Tetrady not as good as all the hype

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

trimmerb1234 USA/French co-productions are a rarity. But this serves its subject matter superbly well - that time when American soldiers in their hundreds of thousands were first fighters then feted liberators on French soil. As does the script - nobody is a stereotype, everyone has their own, believable, character. Perhaps the sense of authenticity came also from the short time, just 8 years, between the events portrayed and when it was filmed. This was not one author's or one scriptwriter's imagination - it must have been a vivid memory in the minds of tens if not hundreds of thousands of American soldiers. Equally vivid for the French who had seen occupation or collaboration then liberation. There is a certain graciousness and humanity in the treatment of the characters. Later and lesser writers and directors would portray such situations as simply the meeting of drunken animalistic soldiers with faceless whores and thieving tricky locals. There is a dignity and respect to this film which has all but disappeared in subsequent "war movies".Star that he is, was Kirk Douglas well-cast? I think not. Kirk Douglas portrayed even personified a particular type: given to action either outer or inner. Here he plays a far less certain character, not driven but drifting. Douglas was always Spartacus, even if the Romans couldn't spot him, viewers could every time. Perhaps this was a role for Mitchum - a mixture of integrity tempered by a degree of indolence.This is not a film packed with stars, it is packed with people, American and French - a tribute to the director, writers and cast.(British viewers might recognise a familiar face - Leslie Dwyer (here a quirky cameo Tommy with "just 5 teeth") later the grumpy child-hating children's entertainer in a '80's TV comedy series Hi De Hi!.)

pgi2141 I am amazed, and wonder why this movie is unavailable. I would love to get a copy, in any format, as I would be happy to see it over and over. I have not felt this way about many movie in my life. Over the years I have looked for it but always forgot the correct name. It did make a lasting impression on me as a young man.Does anyone know if this movie will become available soon? As the movie ends I wondered what would become of Teller, how would he move on? The poignancy of his dilemma has always come into my mind with a reading of Shakespeare's sonnets. Especially: How heavy do journey on the way When what I seek, my weary travel's end, Doth teach that ease and that repose to say," Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend." The beast that bears me,tired with my woe Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, As if by some instinct the wretch did know His rider loved not speed, being made from thee. The bloody spur cannot provoke him on, That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide, Which heavily he answers with a groan, More sharp to me than spurring to his side; For that same groan doth put this in my mind My grief lies onward and my joy behind. That is how Teller must have felt as he was shipped out to separate him from his love. His return to France after the war, his encounter with the officer who thought he had done him a favor,the wallpaper; all heartbreaking. Do not miss this movie- it can change one's life.As I said above, I cannot understand why this movie languishes in obscurity and wonder if anyone can provide an answer. I can only imagine some contractual problem must exist that does not allow this movies to be mass marketed like many of the other Kirk Douglas masterpieces.

wuxmup A low-key film with a fine cast. Unfortunately, it's so low-key as to seem nearly aimless for the first half. The pace and interest do pick up, however, toward the end.As World war II grinds slowly to a halt in Europe, an innocent French girl on the brink of prostitution and a cynical but lonely GI fall in love in the City of Lights - where, due to the war, the lights don't always work, A flaw, at least as the film plays on television, is that the French accents are sometimes hard to understand. And there are plenty of them.Though ten years too old for the role, not unusual for actors in war movies before the '70s, Douglas turns in a solid performance as Pfc. Teller, the wounded American soldier now stationed at an army headquarters in Paris. But it is the lovely Dany Robin, rarely seen in America, who deserves most of the acting credit for keeping the rather unfocused story interesting. Fernand Ledoux is adequately brooding and resentful. The eighteen-year-old Brigitte Bardot is already beautiful, but look sharp or you may miss her.The real scene-stealer here, though, is the slinky Barbara Laage, who shows herself to be a fine actress in very nearly her only American film. Too bad she breezes out of the picture a third of the way through.The on-location shots of Paris are also a plus in a film that sometimes flirts dangerously with soap opera. Not a classic or even a forgotten classic, but worth your time if bittersweet love is your cup of tea.

Karl Ericsson I saw this film on television in Sweden, when I was about twelve years old. Together with "The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp" (Pressburger/Powell), it was a film, I will always remember.The latter film, I have seen again and it is still as fine. This film, I haven't seen for thirty-six years now. I may be excused, if I reveal what I know of it, even if it means that I become something of a spoiler.It's all about a character, played by Kirk Douglas, who encounters a girl in Paris (just post-war WWII or even during WWII?) and is prevented by his well-meaning but nevertheless patronizing sergeant to do the 'right thing' for the girl and marry her.Years later he turns up at a resort of some kind, sees the sergeant there, quite by accident, and tells when asked about the girl, whom the sergeant thinks he 'saved' Kirk from, that the girl drowned herself.Then he visits a room, that the girl had told him about, in the same hotel outside which he met the sergeant. It was a room the girl had loved and in a voice-over you can hear her describe it as Kirk's stands there looking at it. I wept floods when I saw this and only 'Wuthering Heights' can hold a candle to this ending, when it comes to love between the genders.I have since only wept more, when seeing the ending of 'Elephant Man' but here the love is of a different kind.Would I cry today if I saw it? I don't know - it isn't available!!