This flick was in heavy rotation on TCM recently; I guess because it was Steve McQueen's big break. He does a fine job, as does Charles Bronson, but "NSF" is a perfect unintentionally funny, entertainingly bad movie. When Frank Sinatra was genuinely interested in playing a sympathetic and vulnerable character in a top-notch movie, he was most excellent. "The Manchurian Candidate" is one of the best films ever. But most of the time his ego was totally out of control, and that's definitely the case here. He looks like the 98-lb weakling "before" in Charles Atlas's body-building cartoon ads, and is laughably unconvincing as a jungle warfare commando. Frank weighs about 120 lbs here, and there's good reason why he never took his shirt off in his flicks. He's skinny, but not in shape. Don't get me wrong, he went through an entire telephone book of gorgeous women, so he clearly had what it takes in real life. But watching him play a Lee Marvin-type guy just doesn't work, not even for a second. He looks very scrawny in his fatigues and wears an immaculate bush hat with one brim turned up on the side, Australian-style, along with possibly the worst beard in movie history.
Frank's romance with Gina Lollobrigida is pretty comical, although it's not meant to be. Gina plays a kept woman being employed by a wealthy war profiteer, but he conveniently drops out of the picture whenever Frank's around. Gina is stunning, but is a terrible actress. Luckily, she knows how to breathe deeply while wearing low-cut bodices. Frank's romantic patter is no more convincing than his tough-guy banter: "I'll keep you barefoot and pregnant and living on the edge of town." Of course, a world-class beauty steeped in luxury would immediately fall head-over-heels for such a smooth line. Frank was one of Hollywood's greatest ladies' men, so he fully realized the silliness here, but he played it straight and never winked at the audience. Throughout the entire movie, Frank is able to frequently switch back and forth between the jungle and Gina's hotel suite. Not a bad deal.
"NSF" is based on a WWII novel written by Frank's character, and it's probably an interesting book, but the movie fails to do it justice. He's a U.S. military adviser training Burmese Kachin tribesmen to wage guerrilla warfare on the Japanese. There's a lot of great exterior shots of the Burmese countryside and cities and temples and monuments, but everything else was filmed on Hollywood sets, presumably so the Chairman of the Board could hit the LA bars immediately after completing his scenes for the day. So the combat scenes are excruciatingly and distractingly fake-looking. One big moment is when Frank and his men paddle silently downriver to a huge Chinese encampment in broad daylight. Hundreds of soldiers, and every last one of them is in a deep and restful sleep, including the sentries. They're all piled up on top of each other, even though they have plenty of room all around, and seem to enjoy napping in an enormous cluster. Frank's men surround them and they meekly surrender when Frank orders them to. Much to their regret, because Frank later orders them all shot as a demonstration of his ruthlessness.
The Kachin are appropriately servile and grateful to their Great White Saviors. They actually apologize to Frank when they get shot and have to die in his spindly arms. One of them gets badly wounded and the unit doesn't have any medicine or a doctor, so Frank shoots him to put him out of his misery; just like you'd do to a loyal dog. At least the poor guy doesn't say "Thanks, Frank" before the Chairman pulls the trigger. Even Mr. Sulu from "Star Trek" is there and plays pretty much the same part as he later does in "The Green Berets", another inadvertent howler.
Anyway, this flick is well worth the time, although not for the reasons its makers intended. I only gave it a 6, but for entertainment value it really rates much higher. Bad-movie fans are guaranteed to find every moment enjoyable in a perversely satisfying way.
Frank's romance with Gina Lollobrigida is pretty comical, although it's not meant to be. Gina plays a kept woman being employed by a wealthy war profiteer, but he conveniently drops out of the picture whenever Frank's around. Gina is stunning, but is a terrible actress. Luckily, she knows how to breathe deeply while wearing low-cut bodices. Frank's romantic patter is no more convincing than his tough-guy banter: "I'll keep you barefoot and pregnant and living on the edge of town." Of course, a world-class beauty steeped in luxury would immediately fall head-over-heels for such a smooth line. Frank was one of Hollywood's greatest ladies' men, so he fully realized the silliness here, but he played it straight and never winked at the audience. Throughout the entire movie, Frank is able to frequently switch back and forth between the jungle and Gina's hotel suite. Not a bad deal.
"NSF" is based on a WWII novel written by Frank's character, and it's probably an interesting book, but the movie fails to do it justice. He's a U.S. military adviser training Burmese Kachin tribesmen to wage guerrilla warfare on the Japanese. There's a lot of great exterior shots of the Burmese countryside and cities and temples and monuments, but everything else was filmed on Hollywood sets, presumably so the Chairman of the Board could hit the LA bars immediately after completing his scenes for the day. So the combat scenes are excruciatingly and distractingly fake-looking. One big moment is when Frank and his men paddle silently downriver to a huge Chinese encampment in broad daylight. Hundreds of soldiers, and every last one of them is in a deep and restful sleep, including the sentries. They're all piled up on top of each other, even though they have plenty of room all around, and seem to enjoy napping in an enormous cluster. Frank's men surround them and they meekly surrender when Frank orders them to. Much to their regret, because Frank later orders them all shot as a demonstration of his ruthlessness.
The Kachin are appropriately servile and grateful to their Great White Saviors. They actually apologize to Frank when they get shot and have to die in his spindly arms. One of them gets badly wounded and the unit doesn't have any medicine or a doctor, so Frank shoots him to put him out of his misery; just like you'd do to a loyal dog. At least the poor guy doesn't say "Thanks, Frank" before the Chairman pulls the trigger. Even Mr. Sulu from "Star Trek" is there and plays pretty much the same part as he later does in "The Green Berets", another inadvertent howler.
Anyway, this flick is well worth the time, although not for the reasons its makers intended. I only gave it a 6, but for entertainment value it really rates much higher. Bad-movie fans are guaranteed to find every moment enjoyable in a perversely satisfying way.