Good war movie, lousy love story

I have to agree . . . maybe they could've combined the characters of Margaret Fitch, the girl working for the Red Cross, and Carla . . . Gina isn't adding enough to the film, though she is most attractive . . . otherwise the movie is solid . . . a favorite of mine . . .

Just seen this for the first time and I have to agree. I loved all scenes that did NOT have Lollobrigida in them. No chemistry at all. I'll have to catch it from the beginning, but I saw most of it. Good movie.

I agree... we needed more McQueen and less Sinatra and Lollobrigida. They didn't convey any chemistry between them in the movie, and they were having a real-life long term "relationship" during 1958-59! This speaks poorly to their acting as well as their real relationship. Peter Lawford also was "involved" with Lollobrigida around the same time, but what are friends for?

And Sinatra was too busy playing cool (maybe to outshine the real King of Cool who was just hitting stardom?). Had Sammy played McQueen's role, as planned, The Chairman could have presided over yet another raucous Rat Pack get-together masquerading as a dramatic movie.

Watch 'Objective, Burma! (1945)' instead!

"If they had left out all the scenes with Lollobrigida, it would have been a much better movie. There was absolutely no chemistry between her and Sinatra. there was a big dead spot in the middle of the movie when he went to visit her. There should have been more scenes with McQueen and less Gina."

Well I don't think the war story was that great myself, but I agree with all your points.
The Sinatra - Lollobrigida romance just appeared to be a botched add-on, that really bore little relationship to the rest of the story. Could have and should have done without it.

The movie did come alive when Steve McQueen was around and I liked seeing Charles Bronson being a lot more verbose than most of his later characters were.