Les amants de l'enfer

The original story behind Force of Arms was written by Richard Tregaskis, war correspondent from World War II, best known for Guadalcanal Diary. Of course some would argue that Tregaskis borrowed a lot of the plot from the previous war that Ernest Hemingway chronicled in A Farewell to Arms.

Still it's a nice romantic story brought to life by the teaming of William Holden and Nancy Olson who did four films together back at this time. Nancy Olson in fact got an Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category for Sunset Boulevard which was their first film together.

After his company is relieved on the San Pietro front in the Italian theater, William Holden meets WAC Nancy Olson and a romance blooms. But it's back to the front, in fact Holden gets himself wounded twice during the course of Force of Arms.

Actual combat footage from the Italian campaign is used along with newsreels from the liberation of Rome where the climax takes place. There are good performances here also by Frank Lovejoy and Katherine Warren as the respective commanding officers of Holden and Olson.

This was Bill Holden's first great romantic role along the lines of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. It's a harbinger of what we would later get from him in films like The Bridges of Toko-Ri and Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.

It's a sadly neglected film, one of Bill Holden's better films and should not be missed.

It's been tough fighting in Italy. Sgt. John 'Pete' Peterson (William Holden) and his men are getting pulled out for five days after a terrible battle. He meets WAC Lt. Eleanor MacKay (Nancy Olson). Maj. Blackford (Frank Lovejoy) has a battlefield commission for him. He gets closer to Lt. MacKay and soon has to go back to the front.

This movie is divided between love and war. The love part has a melodramatic romance with some limited heat. She's a good girl on the rebound from a trauma. He's been in the thick of it. The romance is rather old fashion. The war part has some functional battles with a mix of real and staged footage. The fighting is somewhat realistic with many friendlies killed.

It would be easy to pass off Force of Arms as just another post-WWII action/romance movie until you're a few frames into viewing it. Surprisingly realistic with actual combat footage interspersed with filming. Strong yet sensitively-understated performances by Holden, Olson, and, in a supporting role, Frank Lovejoy. An inspired and superior script helps convey the chaos of combat, its effects on those who are scarred by it, and the powerful force of love that can somehow emerge in the midst of the sheer will to survive. A classic that feels as real in 2017 as when it was filmed.

Directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) with music by the great Max Steiner (King Kong, Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, Treasure of the Sierra Madre) The script crackles with great dialogue, William Holden is the best I've ever seen him, Nancy Olson is able to deliver the most romantic lines with real emotional honesty--not an easy thing to do. The idea here is a kind of bleak existential gallows humor mixed with a deeply felt love story. It also brings up PTSD. All the actors are at their best and believable. The photography mixes real combat footage well.The war attitude is soldiers wanting to do a job because they feel a responsibility to their brothers-in-arms and their loved ones back home. It's a real gem and I'll never forget it.

I really liked this movie. I fast forwarded through the love scenes though. I am a Holden fan and I seem to like his snide comments he always seems to make. His comments are usually like "gallows humor". In times of stress everything seems to take on a different view or meaning. I also liked where Holden seems to exhibit PTSD. He talks about the horror of the battlefield and his men dying for no reason. I liked this because I thought the US Government did not want anything but us the good guys and the enemy the bad. Most war movies show us never getting hurt and the enemy all dying, What tipped me off was the word "San Pietro". John Huston made a movie called that and it was banned by the Government and not shown because it showed people actually getting killed. Lastly, all the equipment looked real and used in the real manner even down to the mail room! Usually I can find many errors in guns and ammo. Another good movie to watch is, "Pork Chop Hill" with Gregory Peck. You actually see men using body armor and guns and ammo used in the proper manner.