Tepid Korean War film, well matched to America’s tepid response to the war. An attitude of indifference that gives rise to one of the few impassioned moments in here. But interest in seeing how the fighting was treated at the time, at least from the vantage point of an Army Field Hospital (it’s the original M.A.S.H. Unit pic), is largely defeated by M-G-M production standards. Cinematographer John Alton hamstrung by airless soundstage exteriors meant to pass as real, not stylized, and writer/director Richard Brooks pulling away from combat & medical scenes to favor the supposedly breathless romance between Humphrey Bogart’s commitment phobic/battle-hardened surgeon and June Allyson’s marriage-fixated newbie nurse. (Less yin & yang than chalk & cheese.) The sole standout: always reliable character actor Robert Keith, CO & Surgeon, with more screen time than usual and making the most of it. Brooks tries to cover up what’s been missing with a big, compound action sequence right at the end with the entire hospital rolled up, packed and on the move as staff and injured are forced to split up so they can all reach the relative safety of a new location. But he’s all thumbs at putting it over. As if he forgot D.W. Griffith perfected parallel editing back in the ‘teens.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Brooks’ previous film, also with Bogie, DEADLINE - U.S.A./’52 (not seen here), is a newspaper drama with a much better rep.
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