Kings Go Forth (4 stars)

Kings Go Forth, from 1958, is a World War II romantic drama starring Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood.  Directed by Delmer Daves, this film, which flips back and forth between romantic drama and wartime action, is tender and touching and very bittersweet.  It's one of many Frank Sinatra films our family owns, and since there is enough action in it to keep a 20-year old boy entertained, my son recently put in a request that we watch this one.

While Paris is being liberated in 1944, Allied troops are marching through Southern France as they prepare to drive the German troops from the nearby mountains.  One of the soldiers being welcomed by the grateful French people is Lt. Sam Loggins (Sinatra).

Sam's outfit has just received a new recruit---communications man Brit Harris (Tony Curtis).  A fun-loving, womanizing show-off, Brit is described by Sam as a smooth operator, who knows all the angles.

While on a weekend trip to Nice, Sam meets a beautiful young woman, Monique Blair (Natalie Wood), and he is soon quite smitten with her.

Although Monique at first declines Sam's request for another date, she ends up seeing him again and introducing him to her mother as well.  Frank begins to live for his weekend visits to Nice, and he becomes quite close to both Monique and her mother.

Much to Sam's surprise, he learns that Monique is, in fact, an American, but that she has lived in France all her life.  Monique's conversations are liberally peppered with references to her late father, and Sam remarks that her father must have been a very wise man; however, when Monique reveals that her father was a black man, Sam is quite taken aback. Without even acknowledging Monique's words, he leaves her home and heads back to his base, where in addition to the war he is fighting with the Germans, he begins fighting a personal war as well.

Having grown up detesting black people, Sam has a hard time coming to terms with the fact that the woman he loves has black blood in her.  Eventually, though, he realizes that Monique's race doesn't matter to him, nor does it change his love for her.

While out on the town, Sam and Monique run into Brit, and in short order, Monique---who has already told Sam she thinks of him as nothing more than a friend---and Brit have eyes for only each other, leaving Sam odd man out.  Brit asks Monique to marry him, and she happily says yes, but how will Brit, who is not nearly the man Sam is, react when he discovers the truth of Monique's parentage?   The answer to that question, as well as the resolution to the battle taking place in the mountains, will play out in the balance of the film.



Kings Go Forth is a very bold (for its time) film.  While today we (most of us anyway) would think nothing of Monique's revelation, in 1958, that storyline had to be quite unsettling to audiences, especially when the film's lead character ended up not having a problem with it.  I applaud every person involved in this film for pursuing this very worthwhile story. Without question, Kings Go Forth is another of the many films which clearly shows that Frank Sinatra, indeed, could act.  He's wonderful here.  I completely love his character and the way in which Frank brought him to life.  My heart was breaking for Sam as he dealt with the pain of unrequited love.  I'm not overly familiar with Tony Curtis, but I thought he was super in his role as well.  Natalie Wood was beautiful and sweet, and she did a great job with the French accent.  She played her part perfectly, as did Leora Dana, who portrayed Monique's mother.

The Elmer Bernstein score of the film is lovely.  It includes a portion called "Monique's Theme," and while the film features only an instrumental version of that beautiful piece of music, lyrics were written for it, and the song, entitled "Monique" was a hit for the velvet-voiced Sinatra.



In addition to the romantic storyline, there is the war side as well.  The film is liberally interspersed with battle scenes, all of which are realistic and quite tense.  All these things combine to make an extremely solid, 4-star film, which I highly recommend.

The film is out on DVD, plus it's also on the TCM schedule for Saturday, June 23rd, at 4:15 a.m. (ET).    I hope you are able to catch it.

Happy viewing!!

The Defiant Ones (4 stars)

The Defiant Ones, from 1958, is an exciting racial/prison drama starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier.  Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, this film was originally supposed to have Marlon Brando in the Tony Curtis role; however, according to what I learned from Robert Osborne, Mr. Poitier was Mr. Kramer's absolute first and only choice for the role of Noah Cullen.  Because Poitier had another commitment at the time, filming had to be delayed; by the time they were ready to begin shooting, Brando was unavailable, so the role went to Tony Curtis, who, I think, did a totally fantastic job.

A truckload of convicts is being transported to a work farm, where the prisoners will work as part of a chain gang.  Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier), a black man serving an 8-year prison sentence for assault and battery, and John Jackson (Tony Curtis), a white man serving a sentence for robbery, are shackled together.  Though the two men completely despise each other, the right arm of Cullen and the left arm of Jackson bind them together; when the truck they are riding in is involved in an accident, the two men make their escape. 

Try as they might, Cullen and Jackson are unable to break the chain binding them to one another; therefore, though each man would prefer to travel in a different direction, they have no choice but to compromise and work together.  Over and over again---as they navigate a fast-moving river, as they climb up from a deep pit, as a lynch mob comes at them, as the lawmen hunting them grow ever-nearer---the two men must put aside their racial differences and support one another.  Eventually, as the men grow to respect each other, a friendship is formed.

This is an amazingly acted film.  Both Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis were wonderful in their roles; in fact, both men received a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for their work---a first nomination for each man.  It certainly seems to be that the loss of Marlon Brando was absolutely not a detriment to this film.  It worked beautifully with Tony Curtis in the white man role.

When the credits appear at the beginning of the film, both Curtis and Poitier's names are listed before the film title.  According to Robert Osborne's wonderfully informational snippets, this was the first film of Mr. Poitier's in which that happened.  And it happened at the request of Tony Curtis, who felt that Poitier's contribution to the film was just as great as his own.  Perhaps that seems like a no-brainer to us now; however, back in 1958, with the racial situation being far different, it was probably quite unexpected for Mr. Curtis to have made that request.  I'm glad he did, though, as he was correct---Sidney Poitier was just as much the star of the film as Tony Curtis was.

The Defiant Ones is really an amazing movie---well-acted, well-directed, and featuring the kind of bold storyline to which I tend to gravitate.  I definitely highly recommend it.  Although I'm not entirely certain the film is out on DVD, TCM will be airing it Friday, February 17th, at 2:30 p.m. (EST).

Happy viewing!!