Robert J. Maxwell I understand this was directed by John Sturges but it's Frank Sinatra's movie all the way. Steve McQueen, in a supporting role, was a rising star at the time and constituted competition for the Chairman of the Board. According to the Presenter on TCM, here's how Old Blue Eyes handled the potentially disturbing relationship: "Here's how it works. I show up and say my lines, and if there's any light left over, you get it." McQueen was savvy enough to keep out of Frank's way. McQueen's part was supposed to be given to Sammy Davis, Jr., but the two had had a falling out and Davis was temporarily in the dog house.That's all okay. Sinatra was never noted for his reticence or his modesty. The problem is that he seemed at times to believe that his movie career could be carried along by the momentum provided simply by his presence. This is one of his lazier performances. (His better ones include "The Manchurian Candidate" and "From Here to Eternity.") The story has to do with Sinatra and his crew training Kachin tribesmen of the Burma highlands to wage war against the Japanese occupiers in World War II. The Kachin, for what it's worth, are well-known in anthropological circles. But this narrative, as simple as it seems, remains unfocused. There aren't any scenes of Sinatra's crew training the Kachin. You can't tell who is a Kachin and who is an ordinary Burmese.We can be sure that Gina Lollobrigida is not a Burmese. She's a glamorously made-up Hollywood star who is the mistress of Paul Henreid. After a brief period of emotional turbulence, she decides to run off with Sinatra. She doesn't sweat. The climate is that of a tropical rainforest and she doesn't sweat. Nobody sweats. Everyone's uniforms are clean and dry. Sinatra is outfitted in a faux military corduroy uniform and one of those AnZac hats with the brim curled up on the side. The shoulders are extraordinarily broad and the rest of the uniform loose and baggy. Watching him walk is a painful experience.There are some scenes of combat that are pedestrian but exciting anyway, even if they're just taken as a relief from the dreary love story between Sinatra and Lollobrigida.Nice photography by William Daniels. The score by Hugo Friedhofer is lush and romantic and eminently forgettable. You want a good war movie about battle in the China-Burma-India theater? Watch "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

thinker1691 This is a most unheralded Hollywood vehicle and yet it contain enough heavy weight stars to garner an entire shelf at the Academy Awards. The movie deals with that portion of World War II in and around what was then called Burma. (Today the world calls it Myanmar) Nevertheless, the small native Kachin tribe have been called upon to engage the Japanese army. Along with American forces they are a small, but formidable contingent who despite their numbers, become the banner of the film. "Never So Few" is the story of the Kachin and the American commander Capt. Tom Reynolds (Frank Sinatra) and his able assistant Capt. Danny Mortimer. Combating the superb Japanese forces and their attempts to conquer Indochina, creates many losses among the allies and prompts a need for a medical officer. Capt Grey Travis (Peter Lawford) joins their group as does a spirited Hell's Kitchen warrior, named William Ringer (Steve McQueen). Betrayed by the Chineese Government after they massacre American forces, Reynolds defies his own government, kills captured prisoners and invited a court-martial. During this same period he falls for beautiful Gina Lollobrigida who plays Carla Vesari a protégé of Nikko Regas (Paul Henreid) a rich entrepreneur. Brian Donlevy as Gen. Sloan orders Reynolds to come to headquarters to explain his defiance of orders. Dean Jones is Sgt. Jim Norby and Charles Bronson as Sgt. John Danforth along with Philip Ahn (Kung Fu) as Nautaung are superior in this movie. Each adds excellence to their respective characters, creating the cornerstone of a true Classic. Well done! ****

bkoganbing Never So Few finds Frank Sinatra as co-commander with Britisher Richard Johnson of a behind the lines detachment of Kachin native tribesmen, conducting harassing actions against the Japanese in the China-Burma- India Theater of World War II. Sinatra is working out of the Office of Strategic Services which in this case is run by General Brian Donlevy playing William J. Donovan in all, but name.Sinatra keeps the hipster persona down to a minimum and delivers a good performance as the rather unorthodox commander of native troops. Of course he's confronted with a rather unorthodox situation when warlords with warrants from the Chinese Nationalist government in Chungking massacre Americans and Kachins for their supplies. Purportedly these were our allies.In all of this Sinatra finds time to romance Gina Lollabrigida the kept woman of Paul Henreid a most mysterious person of influence and nurse Kipp Hamilton. Gina is a most entertaining diversion, but the real story is about the Chinese actions in World War II.During the Fifties Chiang Kai-Shek was a godlike creature, a noble exile from Communism on Taiwan running the government we still recognized. Never So Few was a daring film for its time, fresh from the McCarthy years for daring to suggest the Nationalist Chinese were less than noble.Actually what is described in Never So Few, independent warlords making deals with both sides is old business in the Orient. It was something our culture couldn't grasp, still can't in many ways.Never So Few boosted the careers of three men in Sinatra's and Johnson's command. Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, and Dean Jones all of whom went on to substantial careers. For McQueen it was his first role of substance in a major motion picture.I recall reading years ago that Hedda Hopper who always boosted Steve McQueen's career when she could in her column, claiming that while this was a good career move, he should avoid dependence on Frank Sinatra for his employment. McQueen being an independent sort of fellow anyway, probably would have come to that same conclusion on his own. Nevertheless he certainly did carve his own legend out in film history.Never So Few is a decent war film of a little known theater of war for Americans and should be seen.

Gornzilla Plenty of spoilers so be warned. The main point is, Steve McQueen stole every scene he was in.It's more hokey and not nearly enough camp. I reckon in this, The Age of Internet, every Tom, Dick, and Harry off-the-street can recognize sloppy casting (hey, all Asians look alike!) and bad sets (Burma jungles look just like California forest).I was watching Sinatra, with a beatnik beard, an Aussie hat, and his pet monkey, hang out with his best pal, an English Gentleman officer. A best pal always gets it, especially when they're a Fine English Gentleman with a Monocle (tm).Frankie kicks his beautiful red-headed girl to the curb for Gina Lollobrigida, and punishes Gina with his acting. I thought he was great in "The Man with a Golden Arm" but he's no Elvis in this one. Take the Elvis comment however you want to.Speaking of back monkeys, Frankie has a monkey on his back in this movie. Not the same kind of monkey as "Golden Arm", but this time he gets the monkey off his back. Well, the Japanese (fighting with American rifles and machine guns and driving American jeeps), kill the monkey. As Black Flag nearly said, "I've got a monkey on my back and it's not my imagination".The director, John Sturges best known for "The Great Escape", did us a favor and Peter Lawford wasn't Frankies best pal -- no hokey English accent. Oh, and word is, Sammy Davis, Jr was set to be in the movie. He had the gall to say he was a better singer than Sinatra. Sinatra kicked him to the curb, too.Dean Jones, the Shaggy DA, fights Charles Bronson -- who's playing a Navajo. I ask, "How come George Takei isn't playing a Burmese soldier? Oh, maybe this was made when Star Trek was on the air".Then Takei makes his appearance! This movie came out in 1959. Totally my mistake because Sinatra looked a little haggard.Whenever any of the Japanese, Italian, Chinese actors playing the Kachin natives of Burma were shot, they'd apologize to Sinatra for dying in their "me so horny, me love you long time" dialect.Eventually Frankie sneaks across the Burmese border, over to China. There were renegade Chinese soldiers, who slaughtered 34 American soldiers in Burma. This made Frankie mad. Very mad. So he takes the passed-out-drunk Chinese platoon hostage without firing a shot.The only shots fired are Frankie killing officers. He realizes he's in trouble for doing this, plus crossing a border, so he sends Steve McQueen out to slaughter the still drunk unarmed prisoners. Steve's glad to do it. It's no Mai Lai Massacre but it still brings in a "tsk tsk" from American GI Management and Frankie and Gina run off to be married, or as he puts it, "keep you pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen". Really.