The Nun and the Sergeant

A guilt-riddled gunnery sergeant takes a bunch of soldiers out of the brig for a mission during the Korean War. Along the way they run into a nun and schoolgirls and take them along.

This may look like a dry run for THE DIRTY DOZEN out of HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON, but it fails to measure up to anything interesting. It's a cheaply produced movie and the characters are sketchy caricatures with nothing interesting in the dialogue. Jerry Fielding's score is intrusive and annoying and cinematographer Paul Ivano's camera-work is competent. Anna Sten plays the nun in her last screen role and Robert Weber plays the sergeant in a one-note performance. While it is clear that the behind-the-camera talent were trying to make a story about redemption, they don't.

Despairing over the loss of a 19-year-old Marine fighting in 1951 Korea, gunnery sergeant Robert Webber (as McGrath) decides his next dangerous mission will be accomplished with a more expendable crew. From the brig, he rounds up a "dirty dozen" group of hardened criminals, exempting cowardly clerk Ken Miller as Kenny Miller (as Oliver Quill) from that description. The mission gets immediately complicated when the men must assume responsibility for beautiful Catholic nun Anna Sten (as Mary Joseph) and some pretty young Asian actresses dressed up like schoolgirls. Yes, you read that correctly, and they strip to their slips for a brief gratuitous swim. Mainly, there is a mutiny being planned by villainous Leo Gordon (as Dockman)...

The group must also deal with the dangerous environment. Sporting lovely false eyelashes in close-up, sister Sten becomes inured. Alcohol leads to the inevitable attempted rape. Directed by Franklin Adreon, this is one step up from a contemporary TV production; however, it is only interesting on surface levels and doesn't have much imagination or intelligence. Going down the cast list – Dale Ishimoto (as Pak) is the group's Korean guide, company cook Hari Rhodes (as Hall) sings spiritually, heavily accent Robert Easton (as Orville Nupert) brings along his pet snake, and handsome young Tod Windsor (as George Nevins) develops a romance with one of the girls. Of the other players, Valentin de Vargas (as Rivas) arguably gets the best part.

***** The Nun and the Sergeant (1/27/62) Franklin Adreon ~ Robert Webber, Anna Sten, Leo Gordon, Robert Easton

Korean War "actioner" has a group of Marine misfits yanked out of a military prison and sent on a mission behind enemy lines and running into a group of teenage female Korean orphans and their escort, an American nun. Bearing only the slightest resemblance to the far better "Dirty Dozen" made five years later, this muddled, cheaply made, poorly acted programmer has little to recommend it. Performances range from good (Leo Gordon does his usual fine job of villainy) to somewhat adequate (star Robert Webber, a usually good character actor but who can't carry the picture) to strained (Anna Sten, in her final film) to embarrassing (pretty much everybody else in the picture), all of whom are forced to recite contrived, insipid dialog. The few action scenes are poorly staged and unconvincing, and there's an uncomfortable scene in which the members of the squad get their hands on some liquor and have a drunken party with the young--VERY young--Korean girls, which ends up with the drunken girls slinking around and dancing quite suggestively and the horny GIs eying them lustily. Considering the fact that the girls appear to be no older than 14 or 15, it's in extremely poor taste, to say the least, and I'm actually surprised it didn't get cut from the picture.

All in all, this is a tired, slow-moving mess. Don't waste your time.

The Nun And The Sergeant casts character actor Robert Webber as a Marine sergeant who takes a bunch that have failed being a few good men and goes off on a mission in Korea. Anna Sten plays a Catholic nun who Webber and his squad meet along the way. That takes care of both title characters. What, you were expecting the reverse?

The obvious comparison to make is with The Dirty Dozen, but if you recall that was a mission authorized at some high levels. Webber's mission might well result in a court martial.

Despite finding Sten and a bunch of Korean schoolgirls on the way, Webber takes them along. I might have sent a couple of my troops back to escort them to safety. But bring them along. PUUUUUUUHLease.

When I wrote my review for The Dirty Dozen I said that no way would Lee Marvin take a psychotic along like Telly Savalas who nearly blows up the mission. That would be doubly true for Leo Gordon who might not be certifiable like Savalas, but doesn't like authority, and has a personal hatred for Webber. I wouldn't have sent Webber back though as one of the guards of the nun. He's got a powerful itch to be scratched and he thinks one of Sten's cute young virginal can do the job no matter how unwilling.

Anna Sten must have wished for the days of those Sam Goldwyn epics that never quite sold her as a star. This film is a waste of viewing time.