Immortal Sergeant (1943)
1h 31m | PG-13
During WWII, a corporal in the desert reminisces about the love he left behind and faces uncertainty about his strength as a leader.
Director: John M. Stahl
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Genre: War, Drama
Video: 720p
Cast
Henry Fonda
as Corporal Colin Spence
Maureen O'Hara
as Valentine Lee
Thomas Mitchell
as Sergeant Kelly
Allyn Joslyn
as Cassidy
Reginald Gardiner
as Tom Benedict
Melville Cooper
as Pilcher
Reviews
Henry Fonda is a bit of a fish out of water in rather thin wartime effort. He is "Spence", a Canadian sent to fight in North Africa during WWII. When his sergeant "Kelly" (a creditable effort from Thomas Mitchell) comes a cropper and their convoy destroyed, he must lead his men through the desert to try and reach safety. Peppered within this rather onerous trek, we are shown retrospectives of the life he left behind with ("Valentine") Maureen O'Hara and the man she thinks she is going to marry "Tom" (Reginald Gardiner). O'Hara was much better with lively roles, she doesn't play very well here at all. The production is remarkably basic. There are plenty of sound stage desert scenes with back-projections going on, and there really is a distinct paucity of action until the last ten minutes or so. It's a morale-boosting effort for the folks back home in an USA yet to enter the fray, little more. Nothing much more to say... It's watchable, but forgettable.