Last night we watched a 1959 film neither of us had seen - Never So Few - because it had a blockbuster cast: Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Steve McQueen, Paul Henreid, Charles Bronson, Dean Jones, and Brian Donlevy.
Set in Burma during World War II, it was inspired by actual OSS and British officers who led Kachin tribal forces against the Japanese who had invaded Burma and threatened to invade British colonial India. Never So Few is set in the same theater of war as Bridge on the River Kwai but it’s not in the same league theatrically.
The scriptwriters grafted an unbelievable love story onto a war movie and, as we say in horticulture, the graft “didn’t take.” The plot has holes in it you can’t overlook, supposedly crafty experienced troops fail to post sentries and get bushwhacked repeatedly.
Reviewers weren’t impressed with Sinatra but liked McQueen’s work. The film lost money, and that tells you how weak the word-of-mouth was on the film. Don’t be conned by its glossy cast list, as we were, this film isn’t their best work.
