Dios es mi juez

The Rack casts Paul Newman in his third film as a returning prisoner of war who is put on trial for collaborating with the enemy during the Korean War. After the disaster of The Silver Chalice and his subsequent success in Somebody Up There Like Me, Newman's performance in The Rack assured his future stardom.

Making things triply worse is the fact that Newman comes from a military family. His father Walter Pidgeon is in the service, his brother was killed in Korea, and the brother's wife Anne Francis has stayed with Pidgeon. It was after a welcome home party for Newman that Pidgeon receives the word about Newman's court martial. Walter Pidgeon gives the best performance in the film, his scenes with Newman after he gets the news are what great acting is all about.

Prosecuting Newman is Wendell Corey and his defense counsel is Edmond O'Brien a good pair of cinematic legal adversaries if there ever was one. Also in the film is Lee Marvin who was a fellow prisoner and who is the original accusatory witness against Newman. Marvin's scene in the witness stand is also classic.

The Pacific Theater of World War II and later the Korean War put us against enemies of an oriental culture and the second one flavored with Marxism. Their view of prisoners was one radically different from the western one. Someone who didn't die at his duty and allowed himself to be captured was one worthy of contempt. It's why the atrocities that happened and more important the fact that the prison keepers never viewed what they did as atrocities. These were all new issues for the American public to face. It would come even closer to home during the Vietnam War.

The Rack is the story of one man who reached a breaking point while in captivity. Those points are not the same with every individual. That fact is brought out quite clearly in this fine film.

Never viewed this film until I noticed it was going to be shown on TCM and was very surprised to see that Paul Newman starred in this film. This story is about the treatment of American Soldiers during the Korean War and how their captives tortured our men with mental punishments in order to brainwash their thinking and find their weakness in order to take complete control over their mental thinking. Paul Newman, (Capt. Edward Worthington Hall Jr.,) played the role of an Army Officer under investigation and also a trial to determine what actually happened in the prisoner of war camp. Wendell Corey, (Maj. Sam Moulton), is the Army Prosecuting Attorney and Edmond O'Brien, (Lt. Col. Frank Wasnick) the Army Defense Attorney who both did outstanding acting defending their clients. Walter Pidgeon,(Col. Edward W. Hall,Sr.,) was the father to Capt. Edward Worthington Hall, Jr. who gave a great supporting role along with Anne Frances (Aggie Hall) who lost her husband in the Korean War. This is a great film to view and it clearly showed how many people who are tortured have breaking points when in captivity and questions everyone how they would be able to endure such treatment and whether they would be able to hold up.

I have to agree this is one of Pauls best movies and it never seems to come up when he is mentioned, the cast is also terriffic. I am sorry it has gone so unnoticed I can only think that it may have been set about the Korean War and that doesnt seem to get much attention.. I thought the acting was sincere and I was draw to this character that seemed to feel he lost his way by being human..

Paul Newman has impressed me in "Cool Hand Luke" and in this film his performance ranges from the "cool" to the frail man in the duration of the movie.

Among films based on courtroom trials this one is remarkable. It rates alongside Bruce Beresford's Australian film "Breaker Morant" and the British film "Term of Trial."

A major feather in the cap is the ending, which is a clever touch by the director Arnold Laven. Any other ending would have made the film less poignant.

The development of the relationship between Newman's character and that of Annie Francis' Aggie is again worthy of note. Lee Marvin's small role catches your attention though it is not his finest by any measure.

All in all this film should be given more publicity, as the theme is relevant today as it was when it was made.

Addendum to part 1.

Theres a scene where Paul Newman confronts his son. It brought to mind, an experience that brings home the costs of war. 1966, I had complete my combat medic training, and was waiting for my next class, pharmacology and compounding meds.

I was loaned out to the burn center, at Brook. Army medical center, Ft Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas.

Daily planes would arrive bringing young men, pilots whose planes had crashed, soldiers, marines who were engulfed in napalm, a jellied gasoline. And by far the worst, white phosphorous grenades, with faulty fuses that at times exploded as it left the throwers hand.

What was left looked more like 150 pounds of clay, then a human. All facial features, arms, hands vaporized.

I know how dreadful this sounds....but its the reality combat soldiers face, that I believe makes them more vulnerable to coercion.

I'm 74, and if I live to 174 I'll never forget the young wives, 19-24, thrilled to finally see their husbands, only to stare wide eyed, mouthing the right words, and only when they left the room....would they drop to the ground sobbing. The reality that a part of their psyche was just as horribly disfigured.

Yes, see this movie. Know, none of the gore is in the movie, but offered to help explain the movie. One other movie you must see is, "Johnny got his gun" directed by Dalton Trumbo.

Wars aren't just pork. Not a way to pay back, the folks in your district for getting you elected. They are dirty rotten nightmares, in which our sons and daughters will be ground into hamburger. Rember how gay the mood was as the south, sent their boys off for a 2 week war. Remember the depth of their disillusion?

Fight if we must. Only if we must.