movieswithgreg I'm rating this higher than I normally would. Instead of a 7, I give it an 8, on the strength of its written dialogue. Sure, I saw this on TV as a kid, then again in my 20s, both undoubtedly edited, but now watching it on TMC as a middle-ager, I see what the filmmakers intended -- a scathing anti-war, anti-military sermon packaged in the most saccharine, sugar-glazed package possible. I should have figured after I saw paddy chayevsky's name as screenwriter, since he's known as a sharp social critic. I didn't read the original book, but I bet it was darker than this film. The preachy dialogue can be a bit heavy-handed, not to mention lacking a little credibility as real humans speak, but it punches in the heavyweight intellectual class for A-list hollywood fare. It's both eloquent and penetrating and thought-provoking. Bravo.

JohnHowardReid NOTES: William Holden, originally scheduled to play the lead, was replaced at the last minute. The director, William Wyler, was fired by producer Ransohoff after ten days of shooting.COMMENT: If the role played by Julie Andrews were drastically curtailed - most of it is totally irrelevant to the main plot which we were dying to get back to - and if the leading man were replaced by someone more convincing than glum-faced, furrow-browed, glassy eyed James Garner (the role seems tailor-made for Gregory Peck) and a director with more verve and imaginative flair than Arthur Hiller was engaged (how about John H. Auer?), this would have had the makings of an entertaining film. Even now, some judicious cutting of the Garner-Andrews scenes would considerably improve it. (The U.K. version is certainly a step in the right direction, but at least another ten minutes could come out.) As it is, the fascinating behind-the-scenes story is all but suffocated by the surrounding romantic tedium. Melvyn Douglas and James Coburn make the most of their opportunities in support roles, but the rest of the large cast hardly gets a look-in, thanks to the relentless concentration on the Garner-Andrews story. One exception is Joyce Grenfell, who uses her comedy mannerisms to ill advantage in what seems to have been intended as a dramatic role. Production values are pretty ordinary, with stock footage helping out for the D-Day scenes. Incidentally, the plot gambit of the day's delay is too well-known to stand up to the extended footage with which director Hiller tries to milk these scenes. The black-and-white photography is mediocre, the sets have obviously made little strain on the producer's pocket and the music score is as often as not atmospherically inappropriate.

museumofdave Julie Andrews means Mary Poppins, right? And James Garner was the admirable star of The Rockford Files. And Arthur Hiller hasn't been much of a director, overall. So this film was a major surprise to me, an amazingly interesting examination of the American character, a trenchant satire, not on war itself, but on the glorification of war, a bitter screed about those in power who choose all kinds of reasons to send young men to death except the right ones--and it's a funny film, too, although when James Garner delivers a reasonable tirade about wartime death to a war widow in denial, I must admit to chagrin and then agreement: it's Paddy Chayevsky's brilliant script that makes this satire work--the direction is lackluster, the film a little too long, but it's probably more vital today than it was some forty years ago. Bad title, brilliantly acted, recommended!

DKosty123 Paddy Chevesky wrote some pretty good scripts. Auther Hiller directs with James Garner & Julie Andrews carrying the load here very well. James Coburn supports a talented supporting cast.This film sets up Garner in a character he plays often, a coward who is being asked to be a hero on D-Day. He naturally thinks the project is nuts as they want him to be the first on Omaha Beach with a camera. He becomes involved with British woman Emily (Andrews) & tries to convert her into a woman who could love a coward, in spite of her own standards.Where this film really breaks ground is one scene where Emily & Garner argue & he proceeds to call her a b* tch. In the mid 1960's, this was a rare event in films. I am not sure if because of the writer / director this line got through, but it is a rare time in film for Andrews to be called a b* tch.Garner has a top notch performance in this & Andrews is strong in this one too. It does have the Hollywood happy ending.