The Age of Commercialism

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Even though Gregory Peck is the lead of Captain Newman, M.D., the performance generally remembered from this film is Bobby Darin's. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1964, beaten out by Melvyn Douglas in a "sentimental favorite" Oscar. Bobby had taken a couple of dramatic roles prior to this one, but the Academy saw fit to honor this role, in which he plays one of the patients in the psychiatric ward that Gregory Peck oversees.As is typical in movies that take place solely in a hospital, the new doctor arrives at the start of the film. There's a seasoned co-worker to show him the ropes and warn him of a few patients, thereby explaining the situation to the audience as well. Greg plays the doctor, the title character, and Tony Curtis and Angie Dickinson help him adjust to his new life in the short-staffed army hospital. I like these types of movies because the characterization is always very varied, and you'll usually be able to find someone you like.Bobby Darin does an excellent job portraying a shell-shocked soldier, and he's joined by Robert Duvall and Eddie Albert in often overlooked supporting roles. It's a staple of Gregory Peck movies; who doesn't want to see him playing a concerned doctor trying to help people? If you're like me and often watch movies solely to appreciate the acting, this is a great one.

For reasons I don't understand Captain Newman MD has always been singled out for criticism, most particularly directed at Gregory Peck saying he's too stiff for comedy. I don't agree on a number of levels and this is one of my favorite films with him.First and foremost Peck's role is not one of comedy. What he does in the film is serve as Tony Curtis's straight man. Now his role is a comic one and very funny indeed.Peck runs the psychiatric ward in an Army Air Corps Hospital out in the Arizona desert during World War II. There's no way a man like Peck would be in the command of George S. Patton who just didn't believe in Peck's whole profession. And in Patton like fashion if someone isn't shipped back to command in twelve weeks, Peck hears about it.Captain Newman, MD is a serious film about such people and they are at the heart of the story with Peck trying his best to fix the broken minds and psyches in our Armed Forces. Three of his cases are the drunken, guitar playing corporal Bobby Darin, the catatonic flier Robert Duvall, and Eddie Albert the colonel who has gone psychotic. Peck has a mixed record of success with these three and with others in his ward.Bobby Darin got an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, it's a fine performance but he lost that year to Melvyn Douglas for Hud. But personally I feel that Eddie Albert stole Captain Newman, MD from the rest of the cast. It's a tossup between this role and Attack for the best performances of Albert's carer.Robert Duvall always credited Peck with giving him a good start to his long career with key roles in To Kill A Mockingbird and Captain Newman, MD. Funny thing is that Duvall has little dialog here and none in To Kill A Mockingbird. Far from the well spoken attorney who was consigliere to The Godfather. He's matched in his performance by his wife played by Bethel Leslie who is apparently much influenced by Grace Kelly in her performance. She's his prim and proper wife who tries to stir his interest in an attempt at an unusual kind of shock therapy.Aiding Peck in his treatment of his patients are nurses Angie Dickinson and Jane Withers and orderlies Tony Curtis and Larry Storch. In his memoirs Tony Curtis says that he got along very well with Gregory Peck who he says was one of the best class acts in Hollywood. He didn't get along all that well with director David Miller who wanted Curtis to be more ethnic in his interpretation of Corporal Jackson Leibowitz. Curtis won out and I think he was right in this case. A friend of Tony Curtis's since childhood is Larry Storch and because of that Storch appears in a few films with Curtis. As Peck was Tony's straight man, Storch becomes his comic foil in a couple of scenes and they work well together.Captain Newman, MD is a classic film, both entertaining and thought provoking, about the treatment of mental breakdowns among our military. As we certainly now are a country at war, Captain Newman, MD has a relevancy today that is timely. Absolutely do not miss it when it is broadcast.

Although some of the comments already posted indicate this film is not for everyone, it is exceptionally well-cast and true to the Leo Rosten novel with one minor exception: Eddie Albert's Col. Norval Algate Bliss is an amalgamation of several characters from the book, and his problem wasn't that he felt extreme guilt in sending his men to their deaths, but that he was a closeted homosexual who went schizophrenic in an effort to resolve his inner conflicts. But it was 1963 and the topic then was a no-no. The novel was not about PTSD, either, but of psychiatrists and patients--it happened to be set in WWII because there was plenty of grist there and the reading public/audience easily identified with it. Nearly all the dialogue is straight out of the novel, so if you didn't care for it, blame Rosten. Entertaining performances by all.

From humor to tears, drama to terror. Very few movies have had the lasting impact of Captain Newman, MD. Once you watch this movie, you will want to see it again and again. Gregory Peck is his faultless acting self. Bobby Darin puts on quite a show while on sodium-pentothal. Eddie Albert is about as creepy as possible. Larry Storch and Tony Curtis will have you cracking a rib laughing.The behind-the-lines wartime drama is probably the finest of any movie of its eraThis one easily rates 10 stars.Harv