Trent Reid (trentreid3)

Not Dmytryk's finest, but nonetheless terrific noir with Dick Powell sporting a perpetual 5 o'clock shadow and barking snappy lines with conviction. Slezak is great, working up a substantial flop sweat and alternately schmoozing or manipulating everyone he can. Cheirel adds a nice sophistication and gives Powell a good romantic foil for his cynicism.

The real fun comes at the end with Luther Adler revealed as the mastermind. I won't spoil it, but he gets a terrific monologue mocking postwar reconstructionist idealism. Then, some nice interaction with a rightly scared Slezak. Solid, enjoyable noir with tight direction and some very fun dialogue.

Toned-down depiction of child soldiers in a non-specific African nation. The diminutive rapists refer to their enemies as "Dogos" rather than Tutsis, but we get the idea. These drug-addled killers are shown as being brow-beaten and cruelly manipulated by cynical adults, and lied into a born-to-die ethos that forgoes any possibility of resuming childhood or attaining a life outside of war.

The problem this presents for most viewers is that the inhumanity drilled into these kids is presented somewhat realistically. Thus, they thankfully do not emote for the camera, discuss their previous families, or magically transform into vulnerable children for us to identify with as objects of pity.

The kids do commit fairly atrocious acts of mayhem, rape and abuse - all while sporting fairy wings, a wedding dress, and various wackily childish accoutrement. But this does not go too far into practices of child sexual slavery, tortuous military indoctrination, or mutilation and murder of pregnant women, infants and the like.

There is some interesting interaction between the death dealing tykes and some UN peacekeepers when they want to carry their arms into a hospital along with an injured comrade. And the plot does delve into change and character development, as the war comes to an abrupt lull and some more personal conflicts emerge.