Once Before I Die (1966)

Great Film overall

Good concept, poorly executed.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

***SPOILERS*** It's December 1941 and the Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor with the Philippines their next target on the agenda that has a unit of US Army cavalrymen playing a game of polo caught with their pants down and strafed by Japanese Zero fighter planes. It the man is charge Maj. Bailey, John Derek, who's job it is to get his unit back to Manila and join the US/Filipino troops there to fight the soon to be invading Japanese who are planning an assault landing there.The movie soon degenerates like the US positions on the Islands into total chaos with the outnumbered US troopers slowly picked off and wiped out by the advancing Japanese military. With their commander and chief Maj.Bailey blowing himself up with a loose hand grenade while looking for a puppy that got itself lost in the fighting.It's Bailey's girlfriend Alex, Ursual Andress, who now takes center stage in trying to find a way out of this mess with the few US troops still left alive. It's the crazed eyes Lt. "Blood & Guts" Custer, Played by a clean shaven and skin head looking Richard Jaeckel, who eventually leads the remainder of the US unit into a Japanese trap. That by him staging a hopeless and suicide assault on the far more superior in both men and equipment Japanese that leaves Alex as the only survivor. Alex for her part showed her kind feelings for humanity or mankind by offering her womanly pleasures to 22 year old virgin US soldier Rpd Lauren just before, with a big smile on his face, the Japanese troops gunned him down.***SPOILERS****Not much to see with the exception of actress-boy is she hot-Ursula Andress who gives her all, off camera, for her fellow man as well as country in the fight against the Japanese Empire. It's while the film was being made that Ursula and her husband John Derek called it quits that gave the film an extra reason for watching it. It also explains why John Derke was killed off so soon in the movie in him not just leaving his wife Ursula but the rotten script that he was handed.

I first heard about the film, in a book by Danny Peary called Guide For the Film Fanatic. The question he seemed to ask was, How someone like John Derek could have made such a good film? Having seen this film on TV, I have to agree with him.While John Derek may have made many bad films, and I can't say they were all bad, because I have not studied his work. However, I wonder if those other reviewers who hated this film so much just hated John Derek.When I watched this film, I couldn't help but feel that Derek was influenced by the Polish Films of the 1950's by Wajda, particularly CANAL. While filmed in color, this film has that despair of war. Considering that most of television, and some movies portrayed World War II as something heroic, this film was ahead of its time. It shows war as very ugly, almost a warning about the Viet Nam conflict that the US was just getting involved with. I also enjoy his shots of other people who inhabit the scenes, as if they have stories to tell themselves, particularly the native population of the Phillpines. It is a use of the camera I believe called 'foregrounding', something that was used in the Cuban film THREE JULIAS, which I think was made later. Another person, not on IMDb, mentioned that he felt this film had an influence on Appocolypse Now, especially if you see the Redux version.His use of Freeze Frames was ahead of it's time, though occasionally it looks cheesy, and may have helped keep the budget down. Also, with John Derek as the star of the film, he does have some surprises in the story, something that has been copied in later films, which I will not name. Finally the Use of Mrs. Andress in the film, may have helped get more financing for the movie. While some of you might look at her as only eye candy, I would suggest that her performance and presence does not distract from this film, and is not wrong. The final image of her on the screen, with the beautiful song, is a haunting image.

It almost defies belief that a movie can be as bad as this one, without it being fun to watch, like any number of Ed Wood films.Put this DVD on if you have unwanted guests, and watch them exit your house, rushing to depart to save whatever sanity they have left.A rotten, lousy waste of time.

It's been many years since I've seen this movie on TV, but it's badness is permanently engrained in my memory. I kept looking for the high school theatre dept. mention in the closing credits. All these soldiers wanting to have a crack at Ursula Andress, before they meet their doom. Hopefully, the next time it's on, there'll be an Ed Wood film on another station!