Never So Few

...who were never so few and however were never so brave -that's the first lines of the movie- and ends up with the glorification of the individual US officer.Frank Sinatra plays the part of the officer who proves us that rules are made to be broken and orders not to be executed. Thanks to a good cast (Richard Johnson,Steve McQueen,Charles Bronson)this is watchable ,in spite of an unambitious directing by a director (Sturges John) unable to enhance the splendid landscapes he films.Also handicapped by a dismal love interest ,where Gina Lollobrigida is decorative and pointless(her first gesture is to" reveal her charms" when she sits down at Sinatra's table).

There are three well done battle scenes in this movie. The scenery is fabulous. Gina Lollobrigida is gorgeous. All the secondary characters are well acted, including Dean Jones, Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen. The bad news is that the script and lead actors (Sinatra and Lollobrigida) are terrible. The movie mixes an absurd and unbelievable romance with a series of clichéd and unbelievable war situations. This may not be Sinatra's worst acting job, but of the ten or so movies I've seen him in, he has never been so wooden and dull. It seems as if he walked onto the set, did his lines in one take and went out to the nightclubs. Sinatra fans will probably enjoy the movie. Everybody else, not so much.

"Never So Few" is a bad film. While it's supposed to be about the guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in Burma during the war, too little of the film is devoted to this and way too much to a stupid and overly talky romance. Think about it...in Burma is an Italian bombshell (Gina Lollabrigida)...in the middle of Burma...yes, THAT Burma! Not only would such a woman NOT be in Burma, the fact she's an Italian (and we WERE at war with Italy at the time) never seemed to matter to anyone. Too often instead of action, we see Miss Lollabrigida in fancy designer gowns or naked in a bathtub! Heck, you'd have a hard time even remembering it's a war picture...so much is devoted to this silly and limp romance. As for the hero, Frank Sinatra, he just seemed kind of bored by all this...as did I. The bottom line is that Sinatra made a ton of great films...and eventually he had to make a stinker...and this one is it.

...who were never so few and however were never so brave -that's the first lines of the movie- and ends up with the glorification of the individual US officer.Frank Sinatra plays the part of the officer who proves us that rules are made to be broken and orders not to be executed. Thanks to a good cast (Richard Johnson,Steve McQueen,Charles Bronson)this is watchable ,in spite of an unambitious directing by a director (Sturges John) unable to enhance the splendid landscapes he films.Also handicapped by a dismal love interest ,where Gina Lollobrigida is decorative and pointless(her first gesture is to" reveal her charms" when she sits down at Sinatra's table).