The names of three of the actors in this film are probably not very well known today, Wendell Corey, Don Taylor and Nicole Maurey. Mickey Rooney, who is I hope remembered rightly got an Oscar for his role, and the film is extremely good because of its balanced and well written screenplay. The director is unknown to me, and Mickey Rooney directed himself in a gambling scene, and that scene alone is worthy of the best of Howard Hawks. The film is set towards the end of WW2 in Italy, and the first half is a psychological journey for three soldiers and a woman who has turned to prostitution to survive. She falls in love with a preacher, at first against his religious beliefs and when he discovers her past his disgust overwhelms him, and there are consequences to this for the men who serve under him. No spoilers but the love scenes when he is temporarily transformed by love are beautifully acted and moving to watch. Don Talor plays the preacher and Nicole Maurey the woman who needs love, and not to be used. Wendell Corey is brilliant as a man who cannot kill, and his psychological development is accurate and again moving. The latter part of the film is grim in its war scenes, and the futility of war is admirably conveyed. I am not a fan of most War films, but this joins the handful that I do admire and respect. I would give it a ten if it was not for the final words onscreen, focussing too much on cowardice and bravery. These men are just there, doing their best in a theatre of war and suffering, and in this film, it is the analysis of their inner selves that is paramount. The same story could have been equally told from the other side. Well worth seeing.
Review of The Bold and the Brave
