The Young Lions (1958)
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80% of critics liked it
(5 reviews) -
70% of users liked it
(2,756 ratings)
Though several concessions to the censors and the box-office were made in adapting Irwin Shaw's bestseller The Young Lions to the screen, the end result is generally effective and satisfying. Set during World War 2, the film concentrates on three individuals, one German, two American. Marlon… More Though several concessions to the censors and the box-office were made in adapting Irwin Shaw's bestseller The Young Lions to the screen, the end result is generally effective and satisfying. Set during World War 2, the film concentrates on three individuals, one German, two American. Marlon Brando plays an idealistic German whose early fascination with Nazism leads to doubt and disillusionment. American entertainer Dean Martin, on the verge of the Big Time, does his best to dodge the draft but ends up in uniform all the same. And American Jew Montgomery Clift, so sensitive that he's practically breakable, must come to grips with anti-Semitism, not only from the Germans but also from his fellow soldiers. Romance enters the picture in the form of Hope Lange as Clift's gentile girlfrind, Barbara Rush as the socialite who shames Martin into joining up, and May Britt as Brando's vis-a-vis. Screenwriter Edward Anhalt was obliged to shoehorn in a boot-camp sequence indicating that the Brass disapproved of the bigoted behavior of Clift's topkick Lee van Cleef (as if racism was a mere aberration during the 1940s), and to "slightly" alter the ending of the book, in which the embittered but still patriotic Brando character, shouting "Welcome to Germany!," machine-guns the Martin and Clift characters (in the film, it is Brando who bites the dust, symbolically dying for Hitler's sins). Maximillian Schell offers a starmaking turn as Brando's cynical comrade, while an uncredited John Banner, "Sergeant Schultz" on Hogan's Heroes, shows up as a pompous burgomeister who feigns ignorance of the hellish concentration camp in his community. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Edward Dmytryk
- Written By
- Edward Anhalt
- Genres
- Drama, Action & Adventure, Kids & Family, Classics
G,
- In Theaters
- Apr 2, 1958 Wide
- Studio
- WGBH Boston Video
Critic Reviews
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Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Despite major departures from Irwin Shaw's novel, Edward Dmytryk's film is an enjoyable, well executed WWII melodrama with top-notch turns from Marlon Brando as the sympathetic Nazi officer and Montgomery Clift as the shy Jewish-American soldier.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
All three stars shine and give this film a luster despite periodic breakdowns in the way the episodic story was told.
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Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Belíssimo filme sobre a segunda guerra, mostrando ponto de vistas de soldados de ambos os lados do front. Brando, obviamente, assume o papel de alemão - e sua humanidade faz contraponto aos horrores que testemunha.
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Cast
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Marlon Brando
as Christian Diesti
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Montgomery Clift
as Noah Ackerman
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Dean Martin
as Michael Whiteacre
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Hope Lange
as Hope Plowman
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May Britt
as Gretchen Hardenberg
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Barbara Rush
as Margaret Freemantle
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Maximilian Schell
as Capt. Hardenberg
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Lee Van Cleef
as Sgt. Rickett
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Liliane Montevecchi
as Francoise
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Parley Baer
as Sergeant Brandt
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Arthur Franz
as Lieutenant Green
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Hal Baylor
as Pvt. Burnecker
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Richard Gardner
as Private Cowley
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Herbert Rudley
as Capt. Colclough
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John Alderson
as Cpl. Kraus
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Sam Gilman
as Pvt. Faber
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L.Q. Jones
as Private Donnelly (uncredited)
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Julian Burton
as Pvt. Brailsford
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John Banner
as Burgermeister
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Stephen Bekassy
as German Major
- Joe Brooks
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Robert Burton
as Col. Mead
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Ann Codee
as French Woman
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Paul Comi
as Pvt. Abbott
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Ashley Cowan
as Maier
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Dora Doll
as Simone
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Robert Ellenstein
as Rabbi
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Harry Ellerbe
as Draft Board Chairman
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Milton Frome
as Physician
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John Gabriel
as Burn
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Kurt Katch
as Camp Commandant
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George Meader
as Milkman
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Clive Morgan
as British Colonel
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Alberto Morin
as Bartender
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Voltaire Perkins
as Druggist
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Otto Reichow
as Bavarian
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Gene Roth
as Cafe Manager
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Henry Rowland
as Sergeant
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Jeffrey Sayre
as Drunk
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Norbert Schiller
as Civilian
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Harvey Stephens
as Gen. Rockland
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Vaughan Taylor
as Plowman (uncredited)
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Alfred Tonkel
as German Waiter
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Ivan Triesault
as German Colonel
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Stan Kamber
as Acaro
- Hubie Kerns Sr.
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Michael Pataki
as Pvt. Hagstrom
- Art Reichle
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Joan Douglas
as Maid
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Nicholas T. King
as Medic
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Christian Pasques
as French Boy
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Ed Rickard
as Mailman
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Michael Smith
as Draft Board Member
