Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strong Cast, Great Cinematography, June 3, 2005
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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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Never so Few: A Visonary War Movie of Things To Come, November 21, 2000
In 1959,no one heard of Vietnam or the struggles with the Indo-China question,or at least the American public did not know much about the Far East and its complicated politics. The Excellent "Never So Few" really comes out of nowhere to become a topnotch war film and predicts the Vietnam War in some of its implications.The director John Sturges has always been a great action director, for this is the director that gave us the wonderful classic, "The Great Escape," among many very good action films and the action sequences in this movie are vibrant, real, and startling. The cast is excellent. Frank Sinatra has never been better save "The Manchurian Candidate," probably his best role and of course Maggio in "From Here to Eternity," which he won an Academy Award for.He is totally convincing here as the guerilla officer leader of the native forces in Burma with some "advisors" and the similarities are many to Vietnam, when the sides blurr and decisions are made out of necessities over military orders.Other standouts in the cast went on to become superstars. Steve McQueen steals many scenes he is in and gives portents of stardom to come. John Sturges uses him beautifully here and of course again in "The Great Escape." Others include Charles Bronson before he got the Death Wish, Dean Jones, Richard Johnson( One of Kim Novak's husbands for a short time but here and excellent actor), and Gina Lollobrigida, who brings the action to a stop and the romantic scenes don't ring as true as the rest of the film. But overall, "Never So Few" is an action film that holds up fairly well, telegraphs future movie stars, and has an epic stature it really earns. Sturges was one of our best action directors and "Never So Few" is one of his better efforts. Re-dicover it. A great movie of action and substance.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Frank Sinatra and his guerrillas take on a Chinese warlord, July 7, 2001
Captains Tom Reynolds (Frank Sinatra) and Danny DeMortimer (Richard Johnson) are fighting the Japanese in Burma during World War II. Ordered to take a "holiday" to Calcutta to find a doctor and get medical supplies for their group of guerrillas, they find Dr. Grey Travis (Peter Lawford) and a driver named Bill Ringa (Steve McQueen). But the two officers also meet war profiteer Nikko Regas (Paul Henried) and his mistress, Carla Vesari (Gina Lollobrigida). Although she is not responsive to Reynold's initial overtures, when she warms up to the captain when he is in the hospital after being wounded. When Reynolds returns to the field he has to put up with not only the Japanese, but a Chinese warlord who is stealing American supplies to sell to the Japanese. The main problem with "Never So Few" is the romance between Sinatra and Lollobrigida, which gets in the way of what is a more than decent story of O.S.S. operatives in the Burma theater. I know this is sacrilegious, but every time Gina came on screen, I went to make popcorn or get something to drink. There is really no chemistry between the two. Only when Sinatra is with his troops out in the jungle is "Never So Few" on the right track. This 1959 film, directed by John Sturges (who later directed McQueen in "The Great Escape"), is based on the novel by Tom T. Chamales.
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