The Young Lions

Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions depicts the lives of three men during World War II, a character study if you will. A very intriguing one as well.

The first of the three men is Christian Diestl (Marlon Brando), a member of the Nazi Party. At first, he has no complaints with the invasions and bombings he hears about. Once he sees firsthand the carnage and devastation his country was responsible for, he starts having serious personal conflicts. A role like this could have been schmaltzed up if not careful, but Brando makes it work. Not on a grand scale, but it's passable.

The second man is Noah Ackerman, played by Montgomery Clift. Noah is a feeble person, one who keeps very much to himself. That trait is practically scorned upon when he's sent away to serve in the army, and he becomes a frequent target of the other soldiers' tormenting. Much like the role of Christian, the role of Noah could have been an overly sympathetic role if written and/or performed poorly. Knowing Clift, he makes it work wonderfully.

The third of the trio is Michael Whiteacre (Dean Martin), a stage performer with an indifferent view on life. He's less than thrilled about being drafted, even more so at the thought of not living to see the end of the war. Yet he manages to form a sort of kinship with Noah, who is the complete opposite of Michael. He becomes a reliable person to Noah, a confidant if you will. Michael's hard edge begins to soften as the war wears on. Martin, impressive with his work in Rio Bravo the following year, is just as impressive here.

The Young Lions has its flaws (like that 167-minute running time), but it's a very good film. Brando, Clift and Martin give strong, fine performances in a film that's worthy of a look.

My Rating: ****1/2

Crossfire

During the late 1940's, anti-Semitism was unfortunately on the rise in the United States. Even after what happened earlier in the decade in Germany, there was still much discrimination towards people of Jewish faith.

Hollywood took note of it. In 1947 alone, Gentleman's Agreement and Crossfire were released. The plots for both were different, but both were strictly focused on anti-Semitism. Gentleman's Agreement was about a man posing as Jewish; Crossfire was about a man who was murdered because he was Jewish.

Crossfire is based on a book written by Richard Brooks (later famous for directing such movies as Elmer Gantry and In Cold Blood), however there was one major difference between the book and Edward Dmytryk's movie. The murder victim in the movie is Jewish; in the book, he was a homosexual. (It was changed to appease the censors.) Either way, both could make someone an immediate target of a hate crime.

Crossfire is quite good. I particularly liked the work by Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan and Gloria Grahame, all familiar faces to film noir. However, the flow of the narrative is a little flawed throughout, but that doesn't stop me from recommending it.

My Rating: ****1/2