Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

EIGHT IRON MEN has one of those screenplays that started life as a stage play, so the action is centred in a single location. It's the tale of a group of WW2-era soldiers who are pinned down in a single location and must figure out a way to rescue their wounded colleague on the outset. I feel that such plays are hit or miss affairs and sadly this is one of the more dated examples of its type. The action is sparse and the dialogue comes thick and heavy, but the actors struggle with their uninteresting roles and lead Bonar Colleano is particularly irritating. You do get Lee Marvin delivering a typically bullish turn but his presence isn't enough to save the movie as a whole.

Edward Dmytryk returned from the McCarthy hearings to direct this slightly expanded stage show of eight World War Two soldiers, sitting around in a wrecked basement, waiting for their chance to go on furlough .... but the sergeant --- played by a Lee Marvin so young that he still has dark hair -- wants to go out and find a missing man. The endless talk talk talk is alleviated occasionally as Marvin goes out to see the company's captain, who also lives in a wrecked basement.Dmytryk and the screenwriters have done very little to expand this for the screen. You may, if you like, interpret this as a failure of nerve of Dmytryk's part: he had originally refused to testify as to who was a Communist before the House Unamerican Activities Committee. A few months in jail broke his resolve, and he spent the remainder of his career directing ever larger, ever glossier and ever emptier films.

Great acting. A real psychological portrayal of soldiers in WWII. Very honest and unglamorous considering the number of BS WWII mythology films in the '50s. Marvin and Kiley are great along with a bunch of guys (Colucci) that I'd never heard of. The fantasy sequences break up the tense yet tedious, claustrophobic atmosphere. Great B&W cinematography with excellent dramatic CUs. I'm not surprised given the human quality of this war movie that it was part of the Stanley Kramer production company. Save Smalls or eat his piece of cake!!!!!! Lee Marvin was one of the great American actors. What an ensemble in this film. All acting is top notch. the characters are all ones that we know–the ladies man, the stoic, the emotional and passionate one...great!

Based on a 1945 play by Harry Brown, this dreary movie moves between standard banter between men in a somewhat stressful situation (the bombed out rubble of a house in Italy) who are ordered out but are reluctant to leave a pinned down member of the platoon, and dream sequences that are painful, and populated by Rita Hayworth look-a-likes. While an excellent example of the continuing development of the persona of Lee Marvin, and containing one of last performances of Bonar Colleano, who would be killed in an auto accident a few years later, it is really a vehicle for several Hollywood character actors whose faces but not names come readily to mind (Arthur Franz, Richard Kiley (pre LaMancha), Barney Phillips and James Griffith). Not available on DVD or VHS, it surfaces occasionally on TV in connection with Lee Marvin retrospectives. That is the only reason to see this film.