The Sergeant *** (1968, Rod Steiger, John Phillip Law, Frank Latimore, Ludmila Mikael) – Classic Movie Review 5725

Director John Flynn’s well-meaning but overheated, and now badly dated 1968 gay melodrama in which Rod Steiger stars as Master Sergeant Albert Callan who understandably gets steamed up over young handsome private Tom Swanson (John Phillip Law), whose good looks are enough to send any one crazy. It is the story of a man’s dark inner struggle with his sexuality and hiding gayness in the military.

[Spoiler alert] Unpleasantly, though, the tormented sergeant’s feelings of latent homosexuality erupt in the most angry, hostile fashion because they are repressed. But that is the whole point. You might like to see the two of them going off happily into the sunset together, but this is 1968 and naturally that isn’t going to happen.

The movie remains worthwhile for Steiger’s barnstorming acting, Law’s sensitive portrayal that contrasts nicely with Steiger’s grand-standing, director Flynn’s subtle handling and the strongly-felt implied message that people should accept their sexuality.

It was filmed in France, where it was supposed to have happened on a French Army Post in 1952.

It is wrtten by Dennis Murphy, based on his own novel. Like Steiger’s performance it is none too subtle but still powerful.

Also in the cast are Frank Latimore as Captain Loring, Ludmila Mikael as Solange Gérard, Elliott Sullivan, Ronald Rubin, Philip Roye, Jerry Brouer, Memphis Slim and Gabriel Gascon.

Its arrival in screen in 1968 was timely. In the UK The Sexual Offences Act was passed in 1967, decriminalising homosexual acts in private between two men over 21. They could have called in the Gay Liberation Act, but they didn’t.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5725

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