Customer Reviews

Kings Go Forth [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Frank Sinatra nad Tony Curtis star as two GI friends who both love a young french girl played by Natalie Wood (who keeps loosing her accent during different scenes). The the three of them cast in this forgetable film is worth three stars by itself

Sinatra seem too old to play Wood's love interest. Curis seem too perfect in this role as the blues playing GI in the thick of war.... and Wood-see last paragraph

The world war two melodrama is soapy at best. AS I said before, there are very few suprises in this film, except for the acting of Sinatra and Curtis who outshine the script

Foe Sinatra and Curtis fans only!

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

I had been wanting to see this movie for a long time. I rented it the other day, and I'm so glad I did. This is Frank Sinatra at his best. He is wonderful as the loving, tender Sam. He's so sweet to the beautiful, yet fragile Monique, the girl he deeply loves. This movie is one of honor, character, integrity, and true love- traits all seen in Sam. This is also a very bold movie, especially for the 1950s. Sam's undying love for Monique is lovely, even after she tells him her father was a Negro. He ponders this, but his love for Monique stands strong. This has become one of my favorite movies. It's a touching story about true love, and I highly recommend it.

Do you REALLY want to watch "The most challenging love story of our time?" I asked myself that after watching the trailer for KINGS GO FORTH. It's the price I pay for watching the trailers before the movie. Figure they'll give me a hint about what the movie's makers wanted us to think about the movie, give me a clue about their motives.

There were a bunch of reasons for popping the dvd out of the player then and there. KINGS GO FORTH was directed by Delmer Daves, who was in free-fall career decline in 1958, the year the movie was released. One of the factors contributing to the decline was his growing tendency to be late to the game on the big trends - KGF is about a forbidden love, and it's forbidden because the woman involved had a black father. If this had been made a decade earlier, back when movies like `Gentleman's Agreement,' `Pinky,' and `Cross-Fire' were breaking the ground on racial prejudice it would be different. By '58 it was a relatively safe topic, and, fair or not, that makes a big difference.

Also adding to the `you don't want to watch this' feeling was the cast. You can argue, and probably convince me, that Frank Sinatra was the greatest singer ever pressed on vinyl. Different story when you talk about his acting, though. Great in `From Here To Eternity,' intolerable in `Tony Rome.' Sinatra's two co-stars, Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis, weren't any more promising. Worst of all the movie took its title from the Bible. As a general rule movies that take their names from the Bible take themselves very seriously, and want their audience to do the same. So you've got a `hot' topic that was topical a decade earlier, a sense of righteousness that usually makes social-conscious movies a drag, and a trio of less than sure-fire stars.

With all that stacked against it, I'm happy to say I thought this movie was okay. Sinatra is in Maggio mode here, the odd-man out in a love triangle he shares with Wood and Curtis. Sinatra and Curtis are in the same army unit in the picturesque south of France, fighting the Germans during the week, pitching woo at Wood during the weekend. The last act resolves a crisis in the love triangle and introduces a plan by Lt. Sinatra to break the stalemate between the U.S. and German forces, both of which are groaningly predictable. Wood's character is a little too perfect, a little too saintly and innocent to be convincing, but she does the best that could be expected with the role. Curtis, as the charming rogue who cuts in on and supplants Sinatra, is okay. KINGS GO FORTH isn't quite as daring a statement it believes itself to be, but it's solid enough entertainment.

Put ol' Blue Eyes in a vehicle where he never sang and usually you got a rather forgettable performance. In such cases, it was best to put him in a role where, as the old country song went, all he had to do was "ack natcher'ly". You'd never know that from this effort, though--where he played an Army officer competing for the love of a beautiful French girl (Natalie Wood) with his dreamboat sergeant (Tony Curtis). Curtis' looks and charm sweep the girl off her feet, but it's clear that Sinatra has more to offer her in what really matters. But the balloon really goes up when Wood's mother reveals to both men that her late husband was African-American, making their daughter a mulatto. This causes Sinatra to do some soul searching centered on the fact that his upbringing had a certain amount of quasi-racism in it that he'd never really questioned until now. His character is the tough-guy sort where slurs make a guy seem tougher, ethnic ones among them. As for Curtis' reaction, I don't want to give too much away. Except for the fact that this film shows Sinatra--a man whose main talents were in another branch of entertainment, holding his own with two of the American screen's best talents.

Sinatra , Curtis and Natalie Wood put out

a great performance. Romance and action.

This is one of the lesser known Natalie Wood films but she is always a pleasure to watch. The story line attempts to handle one of the major prejudices of the time against a WWII background but stumbles a little. If you want to see a good war movie this is not it. Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis carried their roles very well except they were not very kingly. The picture quality of the film is very good. All in all this is a good film if your looking for a little drama rather than an action movie.

I remember watching this movie when I was a only seven or eight and being totally ticked off that most of the film was set away from all the action I loved. "Hey, we're fighting the Germans. Forget this French chick!"

Now watching this film all these years later I am nearly overwhelmed with how mature and complex Kings Go Forth is. This could have easily sunk to the level of a simple minded morality play; but the interplay of likable and flawed human characters raise this film to be a story for thoughtful adults.

Racism is a theme; but it is only one of several. We have a rich kid/poor kid dynamic. We have sexual jeolousy. We have a central character who struggles to not only to do the right thing but to act with a nobility he knows is not natural for him. We have a irresponsible character who is sauve and socially graceful who knows exactly what he is even though he is a true hero in many ways. We have a French girl who is actually American--very much American in the sense that she is the product of a uniquely American melting pot. But she lives in exile because she is also ahead of her time. She so desparately wants to be worthy of her true homeland and is crushed when she finds out the hope she has set her heart on is false. She also knows that she failed to "dance with the one who brought her" for a golden boy whose promise was untrue.

On top of all this is the larger drama of loyalty and duty in war. How at the end Sinatra comforts and forgives the buddy he promised to kill as death seemingly was about to consume them both. Deaths both Sinatra and Curtis come to accept as a price of the mission.

Sinatra was rarely better than this. Wood breathes live into a role that is quite wooden on paper. While Curtis acts his butt off playing the cad we end up feeling sympathy for. (It has been Tony Curtis' great fortune and curse to be in films where he is overshadowed by actors who were not just good but great. We are dazzled by the performances of these great actors so much that Curtis' own contributions are obscured by the glow. But he also has to be ranked as one of Hollywood's most accomplished and skilled actors.)

Kings Go Forth is an excellent film. It is overlooked and deserves more. It is both complex and subtle. You will think about these characters for a long time.

I have always loved this movie. It is a wonderful drama and the cast is over the top with talent. One other, very important reason I love this movie, is that my dad is in this movie. He plays a German officer. He helped authenticate the military uniforms warn by the actors. For helping do this, the director offered him a bit part....my dad is a decorated veteran of 2 campaigns. WWll, and Korea! So it has always been a family joke that dad defected during the war...
Sincerely,
D.L.

I really enjoyed this movie. It is sad in some parts, but you really get into the characters.

I am an all time lover of Frank's. This movie is one of his best i must say. It is one of his movies that came from a book. Frank, Natalie Wood, and Tony Curtis are all in this dramatic movie with a lot of interesting turns. Look into this movie it is a great one.