LeonLouisRicci

Film-Buffs, Especially War-Film-Buffs, Consider this Among the Best "Hollywood-at-War" Movies...Ever.

It Certainly had Top-Talent...Cinematographer James Wong Howe, Composer Franz. Waxman, and Editor George Amy (Nominated for an Academy Award). Along with the Top Warner Bros. Production Staff.

Also, the Real-Time Proximity Background to Inspire, and it All Came-Together with a Smoothly Blended Film with Equal Amounts of Artistic-Affectations, Painful but Accurate Political Posturing, Resulting in a Successful Creation that was a Hit Across the Board.

Well, Almost Across the Board and Definitely NOT Across the Pond.

It was Banned for 7 Years in Britain Because it Felt Betrayed, Snubbed, and Disrespected...Why?

The Reality of the "Burma Theatre" of War was Largely Fought and Won by the British Army, Losing Many a Soul to Get-it-Done.

The Walsh-Flynn Film Barely Mentions That and its Conceited Insertion of American GI's as the "Heroes" in Burma is a Rare Oversight, Considering a Production of this Caliber...or was it a Deliberate Distancing for Unknown Reasons.

Nothing in Real-Time or Since has Offered a Satisfying Explanation. So it Remains the Film's Only Flaw...But at the Time, it was a Very Big and Totally Unforgiving Flaw and Remains So to this Day.

Deliberately Distancing from that Almost Fatal-Flaw, the Movie is Otherwise Battle-Field Accurate and Crafted Painstakingly Produced to Offer a "You Are There" Experience that is at its Most Difficult in the Genre of War-Movies.

Errol Flynn was so Busy Between Filming and Writing His 2nd Book, that Raoul Walsh put in His Autobiography that Errol Did Not Have Time to Indulge His More Infamous Hedonistic Hubris...paraphrasing...

"Errol was so committed to his book and our movie, he didn't drink like a fish, he drank more like a Gentleman...6 or so drinks a day, for Flynn that was damn near "Abstinence".

Note...Errol Flynn...Most Fans and Critics Agree, this is Among His Best Performances. He was then and Still is an Underrated Actor. In 1945 He was One of the Most Recognizable Men on the Planet, and a Buffo-Box-Office-Attraction. But, He Admitted He Had..."Wicked Wicked Ways".

Roger Corman in JD-Mode...Minimalist Trappings w/Some-Style&Spunky Amateur Actors

By 1958 Roger Corman's Reputation Preceded Him on the "Hollywood-Scene" Among the Back-Lots and Corrugated Confines that Passed as "Sets" in the B-Movie World where Corman's Savvy, Skillful Methods and Style Adjusting Raw-Talent into Something Semi-Hip, Call it "Instant-Art" Entertainment for the Drive-In "Neckers" and the "Rain-Coats at the Grind-House.

The Movies that Corman Made, and "Never Lost a Dime" were "State-of-the-Art" Trash that was Regularly Vilified by the Moral-Majority and "Rebel-Rousing-Self-Rightous" Folks (who gather on Sundays) to Show Solidarity. They were Convinced, or at Least Conscious that Movies, Comic-Books, and Rock 'n Roll were Effective Propaganda for "The Cause", were again Convinced that these Things and Other Youth-Targeted Pop-Culture were the Machinations of the "Devil-Incarnate" Funded by the Communists to Destroy America "From-Within".

Roger Corman, of course Knew All This, and Fought for His Rights, and His Fan-Base Rights to Party and March to Their Own Drum-Beat, and what a Powerful Drum-Beat it was. The Aforementioned Drive-Ins were Drawing Capacity-Crowds, Every Seat in the Sticky Floor of the Grind-House was Occupied, and Even the "Regular" Movie-Matinees were a Gathering of the New "Teen-Cult" with Pocket-Financing, a Rebelious, Revolutionary Battle-Cry, and the Numbers were "Legion".

"Teenage Doll" is Standard-Corman Movie-Making with Standard-Corman Production and His Marketing Skills were Ultra-Successful and Unmatched by the Many Imitators of His "Gonzo" Approach, but was Never Matched by any of His Peers, but Try They Did. There was a Handful that Made "Serious" Inroads but None Could Top Roger's Track-Record of "Razzle-Dazzle" Coated in Zeitgeist, Locked, Loaded, and Always Hit Their Target "Dead-Center". There were None in the "Game" of Exploitation that Exploited Like Corman. He is the Stuff of Legend and Folklore.

This Particular Movie is a Fast-Paced, Trash-Talking, Cats and Kittens, Full of Slang, Swaggeringly Defiant, with just Enough Sex and Violence Appeal to Titilate the Kids but Not Enough to Irate the "Code", All Done on the Fly and Don't Blink Because You Will Miss that Blurry Streak (look it's Corman) on His Way to the Bank, then Off to "Factory" to Churn-Out Another Roger Corman "Masterpiece".

Man Can That Man Entertain...With Nothing More than a Shoestring and Desire.

James Caan Dropped-Out just Days Before it Began...Michael Caine Filled the Void in the Last-Minute and Said...

"Reading the Script, on the plane over, I began to have 2nd thoughts but it was too late"...His Instinct Proved Prophetic.

Despite being Directed by the Great John Frankenheimer, from the Book by Populist Best-Selling Author Robert Ludlum...

Nothing seemed to Coalesce, and the Movie as a Whole is a Disappointment, Considering the Movie-Makers and the Source-Matrial Involved.

Hard to Describe What Went Wrong. It's an Intangible. The Ingredients Individually are Solid, but Fail to Mix Well and the Final Result is a Rather Mediocre Movie, with Sparks that Fail to Ignite.

A Germanic-Fantasy for the Future, Pay-Back Reparations for "War Crimes". A Covenant Conspired by 3 Generals that Heavily Funded WWII and Kept the Coffers Full of Cash.

The Great Burden of Guilt Forced the Generals to Steal Back some of the Money and Save it for Post-War Mending. Left to Their Children to Disperse Apologetically.

It's a Wild, Some-What Plausible Scenario that Ends-Up Worth 4.5 Billion-Dollars and the Story Begins.

The Movie Makes Use of the Unpredicable Events and Dynamics of the Covenant and the Children, All Bring International Intrigue, with a GlobeTrotting Back-Ground of Colorful Places Faced with Back-Stabbing Skullduggery Typical of the Genre.

But the End Result is an Uneven, Unexpected Film Distanced from what Could Have Been and Sputters at the Finish.

A Forgotten Film that is in the "Miss-Fired-Movie-Bin" with so Many Other Mediocre-Movies Made by More than Mediocre Talent...But Still is OK Enough to Make it...

Worth a Watch.