Glendon Swarthout's brutal, excellent novel receives a handsome, intelligent, and staid Hollywood adaptation---toned down and with a happier ending and less savage sense of irony. Robert Rossen isn't able to keep the film moving. His direction is heavy and without pace, almost formal---a mistake in a story where desperate people are pushed so hard they crack up. The screenplay is relatively faithful to the book but smooths off the rough edges, as expected in an early 60s Hollywood feature. What results is a digest of the book, with themes turned into talking points conveyed through on-the-nose dialogue, especially in the new material at the end.
As usual in his later roles Gary Cooper conveys pained dignity, but he's too old and difficult to accept as a coward. A 40-something Jimmy Stewart, with his reserves of neurosis, or Henry Fonda, whose rectitude could shade into unbending mania, would have been better choices. Rita Hayworth is perfect as the middle-aged woman of ill-repute, while Van Heflin is impressively scummy but not physically imposing enough as Sgt. Chawk. Tab Hunter convinces as a careerist Lieutenant but can't convey seediness. The other soldiers are one note and less vivid than in the book, which is more worth your time.
As usual in his later roles Gary Cooper conveys pained dignity, but he's too old and difficult to accept as a coward. A 40-something Jimmy Stewart, with his reserves of neurosis, or Henry Fonda, whose rectitude could shade into unbending mania, would have been better choices. Rita Hayworth is perfect as the middle-aged woman of ill-repute, while Van Heflin is impressively scummy but not physically imposing enough as Sgt. Chawk. Tab Hunter convinces as a careerist Lieutenant but can't convey seediness. The other soldiers are one note and less vivid than in the book, which is more worth your time.