blakesleylodge

If Streisand had just stopped for a moment, and said to herself, this is ridiculous, I'm too old, and too female, to play a convincing boy, then we could been spared this farce. Most of the time is spent yelling at the screen, they think she's a boy?! You've got to be kidding. What if she had directed it, thrown away the songs, and cut thirty minutes, maybe there's a good film in there somewhere. It's painful to watch, and then suddenly, after about an hour, tedious. The acting is overwrought (after all, who is there to tell the leading lady to cut it out?); and Streisand is all wrong. Don't get me wrong, she can act, just look at "What's Up Doc", a grossly underrated film. But this is a mess.

Directed by the always interesting André de Toth, from a Melvyn Bragg script; both leads are on top form, ably supported by Green and Andrews. There are longeurs, but the worst part is the ending. Two experienced soldiers fail to take off their enemy uniforms before surrendering to British troops? Hardly.

Worth a look if you have the time/opportunity, but it's not in the same class as 'The Dirty Dozen', not least because the minor characters are (with the obvious exception of the nurse played by Vivian Pickles) are pretty sketchy. But it does show a side of the English, mostly hidden from foreigners, their cold-hearted ruthlessness.