The biggest problem with this one is the fact that John Derek couldn't resist the temptation to make it artsy, using every camera trick in the book to awe his viewers. All it ends up doing is making us want to turn away from it in disgust. The story is a mix so ambiguous that it ends up making no sense. It's interesting that he cast James Dean lookalike Rod Lauren in a major role and then filmed him in torrid love scenes with his then-wife Ursula Andress, especially odd since Derek and Andress both bedded James Dean........just before he died. Lauren's death scene in the film is downright laughable as he is somehow shot multiple times through a large tree trunk, with not so much as a single facial expression of shock, pain or agony. Weird scene. Andress is obviously there to be the "one before they all die", and the film is a total waste of some fine actors. A real mess.

***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.

Once Before I Die is far more entertaining than most recent WW2 films such as Steven Spielberg's anaemic "Saving Private Ryan". This film may be the cinematic equivalent of a car crash but I would prefer to see Ursula Andress strolling through battle fields with perfect hair and make-up than watch Matt Damon pollute the screen as a lost soldier. This may also be the first and last war film to contain a "Porkies" style subplot about a soldier trying to lose his virginity.John Derek is a hugely misunderstood director. Admittedly, he has made some of the most inept films in cinema history but at least he had the decency to fill his movies with large doses of gratuitous nudity and unintentionally hilarious scenarios. His films may be crap but they are rarely boring. Once Before I Die provides John with an opportunity to direct his lovely wife, Ursula Andress. The plot that John chose for his then wife is startling to say the least.Ursula plays Alex, a Swiss "refugee" stuck in the Philippines during WW2. When the Japanese attack, Alex's soldier boyfriend, Bailey (played by John himself), invites Alex to tag along with his battalion on their way to Manila. Unfortunately, Bailey accidentally drops a grenade while trying to steal Alex a teddy bear and leaves Alex to make a general nuisance of herself during enemy attacks. A major exception to this occurs when Alex makes herself uncharacteristically useful by deflowering a soldier while the rest of the battalion attack a Japanese tank with tree stumps.The film's storyline is undeniably ridiculous but it does compensate the viewer with surprisingly violent content for a movie made in 1965 and amusing visuals of Ursula prancing through the jungle like a slightly disheveled Bond girl. The combat scenes are reasonably well done but would have been more convincing if John Derek didn't superimpose faded images of Ursula over the action. The most bizarre example of this is the image of Ursula holding a glowing orb, which is superimposed over the opening air attack. The film also offers some beautiful photography and a visually impressive, if utterly confusing finale. The acting is hit and miss, with significantly more misses than hits, but Ursula is rather wonderful as Alex. It takes a special kind of genius to walk through a war zone in riding pants and high heeled boots without coming across as completely demented. Richard Jaeckel also scores points for his fantastically over the top portrayal of Custer, a deluded soldier.Once Before I Die is a treat for John Derek aficionados and fans of crappy film oddities. You definitely wont see another war movie like this ever again.

There was an interesting tension between Andress as the life force and the fate each of the men met after they became involved with her. Moths to the flame. I wish the film had made more of this theme (and been better in general).