Kings Go Forth
It comes from Hollywood's era of grown-up "topic" movies, butKings Go Forthhas not left much of a trail. Two GIs, stationed near the French Riviera toward the end of World War II, compete for the love of a local girl (Natalie Wood). Her secret: Her father was black. The guys are Frank Sinatra, in his lost and lonely key, and Tony Curtis, as a spoiled kid breezing by on his looks (this was the same year Curtis didThe Defiant Ones, also on race). Director Delmer Daves was very good at this kind of melancholy melodrama (see alsoA Summer Place), but this movie's non-reputation is easy to understand; it's mild and sentimental at its core. The only character that doesn't seem to be Representing Something is Sinatra's tender portrait of a soldier at loose ends, a far cry from his nervy Maggio inFrom Here to Eternity.--Robert Horton