EIGHT IRON MEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 743, 9 October 1953, Page 19

EIGHT IRON MEN

(Stanley Kramer-Columbia) |F I had set out deliberately to find a film to contrast with The Thief, I could hardly have found a better example than this latest production of the busy Mr, Kramer. Eight Iron Men is based on a Broadway hit, A Sound of Hunting, and is the story of 24 hours in the lives of eight U.S. infantrymen who form a forward patro] in the front line in Italy. For them the front line runs through a shattered town. Some of the buildings are held by the Allies, some by the enemy, and the spaces in between are unhealthy, being covered by snipers and concealed machine-guns. In one of these spaces a flat-footed member of the patrol gets pinned down in a shell-hole and the rest of the group pin themselves down in what seems like an interminable argument: on the pros and cons of an attempt at rescue. Occasionally one or two, bolder or more insubordinate, venture out, and we get some fresh air, change of scene and good photography, but they're soon back to chew the fat and slang the sergeant. I should say that Eight Iron Men has more dialogue per square foot than any other war picture I have seen in the last 10 years-so much, indeed, that the real problems of moral responsibility which lie at the roots of the drama are at times quite obscured. Yet I thoroughly enjoyed the film. The observation is often shrewd, the dialogue has a nip to it, and there is a wry twist to the ending which leaves one in a good humour. But best of all is the performance of Bonar Colleano, as a lead-swinging, self-assured private. He makes the show-and quite a_bright show he makes it. -_