Immortal Sergeant

Maureen O'Hara and Henry Fonda

An odd mixture of wartime Hollywood bunk and artistry, John M. Stahl's Immortal Sergeant is an uneven, but interesting World War 2 flick. This 1943 film is set in the Northern African theater of the war and concerns a small troop of men sent on a doomed mission into the Libyan desert. The British Commonwealth troops are commanded by the tough and lovable Sergeant Kelly (Thomas Mitchell) who instills a sense of discipline in the men even under trying circumstances. Second in the chain of command is a Canadian Corporal named Colin Spence played by Henry Fonda with no attempt to disguise his flat Nebraskan twang. Kelly spends the first half of the movie tutoring Spence on the qualities needed to lead men. This theme of transferring the mantle of leadership is continued after Kelly is killed in action and Spence has to lead his dwindling force out of the desert. Kelly's voiceover exhortations help guide Spence and his men out of the maelstrom of war. The voiceovers are similar to those of Spencer Tracy in A Guy Named Joe and equally icky.

The film greatly benefits from the presence of Fonda and Mitchell who team together well to put over the film's hokier moments. Fonda, in a film he disliked, pulls his character's monologues off beautifully just as he did in The Grapes of Wrath and Drums Along the Mohawk. Stahl was more known as a helmer of melodramas than as a director of action films, but the action sequences in Immortal Sergeant pass muster, particularly a nifty aerial assault on the troop. Some of the integration of the soundstage footage with the location work is awkward as is the utilization of rear projection backdrops. 

Immortal Sergeant is weirdly bifurcated. Every ten minutes or so, Fonda's character day dreams about his courtship of his sweetheart, the cringe inducingly named Valentine played by Maureen O'Hara. These evocatively erotic reveries of yesterday are the highlights of the film for me, anticipating the tremulous delirium of Stahl's masterpiece, Leave Her to Heaven. This view is the opposite of that of The New York Times reviewer in 1943, Theodore Strauss. for what its worth. Fonda and O'Hara don't have much chemistry, but this works within the context of the film's narrative. Spence is a supposed to be a clumsy and shy suitor, always being one upped by his posh friend, Tom Benedict (Reginald Gardiner). I'm sure you can guess who eventually gets the girl. Sharp eyed viewers will spot Peter Lawford in a small speaking role. Lawford spent his early years in Hollywood playing various British soldiers and air men in bit parts.