GamerTab That was an excellent one.

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

GazerRise Fantastic!

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

rightwingisevil sorry, i just couldn't finish it. this film sucks big time. the screenplay was so bad, the dialog so pretentious and boring, the sound track that tried so hard to make this film look patriotic, only turned it into a formulaic farce. the directing was just as terrible as there was nobody even gave a darn. why most of such movies involved American nurses would always cast beautiful nurses? did the casting agencies ever realize that these stupid arrangements only made them look more phony? this badly scripted film was a loosely knitted structure as a broken fish net that gave almost every one who played a role some crappy uninteresting dialog. i was bored and became so impatient to sit tight to let this film run its course. so many unnecessary dialog, unnecessary roles, unnecessary dialog, lousy scene after scene. this film was like directed by an old granny who just jabbered and blabbered uncontrollably. what a tiresome WWII film. yes, this film is so rare that only the couch potatoes would find it interesting and great.

Alex da Silva This film is based on the true story of Dr Wassell (Gary Cooper) who stood by his stretchered patients who could not walk and guided them to safety from Java in the face of certain Japanese capture.The film isn't exciting enough. There is never any tension and the story just phuts along and never moves up a gear. It is too long and we have a rather lame love story told in flashback that adds nothing to the proceedings. The reason for the five stars is the performance of Gary Cooper who keeps you watching. Other cast members are irritating, eg, Dennis O'Keefe who plays "Hoppy" and is plain horrible to the nurse that takes a shine to him, who in turn is completely stupid and an obsessive psycho. However, the most disturbing case of idol worship comes from Philip Ahn who plays "Ping" and has a very gay thing going on with his admiration for Cooper - he even helps to dress Cooper - what a homo! Overall, it's a disappointing film with some laughably bad scenes and Cooper has a catchphrase - "Good gravy!" - like most comedians.

Robert J. Maxwell This is a good role for Gary Cooper. He's tall, sun-tanned, speaks with what is supposed to be an Arkansas accent although it doesn't approach the saturation level of his Sergeant York, and is a humanitarian doctor with an inventive streak. He's also nattily dressed, but that's hardly worth mentioning since just about everyone in the movie is dressed in clean, pressed clothes. Combat has no effect on their grooming.Basically, Dr. Wassell, formerly an investigator of snail-vectored diseases in China, joins the Navy and is voluntarily left behind with a few nurses and a dozen or so patients too disabled to walk about the last ship departing the island of Java, threatened by the Japanese in 1941.The wounded are all sailors from the USS Marblehead and Houston, which were sunk in the battle of the Java Sea. The Japanese blew the American-British-Dutch-Australian force out of the water. That is to say, we lost, which is to say you will see multiple movies about the battle of Midway (we won) but absolutely none about the battle of the Java Sea.There are two scenes of violence. In the first, the hospital housing the wounded is bombed by Japanese planes. It's quite well handled. The ordinary war flick of the time would have multiple bombs falling at once, lots of outdoor models with paper-machie palms trees doing flips, and heroic Allies pumping machine guns up in the air. But DeMille doesn't do it that way. Everything is seen from inside a single hospital ward, the men and staff hiding under mattresses. There are only three or four bombs, with intervals between them, and they're nothing more than a long and eerie whistle before they hit. The first lands far away. The second and third are more of a jolt, and the last one blows in the windows, upends some of the hospital beds, and kills a patient. Instead of mindless action we get a scene full of suspense.The middle part of the movie involves a long and painful journey by trucks and other British vehicles across Java to another port. One man -- and his devoted native girlfriend -- run off the road in their jeep and find themselves surrounded by Japanese soldiers. "They no take prisoners -- in jungle." "I got an idea. Hand me that Tommy gun," he tells her, eyes blazing, and there is a fade out on Hoppy spraying lead around in the general direction of the camera. Sure, it's a cliché, but again DeMille spares us the shots of a thousand barbaric monkeys tumbling over as they charge the doomed couple.Gary Cooper, as I say, is neat. He manages to save the remaining wounded and link up again with his lost love, Lorraine Day. He's awarded the Navy Cross (I think) for his efforts.A long movie, but not a bad one for its time.

chisum This is an entertaining movie if somewhat dated ,still worth an occassional veiwing. Gary Cooper carries the film with a great performance showing him for the star he was. The cast is packed with good character actors and actresses,and is filmed in colour,based on a true story that De Mille heard on the radio as told by FDR. The story of how the doctor rescues some badly injured sailors in the Phillipines is told in a flagwaving way,with humor and tragedy side by side. One reveiwer asks about Hoppy a badly wounded soldier who is left stranded on the wrong side of a demolished bridge,the film shows the Japanese closing in on him and a nurse then they disapear. In C.B,deMILLES BIOGRAPHY he reveals that Hoppy did survive and at the end of the credits he told the film audience this fact.