More than a decade passed since the end of WW II, occasioning a little sober reflection. Shrewdly, Norman Mailer planted the word "naked" immediately into the title of his first novel, a bestseller about war, with no nudity involved. Of course, Hollywood had to do it, with action director Raoul Walsh at the helm. Raymond Massey is fine as Gen. Cummings, but his philosophical ruminations with subordinate Lt. Hearn (Cliff Robertson), which played a prominent role in the novel, are given short shrift here. For fans feeling cheated, a few crumbs of cheesecake (Lili St. Cyr, Barbara Nichols, etc.) are sprinkled into weak, pointless flashback sequences. The cynicism of those in command, and its ill effects on those they lead, was handled very much better the previous year in "Paths of Glory," adapted by the great Jim Thompson from a novel by Humphrey Cobb, a masterpiece of the war genre. Perhaps it inspired this tepid imitation by RKO Pictures as that studio faded out.
Review of The Naked and the Dead
