Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

MartinHafer This film is set in Europe during WWII and concerns a couple of American soldiers who fall for the same French girl. However, while the notion of two guys falling in love with the same person isn't particularly novel, how this is handled is.The movie is narrated, at times, by Frank Sinatra and is told from the viewpoint of his character, Sam. Sam is in charge of a unit of soldier and when they are in France, he falls hard for a gorgeous French lady (Natalie Wood). Unfortunately, this is not reciprocated as although Sam is very nice, she only sees him as a friend. Unfortunately for her, however, she soon falls for Britt (Tony Curtis)...and Britt is a grade-A heel and only is interested in using this sweet girl.This is a very good film. However, you really wonder how much better it might have been if the studio had been brave and cast the black actress, Dorothy Dandridge in the lead (as they originally intended). I am NOT complaining about Miss Wood's performance...she was EXCELLENT as a French woman. But the idea of having an obvious interracial romance would have made the film much more interesting and brave. As it is, Wood is supposed to be biracial but she really doesn't look it...and the film loses some of its punch. But it's still a good film and well worth your time...just not quite what it could have been. Sinatra is great in the movie, by the way...really, really good. And, Curtis plays an excellent fast- talking heel. Well written and unforgettable.

skiddoo Does anyone know if the racial story that turned out with no one getting the girl allowed it to be played in the South? Was the fact that Natalie really wasn't part black and was a big name make sure it was shown there? I think viewers today underestimate what it was like then and why they wouldn't want to risk profits by hiring a woman not thought to be totally white for a romantic role with men thought to be totally white. Putting it into the past, as in Show Boat, and far away also made it seem more remote and potentially less threatening. That was then but this is now, sort of thing.For some modern viewers it would have been horrible to see Natalie Wood act dead from drowning, knowing that's how she really died. For a woman who was afraid of water, she got wet a lot in the movies.

moonspinner55 Frank Sinatra made an awful lot of World War II pictures, though he never looked terribly convincing dressed in battle uniform (especially the helmet, which covers most of him). Here, he's a no-nonsense Lieutenant with the U.S. Army stationed in France, fighting the Germans as well as Corporal Tony Curtis, an educated, self-assured trust fund kid on the run from his life of privilege. They spar a bit before becoming buddies, but when Curtis quickly and skillfully steals Sinatra's girl away...well, war is hell. The girl is played by Natalie Wood--she's French by way of West Virginia and Philadelphia!--and there's some hesitant talk early on of her being from a white mother and a black father (it gives Frank momentary pause, but Tony thinks of her ancestry as a novelty). The European locations are well-chosen, though director Delmer Daves' staging is sometimes poor (Frank is struck by Natalie the first time he sees her--which is to say, the back of her head!). The battle scenes are also disappointing, hurt mostly by choppy editing, and when Sinatra and Curtis take on a treacherous plan of attack near the end, we're not sure why these two were picked (other than the fact they're the stars). Not a very good movie, but not a boring one either. Wood's accent is for the birds, but Curtis fills the bill nicely and Sinatra does a solid dramatic turn. His narration is overused, and he has more chemistry with the woman playing Wood's mother than Nat herself; but, for a wartime soaper, a fairly interesting occasion. **1/2 from ****

bkoganbing Kings Go Forth is one of, maybe the only, film about the Allied offensive in Southern France in late summer of 1944. Several divisions who were fighting in Italy under Mark Clark were sent to invade France from the south. The action as compared to the larger shows movie east from Normandy and north up the Italian peninsula was light as the Germans were retreating to protect their own borders. It was called the champagne offensive because it was as you see it with Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis, fighting one minute, and on a weekend pass the next.Frank Sinatra narrates the story with him as one of the protagonists. He's an army lieutenant and he's just gotten some replacements for his company, one of them being Tony Curtis. Curtis is a spoiled rich kid, a real smooth operator. But he turns out to be a good soldier and he and Sinatra become friends despite Sinatra being an officer and Curtis non-com. Then the two of them get interested in the same girl, Natalie Wood. She's an American expatriate living with her widowed mother, Leora Dana. Her father was a black man and they left the United States many years before to escape ruling prejudices. Ironic that they escape to France and then France gets occupied by the real prejudice merchants.The film is divided equally, half of it concerning the war and half of it dealing with the romantic triangle. For the second time in his career, the first being in Sweet Smell of Success, Tony Curtis plays a heel and does it well. Curtis was really coming into his own as a player and not just a pretty face. Kings Go Forth was filmed on the heels of his Oscar nominated performance in The Defiant Ones.Frank Sinatra gives one of his best screen performances in Kings Go Forth. None of the hipster slang, not the nebbish of his forties musicals, Sinatra plays a really good man trying to deal with his own inner conflicts about what he's been brought up to believe and the feelings he has for Wood. It's something different and Sinatra does it well.Natalie Wood was as beautiful as they come and Leora Dana as her mother who's seen too much of the world and is determined to protect her daughter has some of her best screen moments. Tony Curtis liked working with Natalie Wood very much in the films they made together, but he does mention in his autobiography it would have really been great if someone like Dorothy Dandridge had been cast in her role. It might have made Kings Go Forth better remembered today, as much as classic as Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.Elmer Bernstein did the film score and one of the themes was given a lyric by Sammy Cahn and became the song Monique after Natalie Wood's character. Frank Sinatra made a hit record of it though it is only heard instrumentally in the film. It's one of his loveliest ballads.Viewers should see the film before hearing Sinatra's record of it. The whole premise of the film is the plain Sinatra and the smooth Curtis competing for Wood. You hear old Blue Eyes sing Monique and you'll find it hard to believe why he didn't just sing that song. Why Natalie would have melted right away in his arms.