Old Movies have still got it. Just a great old movie, I wanted to see the performance Bobby Darin got the nomination for best Support, and it sure was a fantastic performance. Tony Curtis was great fun in this movie.
The Power of the human mind. A great story illustrating the power of the human mind to try to protect itself from one's own deeply disturbing memories and experiences. With many of our country's warriors currently returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with their own private hell memories, this movie does a powerful job showing how war can affect the human psyche. Gregory Peck, as always, does a masterful job as the Psychiatrist trying to help troubled soldiers understand and deal with their demons. I do think Bobby Darin overplayed his part of the disburbed Airman in denial. For this reason, I rate this movie with 4 stars, rather than the 5 it should get.
Just what the doctor ordered This is a really enjoyable movie with good performances. I don't think they could get a cast like this together nowadays withount conflict on the set. Gregory Peck is as good as ever playing the title role. Tony Curtis is hilarious in a suuporting part. Angie Dickinson never looked better. Bobby Darin was up for an Oscar for his protrayal of a deeply trouble airman. I think the best performance goes to Eddie Albert as the troubled military staffer. Also, Robert Duvall puts in a fine show. It is fun and serious and extremely watchable.
Admirable movie, sort of like pre-Mash Mash, with good Darin performance I admire what this movie is trying to do, show some damage war does yet keep it entertaining. It's like what Mash was trying to do and it uses the same solution (mix comedic scenes with dramatic scenes) though not as successfully as Mash. The comedic scenes are more jarring than in Mash; it doesn't meld as well. For example they go from a scene with an anquished screaming mental patient to the hospital ward playing hide the salami...literally.
The most noteworthy thing is the oscar nominated performance of Bobby Darin. He really was good though not as good as his performance in Pressure Point. And his big flak juice scene is a tad over the top. He should have been directed to scale it back just a bit. Another scene of his that doesn't quite ring true is when he's sobbing in the psychiatrist's office but can't squeeze out a tear. He's dry as the Las Vegas desert. He's much better in his other scenes, esp the ones where he plays a drunk. Darin always played drunks well (in spite of never touching a drop in real life) as can be seen in the Stars Bar segment of his saloon act.
Overall worth seeing esp by Darin fans who are curious about his oscar nominated role, and who own a fast forward button.
David Miller's Best David Miller, a talented hack who started out "directing" shorts for MGM, those documentary-style featurettes that would run for six or seven minutes and you now see them presented as "One Reel Wonders" on Turner Classic Movies. Though Miller showcased Robert Taylor in BILLY THE KID and the Duke in FLYING TIGERS, by the 1950s he was primarily thought of as a women's director, a sub-par George Cukor, who reined in Joan Crawford in two of her more restrained vehicles, SUDDEN FEAR and THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO, but couldn't do much for Ginger Rogers in TWIST OF FATE nor Susan Hayward in BACK STREET (the remake).
Therefore it isn't especially surprising that, although it's pretty much an all guys picture, the role played by Angie Dickinson emerges as the most interesting part of all. She's the observer, the onlooker, whose vantage point into a chaotic military psych hospital we see all the action through. She's by turns bewildered, upset, angry, and finally supportive of Peck's attempts to change the future for a handful of his men. Angie's career had its ups and downs, but I don't think she ever had as sympathetic a director as David Miller, nor a part that better fleshed out her curious blend of modernity, toughness and compassion.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
