The Naked and the Dead

Just as Joseph Heller's Catch-22 was to virtually defeat Hollywood a decade later, Norman Mailer's mighty (and mightily important) novel defeated director Walsh and screenwriters Denis and Terry Sanders. In fact, it owes hardly anything to Mailer, except for one or two episodes and the title. What we have is a routine war adventure about a platoon behind enemy lines, directed in Walsh's normal manner (he cares about the action and lets the rest dawdle). The tropical scenery is fine, and only Massey's performance as the fascist-minded general is memorable.