This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film seems quite mature in many ways, it avoids showing anything of the war itself--instead keeping us in the "seats" so to speak of the women left behind, who can only learn about the war on the radio and who chart it on a map on the wall with pins for their husbands.The film opens like a courtroom movie--it's not. It's also not really Paul Newman's film, he is off screen for a good part of the movie. It's the sisters story and principally Jean Simmons who is very good in the film as is Newman and both of them together have chemistry, once that finally happens.Director Wise has a smooth moving camera style here that keeps things moving and to see a film about women cheating on their wartime husbands with foreign soldiers is still unusual--as the woman aren't demonized. The romantic and human elements ring true and the film seems like it was made more recently than it was. The photography is beautiful in 2:35 as well.The only real soap opera element to the way the film is handled is in a really poor dated music score, especially the cheesy opening song and that theme then plays repeatedly during the film. Every time the score kicks in the film almost sinks, but never does, to the level of romance melodrama. The studio may have demanded a song, but regardless it kicks off the film on the wrong foot. Luckily the score does stop and is not wall to wall or it would do more damage.The U.S. service men are not portrayed as unrealistic heroes either--again keeping with the viewpoint of the town's people being forced to house the friendly temporary invaders and deal with their crude foreign customs. And it's interesting to see Newman's character who has the job of trying to control what happens between the love and sex starved men and woman they may want to marry.Only other real weakness is in the scene that finally brings us back to the trial that opened the film. The scene kind of comes out of nowhere, feels like a forced dramatic conflict and really should be longer and set up better to be totally convincing and as harrowing as it could be.And yes this is a Hollywood movie so there aren't authentic accents. Mostly there are no accents which is better than a bunch of studio trained actors "doing" accents. In fact though good location footage was shot the bulk of it was shot on the back lot at 20th Century fox. The two blend seamlessly.

Until They Sail might be the first Hollywood film about New Zealand that was filmed in New Zealand. Although you will find nary a Kiwi in the cast in the principal roles and no one even attempts an accent.Despite this, the fact that it was written by James Michener who certainly was the American author who wrote stories of the South Pacific certainly guarantees authenticity and entertainment. The film is about the four Leslie sisters who are getting a bit lonely because all of the available males are in the service in some of the far flung fronts that the British Empire needed defending.Although the danger wasn't as immediate for New Zealand as it was for Australia with Japanese occupied New Guinea spread like a canopy over that continent, still after Pearl Harbor for a couple of months fear of occupation was also added to the collective civilian psyche of the Kiwis. Then the American marines arrived and later the army as they did in Australia using the place as a training and embarkation point for the various island battles of the Pacific War. The four sisters are Joan Fontaine, Jean Simmons, Piper Laurie, and Sandra Dee. Fontaine the eldest feels responsibility for the rest and she's in danger of becoming one prudish spinster, but she finds real romance with a marine captain in Charles Drake who is a Rhodes Scholar to boot.Simmons is married with a husband off in North Africa and she resents all the Yanks, as they said in Great Britain, oversexed, overpaid, and over here. Paul Newman is a recently divorced marine who's quite cynical about the opposite sex and no threat. Later on Simmons and Newman do find a need for each other.Newman is a staff officer and one of his jobs is to investigate claims for all the homesick marines who fall in love and decide they want to marry Kiwi girls. Piper Laurie has not let any grass grow under her feet, she marries Wally Cassell one of the few male Kiwis around and because she has needs. Then later she's got her pick of Americans for that chore after Cassell goes off to war. Truth be told Cassell is something of a low life, but not like Laurie didn't know what she was getting into.Finally there's Sandra Dee in her motion picture debut creating her image of sweet virginity for the public. The youngest and wisest, she's content to wait for a boy in the service and hopes he'll come back safe and sound of wind and limb.As the Citadel Film series book on The Films Of Paul Newman points out, this was Newman's first attempt at screen romance. The cynical part of his nature he always had down. But his scenes with Simmons were very tender indeed especially after his wall of cynicism comes crashing down.The surprise for me was the performance that director Robert Wise got out of Wally Cassell. This is a guy who usually plays happy go lucky types, but good guys in many films. This portrayal opens quite a different dimension for me, for this particular player.If it were remade today I think that it would be mandated that players from New Zealand or Australia have roles. I can certainly see Nicole Kidman in either the Simmons or Fontaine parts. Until a remake is done this version of Until They Sail is a fine wartime romance.

Until They Sail (1957) ** (out of 4)WW2 melodrama about four sisters (Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie, Sandra Dee) living in New Zealand and not having much going on since all the men are fighting in the war. Their one shot at meeting new men is when American soldiers come in and the widow (Simmons) gets another shot at love with one played by Paul Newman. Considering the wonderful cast and great director, I was somewhat surprised to see how rather lame this movie was. Lame might be the wrong word but it's certainly very flat compared with other WW2 films out around this time and in the end the movie has way too much soap for it to be fully entertaining. While the screenplay isn't the greatest that's not the biggest problem I had with the film. The biggest problem for me was that I never believed the settings of the film as in it taking place during WW2. There was never any real atmosphere to the film nor was there any real attempt to make it feel authentic. Another problem is that we're dealing with four different women's love lives and the film never really knows if it wants to center on Simmons or Fontaine and in the end there seems to be a lot of stuff missing. The film would have been much, much worse if it weren't for the incredible cast. The four women really come off as sisters and I loved how the screenplay at least gave them different characters with different problems. Simmons steals the film with her touching and mature performance but Fontaine is just as good as the more hard and bitter sister. Dee, in her film debut, does a very good job at playing the youngest and naive sister. Newman is still a little rough around the edges but he does remain fun to watch and even at this early point in his career he has his smile commented on by one of the women.

This is not the most spectacular "women in war" movie ever made, but Robert Wise didn't disappoint either.The focus of this film is on Jean Simmons, which was a little disappointing for me because I watched it for Joan Fontaine. Her screen time is pretty much focused into a 20 minutes sequence showing Anne falling in love in Dick (Richard Bates), him shipping off to Tawara, ending with the despair on her face when Paul Newman told her that causality list is still top-secret. To top it off, the script annoyingly turned Anne's tragedy into a happy ending - having Anne receiving telegram and a large sum of money from her mother-in-law, a congressman writing to the Marines demanding that she be sent back as royalties. The audience is led to believe that Dick was from a good, wealthy family and Anne and her little boy will live happily ever after. If you want to see a more realistic look on how the foreign war brides adjust to their American life without their husbands, I recommend Oliver Stone's "Heaven and Earth".The best developed story line is of course the relationship between Paul Newman's Jack and Jean Simmons's Barbara. It's a gentle but thoughtful criticism of the war marriages of 1940's, which Hollywood was beginning to examine during the 50's. And the film took its time bring them together, which makes the feelings Jack and Barbara have for each other more believable than that of Anne and Dick's. Again, I would have liked it better if they didn't end up together. But then, these four girls have been through so much.....and it never hurts to look into those blue eyes of Mr. Newman's as he says "I don't love you" (yeah right!)