I think around this time is when Sinatra was big pals with Sammy Davis Jr. so getting involved in a film a subject matter like this was probably something he thought he should do.Basic premise is Sinatra gets to liking a girl in town, when he's on liberty in France, but she's hesitant to getting involved with him. She finally tells him that's her father was a black man. She tells him the basic background of her father and white mother and why they came to France. Back in those times it was it was a common site over there (like Josephine Baker). He takes his time and finally decides he's OK with it but a problem occurs by-way-of Tony Curtis. He's a spoiled little rich kid who gets into the army. He basically has a way with women and gets whatever he wants. He meets Sinatras girl and decides he loves her. This causes issues of course.I won't talk about the big "gasp" in the movie but needless to say, whether you believe in miscegenation or not, you'll probably agree at what Tony Curtis has comin to em at the end.This one is certainly not an award winner but all in all...a decent film

This film certainly deserves more attention. One of Frank Sinatra's best performances, and certainly very good performances from Tony Curtis and Natalie Wod too. I have heard it flopped considerably in it's day. I guess it's because the original novel (which I haven't read, but which I have heard about) was censored for the screen, or made "happier" (though there's still a fair share of dark moments). Sinatra and Curtis are the American soldiers who both fall for the beautiful French girl Wood (trying an accent on for size), who is also half African-American. Sinatra loves her dearly, but Wood falls for the charming Curtis, with bad results. The film works well as character study of shy, introvert Sinatra and cocky extrovert Curtis. Leora Dana is truly excellent as Wood's mother. While Elmer Bernstein's score tends to overstate the cause at times, this is an involving drama. Unfortunately the war scenes aren't as interesting as the human drama.

There are some tasty technical credits on offer here; two fine novelists fashioned the screenplay and versatile veteran Delmer Daves, no slouch as a writer himself, was behind the camera. Southern writer Joe David Brown had three of his novels adapted for the screen beginning with Stars In My Crown and ending with Addie Pray which became Paper Moon with this one in the middle. His fine novel was altered in keeping with the climate of the times yet although the girl survives we are still denied a happy ending.This is one of Sinatra's finest acting jobs and his understated Sam Loggins surpasses the flashier Frankie Machine of The Man With The Golden Arm because he is saddled with the thankless task of portraying basic decency, if not goodness, and not being Jack Lemon, James Stewart or Gary Cooper, all of whom personify the quality before saying a word or doing a thing, Sinatra is obliged to ACT it and makes a first rate fist of it. The Sinatra persona we know is highlighted in the opening sequence; it's 1944 and Sinatra's company are in the South of France marching to a new base camp; Paris has just been liberated and the locals are cheering the arrival of the Americans but one old lady (Maris Isnard) silently offering a drink of wine - probably all she has - is totally ignored and even Sinatra's Lieutenant Sam Loggins passes her by at first but then he pauses, walks back to her and graciously accepts a glass of wine with a smile. They exchange pleasantries then Sinatra leaves and as he does so he gently takes the bottle from her and hands her the glass. Economically the screenplay introduces the second male lead, Sergeant Britt Harris, a replacement radio technician. This is the kind of part that Tony Curtis used to phone in; a brash, arrogant, smarmy,full of himself little s**t; this time around he's rich as well, the spoiled brat who's managed to avoid any dangerous assignments and treats a world war as a glorified night club. In the fullness of time Sinatra meets Monique Blair (Natalie Wood) and is instantly smitten. The following week he meets her mother, Leora Dana, and becomes a regular guest at their large villa on every weekend pass he gets. In nothing flat both mother and daughter are so comfortable with him that they reveal that Monique's father was Black (or, as they used to say in 1958, a Negro). The stage is now set for Curtis to upset the apple cart and he duly obliges when Sinatra foolishly takes Monique into Nice for a night on the town and they stumble into a club where, lo and behold, Curtis turns out to be a dab hand with the trumpet. From then on Sinatra gets less of a look-in than he did previously until the inevitable moment when Curtis informs all concerned that he never had any intention of going through with marriage to Monique on the grounds that he is a bigot but not averse to Black tail. In the novel Monique who had led a sheltered life to say the least - her parents had deliberately moved to France for her birth and Sinatra was the first American she had ever seen - commits suicide and Sam kills Britt but in the movie Sam sees to it that Britt is killed, loses an arm himself and visits Monique for a last farewell before returning to the States; since the death of her mother (for which no explanation is offered) she has taken to running a school for orphans and that's where we leave her. There are two excellent performances from respectively Sinatra and Leora Dana, who was actually some eight years younger than Sinatra and made up to look the forty-something she was meant to be. Curtis is just Curtis, mediocre to fair and Wood is unconvincing as a girl born and raised in France. Jazz buffs are catered for in the nightclub scene where the musos include Red Norvo, Pete Candoli, Mel Lewis and Richie Kamucha but playing the kind of 'modern' jazz more representative of the 1950s - as exemplified by the Chico Hamilton combo in another Curtis movie, The Sweet Smell Of Success - than 1944. On balance a good rather than a great film but more than worth a look.

When I saw the previews to "Kings Go Forth" in 1958, I was excited. This looked like an important picture with big stars (Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood). That I already realized this at the age of 9 still strikes me as fairly remarkable. Later, I couldn't remember much about it after seeing it, except for its climactic battle scene. So, when it showed on Turner in 2005, I decided to watch it again. The interracial theme is certainly dated now, but this was strong stuff in 1958, particularly for someone from the South. After all, at that time southern department stores had separate restrooms for "White" and "Colored," and interracial marriage was ILLEGAL in southern states. However, the interracial theme is really not all that important to the story, as the themes of Sinatra's alienation, Wood's infatuation and Curtis' narcissism are probably elements familiar to MOST of us. Ever pine for a girl/guy friend who fell hard for someone else who was showier or better looking? I would, however, like to touch on what I believe is an unfair criticism of the film; i.e., that Natalie Wood is not convincing as someone of mixed race. Blonde, blue-eyed Cameron Diaz is Swedish and Cuban, and has said in interviews that her father's skin is black and that it is very likely her children would be.I thought Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis were just great in this movie, as was Leora Dana as Natalie's mother. Wood never received her due as an actress and I thought her French accent was just fine. Curtis is absolutely chilling in his confrontation with Dana and Wood and it is easy to understand why Sinatra would want to kill Curtis. I think Sinatra is somewhat miscast as the "ugly duckling" who pines for Wood. After all, we've all seen too many movies where Sinatra's won the hearts of girls as pretty as Wood (if there ARE any other girls as pretty as Wood). Watching the film again, I couldn't help but wonder what Charles Bronson could have done with Sinatra's role. Nonetheless, given the potentially explosive (at that time) interracial element, it is unlikely "Kings Go Forth" would have been made without Sinatra's participation. Further, the episodic structure of "Kings Go Forth" plays against the sexual tension of a love triangle. Finally, the ending is almost annoyingly noncommittal. It shouldn't be; after all, there are enough clues as to what should eventually transpire between the principals. I think, here, the problem continues to be Sinatra. He is simply too aloof and passionless.Given my criticisms, you may be surprised to know I really like "Kings Go Forth." I give it a "7". Oh, and for the record, the French ARE, historically, a VERY racially tolerant people. Witness "Cajuns," the French and Indian War, Josephene Baker and their acceptance of Indo-Chinese Eurasian children.