Otto Preminger does Leon Uris' best seller in that 1950s/60s style - widescreen, colour, self importance, stars. Dalton Trumbo got screen credit which was gutsy of Preminger. Because Hollywood doesn't make this sort of movie any more its virtues can be more appreciated - particularly the cast (now mostly dead), photography and location work. That and the fact that the issues are still hot - it's not as though Jews have life much easier.
Eva Marie Saint is an American nurse. Paul Newman a Jewish freedom fighter. Peter Lawford a nasty British officer. Ralph Richardson a nice one. Sal Mineo a heavily traumatised concentration camp survivor. Jill Haworth (a role turned down by Hayley Mills apparently - or, rather, her parents) is a more optimistic camp survivor. George Mahari is another Jewish fighter. J Lee Cobb is Newman's dad, Alexandra Stewart his sister. She doesn't do much, hangs around in shorts - ditto Saint.
Some scenes are very potent - such as Mineo trying to join the Irgun, and an old guy (David Opatashu, playing Newman's brother) sussing out what he really did in the war.
Newman walks around moodily and charismatically. Saint hangs around occasionally dispensing medicine. Haworth is sweet but pretty awful. Support cast generally strong.
Solid set pieces - King David bombing, escape from Acre prison, final attack. Effective moments with Haworth dying rather than Mineo which you would think would happen. John Derek smiles as an Uncle Tom Arab but gets an effective death, strung up with the Star of David etched into it.
It's not as anti British as the book but is still fairly anti Arab, who are in cahoots with Nazis here.
A film for adults, still. Those days are gone.
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