Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Memorable, crazy movie

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Others have noted how this film's "style" hints of the blockbuster "M.A.S.H." that would hit the silver screen in 1970, with its even greater blockbuster TV series that would rule the air waves for more than a decade. Perhaps it took another decade after this 1963 film, which was still so close to the end of WW II and even closer to the Korean War (not yet called a war for several decades), before the American public could warm up to the idea of humor in war-time hospital settings. "Captain Newman, M.D." clearly set the stage, and it did so in great style. And, for its time, it did so without a gratuitous Hollywood romance, and without a running dialog of overly crude language that many filmmakers seemed to like once the "language barrier" was broken by the time of M.A.S.H. This is all to say that this film stands firmly on its own without extraneous scripting or gimmickry to lure viewers. The plot is excellent and has a perfect blend of humor, seriousness and character study and development. Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis and Angie Dickinson give top-rate performances. Larry Storch, Syl Lamont and the many minor roles are all very good. But I think three supporting actor roles stand out head and shoulders above all others. And that's what makes this film soar, on top of the main cast and plot. Some have commented on Bobby Darin's role, and a couple on Eddie Albert's role. Both were clearly worthy of Best Supporting Actor nominations for the year, although only Darin got such a nomination. Add to that Robert Duvall for a first-rate early role in his career. Wow! What a tremendous film with great acting from a very notable cast. This film scores a 10 for the acting, the subject, the considerate way the script and direction handle such a sensitive subject, and its overall entertainment. It's a classic and part of my war films library.This movie came out in December 1963. It was during the Cold War and not long after the Berlin Wall went up. I was serving in the U.S. Army in Germany at the time and didn't get to see many movies. I didn't recall this film at all, and just learned of it in recent years.

Gregory Peck is probably best know for playing strong, benevolent types like Atticus Finch, and in many ways, the title role in this film does not take him far from that. What makes this film memorable is not Peck so much as it is his outstanding supporting cast. Bobby Darin, best known as a singer, show acting chops here few thought he possessed. Tony Curtis is strong and fits his role perfectly,Angie Dickinson as a nurse with brains and beauty, and Eddie Albert as you've never seen him. His performance alone merits watching this movie, but enjoy the story and the entire cast in a film that gives those who missed it a glimpse into what Hollywood was putting out in the 60s.

I fear that I'm writing this out of fond memories - I was reminded of this film in looking up Gregory Peck, and haven't seen it in years, but I have a vivid memory of it. Being a reluctant fan of Peck - Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn?!?!?!?!?, but he was just so imminently likable! Having seen several, but by no means all, of his films, I would have to say this is one of the best. Atticus Finch is his #1 role, but this is a fine movie overall. Great ensemble cast, highs of humor and highs of sadness. It is intentionally claustrophobic, being set inside a small, stuffy hospital. It is the beauty of the film that you can feel the tightness, smell the smells, and know all of the characters as though you were there in a way few films accomplish. When we do go outside, it is like being an uncaged bird, but then it is also bleak and lonely, being an isolated location in the desert. Probably somewhat obscure at this point - my provider doesn't stock it - but worth seeking out, I think.

If anything positive can be said for 1963's Captain Newman, MD, it's that it is a compassionate film. It is not a coherent one, nor is it ever sure if it's a WWII drama or a stale service-comedy.CNMD boasts a lot of very familiar faces doing and saying ridiculous things: Gregory Peck is not a man for light comedy (and when he's falling-down drunk, you'll want him to just go to bed and sleep it off, not laugh at him as he pratfalls about with Angie Dickinson). Dickinson is embarrassing as Peck's sort of love interest; she's given little to do but look good and look concerned (which erupts into very controlled weeping when the news from the front gets bad). Tony Curtis wears the outfit of street-wise non-com who keeps telling Peck how easy psychiatry is, dog-robbing the top of a Christmas tree, and herding sheep. Robert Duvall reprises his Boo Radley role from To Kill a Mockingbird, Bobby Darin chews, smacks, and gulps the scenery as a B-17 gunner whose got a bad case of survivor's guilt, and Eddie Albert manages to be the only actor who exceeds the bare minimum of acting expectations here. His Army Air Force colonel is suffering from sending too many youngsters to their deaths, and watching him break up and shatter is the only saving grace in this shoddy mess.Yet, the movie is a compassionate one. It's very madness-of-war and stick-it-to-the-man in its treatment of combat-related mental illness. CNMD is full of 11th grade psychology (so that the audience will get it; God help the trained professional who watches this), cutesy characters, and tedious situation drama and comedy. It reminded me of the first three or four years of M*A*S*H on TV (before Alan Alda decided to inject the series with an overdose of deep). Everyone is running about, trying their best to get the message out to you that WAR IS HELL, but it's nuttier still, and the only way to win it is to be cutesy and compassionate.I like my war-movies-with-a-message a bit more sure of themselves. Just watch Tom Hanks pull himself together three quarters of the way through Saving Private Ryan or the movie M*A*S*H wherein Bobby Troupe keeps confronting the idiocies inherent in soldiering by simply hanging his hands over the steering wheel of a jeep and muttering, "Goddamned army!" Leave the head-shrinking to the professionals.