Starring
Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Steve McQueen,
Richard Johnson, Paul Henreid, Dean Jones, Charles Bronson, Philip
Ahn, Brian Donlevy, Robert Bray, Kipp Hamilton, George Takei, James
Hong. Directed by John Sturges. (1959/124 min).
AVAILABLE
ON BLU-RAY FROM
Review
by Mr. Paws😺
Steve
McQueen is the coolest guy who ever lived. It's been scientifically
proven and anyone arguing otherwise is probably a Flat-Earther, too.
Ever since Mom & Dad brought took me to see Le Mans eons ago, McQueen has been one of my heroes. Whenever one of his old
movies showed up on TV or a new one arrived in theaters, I'd be
there. While I acknowledge he didn't really have a ton of range, McQueen
was always the coolest guy on the screen...and he knew it, which somehow made him even cooler.
But
not even Steve McQueen was born cool. He had to learn it somewhere, and I'm
certain one of his mentors was director John Sturges. If The
Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape is where McQueen
graduated to being the King of Cool, then the first film he and Sturges did together,
Never So Few, might be considered his training ground.
Frank
Sinatra is actually the film's star, playing Tom Reynolds, a maverick
captain who commands a eclectic troop of OSS soldiers and Burmese
natives during World War II, fighting the Japanese by attacking
their outposts. In between raids, he woos a wealthy trader's high
society girlfriend, Carla (Gina Lollobrigida). Sinatra's charming and
Gina is gorgeous, of course, but their love story is pedestrian and
slows the story to a crawl.
 |
| To his consternation, Frank realizes he is out-cooled. |
However, whenever
Reynolds is with his team in the jungle, Never So Few
is unpredictable, exciting and often pretty intense (Reynolds
shoots one of his own mortally-wounded men because they have no
doctor or morphine). Surrounding him is a great cast,
including Charles Bronson as a tough-as-nails fighter (of course),
Peter Lawford as a reluctantly-recruited doctor, Richard Johnson as
Tom's closest friend and a young Dean Jones playing way against type.
But
even though he's essentially a peripheral character, McQueen steals
every scene he's in. Never So Few isn't his first film, but it
is where he's just beginning to hone the persona that would
be his bread & butter for the rest of his life. As
newly-recruited Corporal Bill Ringa - who Reynolds admires for his
brashness - we can catch early glimpses of the devil-may-care "Cooler
King," the earnestness of Vin Tanner and even some of Frank
Bullitt's unflappability.
So
God bless John Sturges for helping Steve McQueen learn how to be
Steve McQueen. He's easily the best part of Never So Few
and even Sturges knew it at the time, which is probably why they
worked together two-and-a-half more times (the 'half' being 1971's Le
Mans, which Sturges eventually quit). The movie itself pales in
comparison to Sturges' best work, but as a harbinger of things to
come, it's quite fascinating.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
TRAILER
KITTY CONSENSUS:
NOT BAD. A MUST FOR McQUEEN FANS
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