Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

JohnHowardReid Copyright 1956 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at Loew's State: 11 October 1956. U.S. release: October 1956. U.K. release: 4 February 1957. Australian release: 28 February 1957. Sydney opening at the Regent. 8,421 feet. 94 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A somewhat prejudiced and standoffish Young Southerner finds true comradeship in the U.S. Army.COMMENT: Fox's 64th CinemaScope feature is somewhat disappointing. The novel has undergone several important and basic changes for the screen which have considerably weakened its vitality, its originality and its moral theme. It was Gwaltney's contention that war, despite and because of its horror and brutality, could do some good on the individual level, namely it could awaken a social conscience and an awareness in a previously selfish person who lived only for himself (shades of "The Best Years of Our Lives"). But this all-important theme has been completely dropped from the film, whereas the war scenes themselves (which now have no reason for existence other than one-dimensional shoot-em-up heroics) have been retained. Aside from Crawford's powerful performance as the neurotic Grimes, the film has little to offer beyond the competently routine and mediocre conventional.

ewarn-1 Another reviewer said it best when he called this film 'unpretentious'. Today, of course, most films are pretentious and overblown. Maybe it's because we now live in a pretentious and overblown country, one where people would never listen to the message of a movie like this.This is one of those rare occurrences where a movie is so well done it seems to exist outside its era. This film was made in 1956, which is amazing, considering the outstanding photography and the striking characterizations. Nobody talks or acts like '50s characters. Things seem a little more dangerous, more savage, so that it would seem you were watching a film from the '80s instead. Of course, in the '80s they didn't make movies like this, they made pretentious ones. But they should have.The big war films of the '50s were usually full of stock characters and unlikely situations, crammed with out of place stock footage. An example of that kind of mediocre war movie is 'To Hell And Back'. This movie is everything that 'To Hell And Back' was not. 'Between Heaven And Hell' has more interesting and unique characters, more authentic weaponry, and the photography is of a much higher standard.The reasons why some rather dull movies become well known, while others, like this, remain obscure, has always been a mystery to me.

bkoganbing The location of what's directly Between Heaven and Hell is the Pacific Theater during World War II. Robert Wagner, recently a sergeant, but busted down for striking an officer, gets himself transferred to a new outfit. He's now in a company in a forward position on a remote Pacific Island where the outcome is still in doubt. There's one crazy captain in charge played by Broderick Crawford. He's a bit combat happy to say the least.Wagner was a spoiled rich kid who married the boss's daughter, Terry Moore, and he's pretty hard on the sharecroppers he manages. That all changes for Wagner during his service in the Pacific where his national guard outfit is now serving and he's with a lot of these same people and his life depends on them and they, him. He gets to reevaluate a whole lot of what he had believed before.Between Heaven and Hell is a no compromising look at the Pacific War and the men who fought it. Wagner does well in the lead role, but acting honors go to Broderick Crawford as the captain who's bucking for a section 8. When he does get relieved, note the interesting suicide by sniper scenario he sets up for himself. Also Buddy Ebsen plays a very similar role to the one he played in Attack which also came out in the same year. Ebsen plays one of the sharecroppers who Wagner previously looked down on. Ebsen was staging something of a comeback himself, he would soon be cast in Walt Disney's Davy Crockett and then in The Beverly Hillbillies. Some of those comic parts make us forget what a fine dramatic actor Ebsen could be. He just wasn't given the chance often enough.For those who like their war pictures with a minimum of flag waving, Between Heaven and Hell is definitely for you.

TC-4 I just saw this movie on a premium channel. It was an entertaining piece with the popular TV stars of the time. What it did not like was it was a Cinemascope picture shown in the pan and scan mode. This was especially annoying of the widescreen movies of the fifties since they were trying to really give the impression of widescreen by having a lot of scenes on the extreme ends of the film frame. I don't undertand why the channels that show widescreen movies don't show both versions at different times to please everyone.