Kings Go Forth

Plot synopsis:
In the final year of World War II, units of the United States Army are in the foothills of the Alps between France and Italy, trying to dislodge a unit of German soldiers from a supply post in the middle of a small village. 1st Lt. Sam Loggins (Frank Sinatra) is in charge of a reconnaissance unit that has just lost its radioman. A truckload of fresh young soldiers arrive, one of whom, Corporal Britt Harris (Tony Curtis) admits to radio training and experience—Harris is immediately appointed the unit's radioman by Loggins.
Harris reveals himself at once as a lady's man and a schemer, acquiring girlfriends, food, and other luxury items. Corporal Lindsay (Edward Ryder), in charge of the unit's paperwork and logistics, reveals Harris' story to Loggins: Harris is the son of a wealthy textile mill owner in New Jersey—in order to avoid criminal charges of trying to bribe a member of the local Draft Board with a car, Harris has "volunteered" for combat duty in Europe. Harris does show bravery while rescuing a group of men trapped in a minefield and while attacking a German bunker single-handed, but Loggins still has his reservations about the man.
The Colonel (Karl Swenson) grants Loggins and his unit leave in the seaside town of Nice. While walking by himself on a quay, Loggins is attracted to Monique Blair (Natalie Wood) -- they go to dinner, and she explains she was born in America, but has lived in France since she was a small child. She's unwilling to go out with Loggins again. Loggins ask her to meet him in the same cafe the next week at 8PM. The next week, Loggins waits at the cafe, Monique doesn't show, and he walks out despondent, only to be asked to have a drink by an older American woman who has apparently been waiting for him. He finds out it is Monique's mother, who was checking him out, he passed, and she takes him to her palatial home to join Monique. The two spend a great deal of time together each time Loggins gets his Saturday night pass. One night he tells her he loves her, and Monique finally reveals to him that she is afraid to get involved with a US soldier because her now-dead father was a Negro, and she has seen the general bigotry all American soldiers seem to have. Loggins is confused and leaves, not sure about his feelings.
After a week of anguished consideration, Loggins decides to put aside the former prejudices he would have had about Monique's parentage, and goes to see her. She and her mother are delighted to see Loggins. Loggins invites Monique to go out on a date with him. They end up going to a smokey jazz cafe, where they are surprised to see Harris play a fantastic jazz solo on a trumpet, to the acclaim of the entire French crowd. Harris joins Loggins and Monique at their table, and Loggins is left on the sidelines as Harris and Monique are immediately drawn to each other. Harris and Monique dance closely late into the night. After Loggins takes Monique home, she asks Loggins to tell Harris about her Negro father.
Back on surveillance duty of a town where the Germans have set up, Loggins does so, and it doesn't seem to bother Harris. Then the Germans begin shelling their observation position. After three days of shelling, Loggins suggests to Harris that they should infiltrate the village on a covert mission to observe from a church tower in the middle of town; Loggins goes in to see the Colonel who says he'll pass the idea on up to Headquarters.
The next weekend, Loggins and Harris return to Nice to visit Monique. Once again, Loggins is forced to the sidelines as the handsome and smooth-talking Harris takes over. Loggins returns to his hotel room alone. Harris and Monique stay out most of the night. When Harris returns to the hotel, he tells Loggins he's asked Monique to marry him, and she has said yes. Loggins is shattered, but he puts on a brave face. He tells Harris about the paperwork he will need to fill out to get the army's permission to marry. When they return to their unit, Harris immediately asks for the marriage permission form. Two months pass, and Harris still hasn't received an answer from the army on his request to marry. On his way to report to the Colonel, while talking to Corporal Lindsay, Loggins finds out that Harris had indeed picked up the completed paperwork 3 weeks earlier. In fact, Harris had told the corporal that the whole thing was a gag. Loggins is furious when he hears this.
Thereafter, the Colonel tells Loggins that Headquarters has approved the covert operation of Loggins with Harris as his radioman—Loggins asks for a few hours leave for both of them to take care of some important personal matters in Nice, to which the Colonel agrees.
Loggins and Harris go to the Blair mansion, and Loggins forces Harris to admit to Monique that Harris is not going to marry her. Monique runs away in tears. Harris tries to explain himself to Loggins ("it was a kick"), and Loggins punches him out. Loggins then goes out to find Monique. It turns out she had tried to drown herself, but a fisherman fished her out of the water while she was still alive. Loggins tries to talk to her, but she doesn't want to talk to him.
Back at the US Army base, Loggins and Harris prepare for their mission. Soon after leaving, Loggins tells Harris he is going to kill him. Harris responds that reaction "works both ways". They eye each other suspiciously and cautiously. However, Loggins clarifies that Harris won't 'get it in the back'.
On the mission, they encounter and kill a German soldier together. The duo establishes themselves at 2 AM in the church tower, calls in, and reports their observations, especially that a hidden section of the village contains an enormous German artillery/ammo dump. Loggins sends an order back to the base to begin a bombardment at 4 AM that will certainly destroy most of the village. They leave the tower, and are soon discovered by a German patrol. Harris is shot by the Germans and dies after Loggins drags him out of the line of fire, but Loggins is pinned down. The German officers, panicking at the thought of American soldiers in the village, order an immediate evacuation. Hearing this, Loggins grabs the radio and tells the US artillery to begin firing right now. Shells fall on the village and the ammo dump, and everything blows up.
The movie ends with Loggins relating how he was found under the rubble still alive by US troops, and brought to a hospital, where his right arm was amputated. He had gotten two letters from Monique. In one of them she says that she has learned that Harris was killed. She also tells Loggins that her mother has died. When Loggins is finally released from the hospital after many months, he decides to go to Nice to visit Monique one last time before returning to the States. He finds that she is now heading up a school for war orphans. She invites Loggins to come into one of the classrooms. As a tribute to Loggins and all the American soldiers who fought to free France, the children sing a song of appreciation. During the singing, Monique and Loggins look earnestly at each other. Will their romance bloom once again?

Tags: romantic, melodrama

Review:
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.
The whole premise of the film is the plain Sinatra and the smooth Curtis competing for Wood.
Its a good war movie and a great love story about a triangle between Wood, Sinatra and Curtis.
Obviously Wood does not remotely look half black (as she is supposed to be) and her French accent leaves a bit to be desired but she is beautiful, Curtis is handsome and Sinatra plays quite well the man whose beauty lies within.
This looked like an important picture with big stars (Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood).
However, the interracial theme is really not all that important to the story, as the themes of Sinatra's alienation, Wood's infatuation and Curtis' narcissism are probably elements familiar to MOST of us.
I would, however, like to touch on what I believe is an unfair criticism of the film; i.e., that Natalie Wood is not convincing as someone of mixed race.
Blonde, blue-eyed Cameron Diaz is Swedish and Cuban, and has said in interviews that her father's skin is black and that it is very likely her children would be.I thought Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis were just great in this movie, as was Leora Dana as Natalie's mother.
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).
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).
Pleasing and enjoyable story about love , race and war with a great trio : Sinatra , Wood and Curtis.
Loving triangle , hormones and war rage in this sensitive story set against the backdrop of WWII France .
Toward the end of World War II, two American soldiers 1st Lt. Sam Loggins (Frank Sinatra) and (Cpl. Britt Harris Tony Curtis) fighting in Southern France become romantically involved with a young, American woman called Monique Blair (the role of Monique was originally written with Dorothy Dandridge in mind) .
At the end the soldiers take on a dangerous assignment behind enemy lines with unexpected consequences .This wartime movie picture is an enjoyable tale with an interesting characterizing about a few characters , tragic drama and evocative outdoors from French Riviera , including some war scenes .
The film utilizes an oft-used storyline of the war movie genre which has two soldiers in love with the same girl .
And there I was, crying and loving it."Kings Go Forth" is actually a slightly late in the game WWII flick that shifts attention at first to luxuriating soldiers in the south of France just as the war was ending.
Natalie Wood in one of many great roles between "Rebel Without a Cause" and "West Side Story" is rather perfect, except maybe her French accent.
The other lead, the main character Sam Loggins, is played by Frank Sinatra, and Loggins also loves Blair.
And it's the worst and best of love, too, with an ending just slightly hanging in mid-air.Director Delmer Daves pulls off a lot of great, nicely felt films.
And don't be put off by the first twenty minutes or so when the establishing scenes seem like just another good war film.
The female roles are equally well filled: a lovely 19-year old Natalie Wood plays a young mulatto American raised in France who comes between Army “buddies” Sinatra and Curtis, while 35-year old Leora Dana is cast as Wood’s proud middle-aged mother (she must have quite impressed Sinatra because she was in SOME CAME RUNNING too – as Arthur Kennedy’s wife).The film – backed by a fine score from Elmer Bernstein and including a jam session featuring Curtis and real-life jazz musicians – is well enough made scene by scene and certainly well acted, but the effect is slightly diluted by the unnecessary and ultra-soapy coda (Sinatra losing an arm, Dana dying, Wood gathering together and teaching war orphans – but especially the corny children’ song at the very end).
The film is much more of a romantic melodrama than it is a war movie, but the few action sequences therein are good and well spread out throughout the film.Delmer Daves may have been best renowned for his Westerns – but his very first shot as a director had actually come via a war movie, DESTINATION TOKYO (1943), and he eventually returned to the same territory intermittently with PRIDE OF THE MARINES (1945), TASK FORCE (1949) and, finally, KINGS GO FORTH itself..
KINGS GO FORTH (1958) is an excellent war drama with Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood and directed by Delmer Daves.
Sinatra and Curtis are in the same army unit and there is a love triangle with a young and beautiful Wood who also possesses an important secret.
Natalie Wood is the girl with a black father,torn between the man she loves and Frank Sinatra-the one who loves her and understands her..
Frank and Natalie's roles are well done-the surplus of war scenes detracts a bit from the love story and the ending is a surprise, but it's a great film.
This film takes place during WW II in Southern France in 1944 almost at the end of the war.
Frank Sinatra plays the role as a First Lt. Sam Loggins who is a war veteran and he is given a new assignment to try and destroy and remove the Germans in Southern France.
Besides fighting the war, Sam Loggins goes on leave in town and meets a charming young gal who he seems to fall in love at first sight, this gal's name is Monique Blair, (Natalie Wood) who is an American but has lived most of her life in Southern France.
Mediocre WW2 film slowed down by soap opera-ish subplot involving love interest Natalie Wood's " passing " for white.
This causes issues of course.I won't talk about the big "gasp" in the movie but needless to say, whether you believe in miscegenation or not, you'll probably agree at what Tony Curtis has comin to em at the end.This one is certainly not an award winner but all in all...a decent film.
The cover and premise (haven't admittedly read the source material) were great and further talent like Natalie Wood and Frank Sinatra were ingredients enough to want to see 'Kings Go Forth'.For me, 'Kings Go Forth' is uneven but quite decent, although remembered fondly by other reviewers here it is generally better than given credit for.
While there is some hard-hitting action the war scenes are too few and they are out of kilter with the racial melodrama.However, 'Kings Go Forth' is carried by its sterling cast with Frank Sinatra giving one of his best film performances and Tony Curtis bringing charm and intensity to one of his better dramatic roles.
The screenplay is so predictable that you will not be surprised once while you are watching such a tepid weepie.Natalie Wood 's character was inspired by Fannie Hurst's "imitation of life" (see Stahl and Sirk),but who could believe she's a black man's daughter anyway?Susan Kohner was more credible in "imitation of life")and Sinatra and Curtis are given so stereotyped parts that they cannot do anything with them:the poor officer,and the wealthy good-looking -and mean- sergeant.Guess whom will Natalie fall in love with?France is shown as a land of tolerance ,where interracial unions are warmly welcome.At the time(circa 1944) it was dubious,it still is for narrow-minded people you can find here there and everywhere..
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 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.
Sinatra is great in the movie, by the way...really, really good.
In Kings Go Forth, Natalie plays a French girl who "passes for white".
Yes, I could have phrased it differently, but I was just trying to prepare you for the kind of language that's used in the film; there are some very politically incorrect lines of dialogue used by all three leads.Anyway, if you can get over the fact that Natalie Wood is supposed to be half-black, feel free to read more of the plot.
A soldier on leave, Frank Sinatra meets and falls in love with Natalie, unaware of her parentage.
With all the ridiculously dated parts to the story, I'll bring up an unrelated problem I have with the movie: In this love triangle, it's blatantly written out that Tony is the charming, attractive one and Frankie is not.
If Frank Sinatra was interested in me, I wouldn't look twice at Tony Curtis.If you really like any of the three leads, you might want to check this out, because despite the horrifically dated script and Natalie Wood's terrible French accent, the acting is pretty good.
It's World War II in France as an officer played by Frank Sinatra gets a recruit who's an expert in radio in Tony Curtis.
His fine novel was altered in keeping with the climate of the times yet although the girl survives we are still denied a happy ending.This is one of Sinatra's finest acting jobs and his understated Sam Loggins surpasses the flashier Frankie Machine of The Man With The Golden Arm because he is saddled with the thankless task of portraying basic decency, if not goodness, and not being Jack Lemon, James Stewart or Gary Cooper, all of whom personify the quality before saying a word or doing a thing, Sinatra is obliged to ACT it and makes a first rate fist of it.
The Sinatra persona we know is highlighted in the opening sequence; it's 1944 and Sinatra's company are in the South of France marching to a new base camp; Paris has just been liberated and the locals are cheering the arrival of the Americans but one old lady (Maris Isnard) silently offering a drink of wine - probably all she has - is totally ignored and even Sinatra's Lieutenant Sam Loggins passes her by at first but then he pauses, walks back to her and graciously accepts a glass of wine with a smile.
In the fullness of time Sinatra meets Monique Blair (Natalie Wood) and is instantly smitten.
In the novel Monique who had led a sheltered life to say the least - her parents had deliberately moved to France for her birth and Sinatra was the first American she had ever seen - commits suicide and Sam kills Britt but in the movie Sam sees to it that Britt is killed, loses an arm himself and visits Monique for a last farewell before returning to the States; since the death of her mother (for which no explanation is offered) she has taken to running a school for orphans and that's where we leave her.
When this is comes up in the scene, I really expected the Sinatra character, to whom this revelation was made, to look confused and say "So what?", but of course he didn't (he looks shocked and dismayed, although he gets over it eventually -- it's rather sick-making how the girl's mother acts as if there is some nobility in this: "You reacted like a bigot idiot, but after a week of struggle you have decided to overlook what is at most a disgusting cultural artifact, and I'm sure that the fact that my daughter looks like a young Natalie Wood has nothing to do with it.") Anyway, Natalie (who is 19) doesn't love Frank (who is 43, but looks older), so when she falls for Tony, Frank steps aside despite his great love for her.
Then Tony breaks her heart by dumping her (can't marry an African American woman even if she looks like Natalie Wood), and so Frank decides to see to it that Tony dies (by going on a suicide mission with him).
Tony dies, Frank loses an arm, and then comes back an visits Natalie after the war.
Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtiss, and Natalie Wood, make a good trio cast in these roles.
The book by Joe David Brown (called Combat Mission) had it end in a much darker way than was acceptable for movies in 1958.It could be done correctly these days, filmed in a dark nor style in wartime of 1943-44.
It does not make any sense to show Monique Blair (Natalie Wood) very much impressed when he met Lieutenant Sam Loggins (Frank Sinatra) for the first time, then without any justification she said that she did not like him as a lover.
Then Monique met Britt Harris (Tony Curtis) for the first time, and here the real love started.
One of Frank Sinatra's best performances, and certainly very good performances from Tony Curtis and Natalie Wod too.
Sinatra and Curtis are the American soldiers who both fall for the beautiful French girl Wood (trying an accent on for size), who is also half African-American.
Sinatra loves her dearly, but Wood falls for the charming Curtis, with bad results.
You know, from where I was sitting, I thought that this rather oddball, 1958, WW2 drama was really expecting just a little too much of the viewer by asking them to believe that Natalie Wood, as the Monique Blair character, was, in fact, half-black (or "Negro").I'd say that if Monique's father was, indeed, black (he is never seen in the movie), then, by looking at Natalie Wood who played his daughter, then he must've been the absolute most whitest looking black man on the entire face of the Earth.
To me, the casting of Wood as Monique was a grave mistake, especially in a film whose story was apparently striving for believability.
No way, Jose!Other than that valid beef, this picture (concerning a decidedly silly, melodramatic love triangle) was corny, clichéd and too predictable (Hollywood-style) to be at all considered worthwhile entertainment.Set in and around a small town along the French Riviera, this film's attempt at dealing maturely with such issues as racism missed the mark, big-time.Though it did contain some intense battle scenes (seemingly thrown in for good measure), these, in turn, did nothing to alleviate the overall monotony that prevailed in this trite, little soap opera..
It's the time of Worldwar II and the place is Southern France.Lt. Sam Loggins, a serious man, falls for Monique Blair, an American girl raised in France.Sergeant Britt Harris, who is the total opposite of him, falls for the same girl.But Monique carries a secret: her father was black.Kings Go Forth (1958) is directed by Delmer Daves.The screenplay is by Merle Miller and it's based on the novel by Joe David Brown.Frank Sinatra does great job as 1st Lt.Sam Loggins.Tony Curtis, who turned 85 two days ago on Thursday, is terrific as Cpl. Britt Harris, the man of many flaws.And he carries his flaws with pride.Natalie Wood is brilliant as Monique Blair.Leora Dana is amazing as her mother.Karl Swenson is very good as The Colonel.Also very good job by Jacques Berthe, who plays Jean-Francois Dauvah, Boy.I liked this movie I just watched on DVD, pretty much.It does a good job dealing with love, war and racial issues.It's not the brightest classic, but it has its moments.It seems like an amazing shot when Sam walks in the bar at night to have some cognac.There's a lot of intense when Sam and Britt go to the Blairs and Sam shouts "If you touch her, I'll kill you".And when those two men, that want to kill each other, are together surrounded by all those Germans.Britt gets shot, which doesn't make Sam feel happy.This is a good movie that mixes love and war.Those two often walk hand in hand..
They become part of a love triangle with Monique Blair (played by Natalie Wood).
The first problem was the substitution of a well written dialog, with the monotonous voice over by Sam; Frank Sinatra's character was used as a narration throughout the entire movie.
Despite some decent lines from the character, Monique, Natalie Wood's French accent made me cringe each time she spoke.
It made the supposedly sensible good girl, Monique turn fickle and the otherwise dominating lieutenant, Sam turn passive as he set back and let the charming handsome Britt, Tony Curtis, take over his date.Although the film was classified under the war movie genre, the parallel plot involving Allied military operations was disconnected and irrelevant to the primary romantic drama.