In Love And War (1958)

As its title indicates, the film, which takes place during WWII, is divided into two parts. The first takes place in 1944 San Francisco with three marines on 48 hour leave. There's the idealistic marine (Bradford Dillman) torn between an Asian nurse (France Nuyen) and his self destructive nymphomaniac fiancee (Dana Wynter), ironically the film's most tragic character. The marine (Robert Wagner) who lacks courage and the girl (Sheree North) who doesn't respect him because of it and the Greek marine (Jeffrey Hunter) who finds his girlfriend (Hope Lange) is pregnant. The second half of the film focuses on the three marines in the battlefields of the South Pacific. This isn't your typical WWII action movie. The film is surprisingly frank and adult in both sex and language (at one point Wagner says, "I've got the runs" while later Nuyen snaps, "Goddamn war!") for the 1950s. The dialogue is literate and all of the film's characters fully fleshed out. The film eschews sentimentality but neither is it cynical and don't be surprised if the poignant finale brings some moisture to your eyes. Philip Dunne, known more as a writer (HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY), directs. With Veronica Cartwright, Mort Sahl (who answers the phone, "Hello, WWII!"), Nina Shipman and Murvyn Vye.