Never So Few

Never So Few finds Frank Sinatra as co-commander with Britisher Richard Johnson of a behind the lines detachment of Kachin native tribesmen, conducting harassing actions against the Japanese in the China-Burma- India Theater of World War II. Sinatra is working out of the Office of Strategic Services which in this case is run by General Brian Donlevy playing William J. Donovan in all, but name.

Sinatra keeps the hipster persona down to a minimum and delivers a good performance as the rather unorthodox commander of native troops. Of course he's confronted with a rather unorthodox situation when warlords with warrants from the Chinese Nationalist government in Chungking massacre Americans and Kachins for their supplies. Purportedly these were our allies.

In all of this Sinatra finds time to romance Gina Lollabrigida the kept woman of Paul Henreid a most mysterious person of influence and nurse Kipp Hamilton. Gina is a most entertaining diversion, but the real story is about the Chinese actions in World War II.

During the Fifties Chiang Kai-Shek was a godlike creature, a noble exile from Communism on Taiwan running the government we still recognized. Never So Few was a daring film for its time, fresh from the McCarthy years for daring to suggest the Nationalist Chinese were less than noble.

Actually what is described in Never So Few, independent warlords making deals with both sides is old business in the Orient. It was something our culture couldn't grasp, still can't in many ways.

Never So Few boosted the careers of three men in Sinatra's and Johnson's command. Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, and Dean Jones all of whom went on to substantial careers. For McQueen it was his first role of substance in a major motion picture.

I recall reading years ago that Hedda Hopper who always boosted Steve McQueen's career when she could in her column, claiming that while this was a good career move, he should avoid dependence on Frank Sinatra for his employment. McQueen being an independent sort of fellow anyway, probably would have come to that same conclusion on his own. Nevertheless he certainly did carve his own legend out in film history.

Never So Few is a decent war film of a little known theater of war for Americans and should be seen.

Although the profile mentions that Sinatra's character and his fellow agents are members of the OSS, this could use some elaboration. This movie is clearly an attempt to dramatize certain portions of OSS Detachment 101's exploits in the CBI during WWII. This is the only film I've ever seen that deals with a story involving the OSS that is based on any sort of factual series of events. Detachment 101, formed very early in WWII as an OSS Operations Group (OG), was responsible for hamstringing Japanese operations in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater along with the Kachin Rangers, native people whom they had trained and equipped and a host of other Allied special operations type units, many of which contributed to the lineages of later special ops units, especially in the US (Merrill's Marauders = 75th Ranger Regiment and Det. 101 being the root of lineages of both CIA covert operations units and Army Special Forces).

The story which most clearly sticks out here is the episode involving the discovery of warrants issued by the Chinese Nationalist government authorizing local bandit warlords to confiscate goods from anyone, including Allied forces. Although not quite right in the movie, these bandits attacked a group of Kachins, which brought the attention of US OSS agents. These agents, with their Kachin Rangers, attacked across the Chinese border, discovered the warrants and almost caused a major diplomatic incident between the US and Chinese governments, especially after the OSS agents turned a blind eye to the execution of the Chinese bandits by Kachin Rangers.

All in all, not a spectacular film and the love interest aspect a little odd in the middle of a war-zone, but still notable as the only film dealing with the subject of OSS OGs in a semi-factual way.

World War II along the Burma Road becomes a Rat Pack romp (well, two of them anyway: Frank and Peter Lawford) with Steve McQueen filling in for Sammy Davis, Jr. (after "Smokey" was written out of the picture for incurring the Chairman's wrath). Gina Lollobrigida makes full use of her talent, inhaling and exhaling deliciously. Brian Donlevy as General Sloan is puffy and florid from too many years of real-life drinking and carousing. Frank's goatee (which thankfully he shaves off later) is the worst beard since Clark Gable's Parnell, and rotten camera work shows off that ugly forceps scar behind Frank's ear which better cameramen went out of their way to avoid. The novel by Tom Chamales touched off quite a stink in 1957, accusing General Chiang Kai-Chek's mercenary bandits (oops, I mean Chinese Nationalist soldiers) of murdering and robbing American GI's. The film touched off an even bigger stink. A good cast wasted on a thoroughly stupid script with lots of ring-a-ding boozing between noisy battle scenes. BOMB rating, but if Jay, Dave and Ted Koppel are all showing reruns and you just can't sleep . . .

Skip it – This was supposed to be a starring vehicle for Frank Sinatra. But this is romance, not war. There's some combat in the beginning and in the middle, but a lot of nothing the rest of the way. Sinatra's got a different rat pack in this one, made up of youngsters Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. McQueen steals the show in one of his earliest roles. But he's not in enough scenes, and the only action scenes are the one's he's in. The title of the film insinuates that never before has so much been owed to so few. That's funny, because never before have so few of my expectations for a good action movie been met. 3.5 out of 5 action rating

An allied guerrilla unit led by Capt. Tom Reynolds (Frank Sinatra) deals with the Japanese army and warlord controlled Chinese troops out in the Burma jungle.

"In the hills of North Burma, gateway to the vast prize of Asia, less than a thousand Kachin warriors, fighting under American and British leadership of the O.S.S., held back 40,000 Japanese in the critical, early years of World War II. It has been said NEVER have free men everywhere owed so much to SO FEW".

Killer Warrants and The Unprecedented War.

Directed by John Sturges and featuring Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Peter Lawford, Brian Donlevy, Gina Lollobrigida, Richard Johnson and Paul Henreid. Never So Few it's fair to say has a iffy reputation, originally conceived as a rat pack war film, it has some great strengths and some annoying weaknesses. The story itself is great, a part of the war that deserves to have been portrayed on the big screen, but why the makers didn't exorcise the whole romantic thread remains not just a mystery, but nearly a film killer.

As lovely as Miss Lollobrigida is, her whole character arc, and the relationship with Sinatra's stoic Reynolds, is surplus to requirements. It serves absolutely no purpose to defining other characters or for narrative invention. This strand of the story carries the film to over two hours in length, without this strand it's a film of 90 minutes focusing on the brave souls who fought in the Burmese conflict. Which is what it should have been.

When dealing with the conflicts, both outer and inner, the film does excite. The wily Sturges knows his way around an action scene and all the efforts here are gripping. Cast are fine and dandy, with McQueen dominating his scenes, Johnson the class act on show, while Sinatra, once he gets rid of the fake beard, shows his knack for tortured emotion to the point you just can't help but root for him even when he's being pig-headed (not a stretch for old blue eyes of course).

Tech credits are mixed, the studio sets are easily spotted, but conversely so are the real and pleasing location sequences filmed in Ceylon. The Panavision photography (William H. Daniels) is beautiful, a Metrocolor treat, but Hugo Friedhofer unusually turns in a lifeless musical score. All told it's not hard to see why it's a film that divides opinions, it's very episodic and that romance drags it something terrible. But still strong merits exist and it at least gets the core of the real story out in the public domain. 6/10