This film is based on the true story of Dr Wassell (Gary Cooper) who stood by his stretchered patients who could not walk and guided them to safety from Java in the face of certain Japanese capture.
The film isn't exciting enough. There is never any tension and the story just phuts along and never moves up a gear. It is too long and we have a rather lame love story told in flashback that adds nothing to the proceedings. The reason for the five stars is the performance of Gary Cooper who keeps you watching. Other cast members are irritating, eg, Dennis O'Keefe who plays "Hoppy" and is plain horrible to the nurse that takes a shine to him, who in turn is completely stupid and an obsessive psycho. However, the most disturbing case of idol worship comes from Philip Ahn who plays "Ping" and has a very gay thing going on with his admiration for Cooper - he even helps to dress Cooper - what a homo!
Overall, it's a disappointing film with some laughably bad scenes and Cooper has a catchphrase - "Good gravy!" - like most comedians.
The film isn't exciting enough. There is never any tension and the story just phuts along and never moves up a gear. It is too long and we have a rather lame love story told in flashback that adds nothing to the proceedings. The reason for the five stars is the performance of Gary Cooper who keeps you watching. Other cast members are irritating, eg, Dennis O'Keefe who plays "Hoppy" and is plain horrible to the nurse that takes a shine to him, who in turn is completely stupid and an obsessive psycho. However, the most disturbing case of idol worship comes from Philip Ahn who plays "Ping" and has a very gay thing going on with his admiration for Cooper - he even helps to dress Cooper - what a homo!
Overall, it's a disappointing film with some laughably bad scenes and Cooper has a catchphrase - "Good gravy!" - like most comedians.