. Sinatra might have struck a certain manly chord in a six hundred dollar suit, holding a highball glass and a smoldering Chesterfield but with his Hepburn neck and delicate shoulders he's miscast here. The plot, apparently based on some real life derry-do, is nonetheless implausible with Sinatra's ratpack jocularity trumping rank structure and cultural norms, as though he's holding forth at an after-hours Vegas smoker. The film further labors under sundry staging goofs and the otherworldly appearance of GinafrickingLollobrigida in a little black cocktail dress and stilettos. In the Burmese Theater of operations?? Oi! Suspiciously convenient for the Chairman of the Board, I must say. When Sinatra walks through a doorway and finds Gina in soft focus, heaving a throaty sigh and prancing around in those patent-leather pumps, I'm reminded of Billy Pilgrim rooting around on a chaise with Valerie Perrine in outer space. In one action shot, two trucks are running next to each other and the men in one truck are machine-gunning enemy troops by firing directly 'through' the other truck! No, I'm sorry Frank Sinatra is a little thin in the hips to be an action hero. Peter Lawford always looks like he's trying to keep up with Frank and Frank is delivering lines which would never fly except that he's Frank Sinatra. Basically a cartoon. What the heck were Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson doing in this movie?