This is indeed a strange movie. Apart from MASH, I can't think of another film that deals with Korean War mobile hospitals. This COULD have been interesting, but it wasn't. Most of it is because the war is really secondary. The primary focus of the film is the horny character played by Bogart in his never-ending quest to get inside June Allyson's underwear! And he is SO unconvincing in this role and her character is such an idiot!! Mostly because Bogey frankly looked too old to be playing a young horn-dog and the dialog they gave him was unbelievably corny and filled with sleazy double-entendres! And, because he is the lead, you KNOW that regardless of how unappealing his character is and how much he SHOULD be taken up on sexual harassment charges, he'll get the girl by the end of the picture. As for June Alysson, she plays a complete dummy, as each time Bogey makes totally inappropriate advances on her, she blames herself for his pig-like behaviors!!

The only positives in the film were the performance by Keenan Wynn as well as the behind the scenes portions (such as showing the MASH unit packing and moving). Unfortunately, these positives are hugely outweighed by the negatives. So, unless you are a MAJOR Bogart fan, avoid this picture.

Humprey Bogart is a doctor with the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, MASH Unit #8666, in a non comedy preview of the more notable TV Series of the early 1970's. The early going in the film really left me disoriented when the unit's encampment undergoes strafing fire, while more than once and clearly visible, a warplane bearing USAF markings is shown flying by. Seems to me like someone should have caught that.

Besides some interesting scenes portraying the daily life and death struggles of a Korean War medical team, the story follows Major Jed Webbe's (Bogey) romancing of a newly assigned nurse, Lt. Ruth McGara (June Allyson). However there's nothing subtle about Webbe's approach, and it's surprising that McGara allows this affair to blossom considering how much of a chauvinist the Major turns out to be. In fact, he's a genuine creep when you get right down to it.

Keenan Wynn is fairly effective as Sgt. Orvil Statt, competently running the basic mechanics of the unit, with impressive views of breaking down and setting up camp. Robert Keith is the no nonsense Lt. Col. Walters, who takes Webbe down a peg for getting drunk on his own time, and later offers him a drink after a particularly hairy operation. War is hell.

You'll have to really pay attention to the only attempt at comic relief here, since it's a visual - the sign underneath the camp cook's serving table states "This Mess Recommended by Romanoff".

Humphrey Bogart made a number of war films, but much like the Westerns in which he appeared, this just doesn't appear to be his element. He was much better suited for the gangster and noir dramas that made him famous, and "Casablanca" didn't hurt either. Here, with his age showing through, he seemed entirely mismatched with the younger June Allyson, whose clout as a leading lady here is much subdued.

With only one tense scene involving a Korean prisoner (Philip Ahn) threatening to blow up a grenade in an operating room, the film offers no defining moments and very little battle action. In fact, the movie doesn't really even have an ending. As the MASH Unit detours it's way around an active battle zone, all you have left is Bogey and Allyson walking off into the sunset as it were, perhaps wondering what might have happened if the grenade went off.

This is an interesting movie. It's not the best war movie you'll ever see; it's not the most exciting movie you'll ever see and it's not one of Humphrey Bogart's best movies by a long shot. But it's still very interesting in its own way. I was intrigued by it at first because it's the story of a MASH unit in the Korean War - long before MASH the TV series or MASH the movie or MASH the book. To be honest, I really hadn't been aware that a story that focused specifically on a MASH unit had been done before that. I have to say that I enjoyed this much more than I enjoyed "MASH" the movie. This seemed to take a far more serious approach to the subject, and it seemed to stay on topic far better. It makes many of the same points that author Richard Hooker would make in his 1968 book (and that would be the inspiration for the later movie and TV series of the same name) - the pointlessness of war, the heroics of the medical teams and the need for those involved to just find a way - any way - through, whether that meant alcohol or sex (or, I suppose, anything else.) It's different, though, in that it portrays a much more positive picture of the military.

Bogart played Major Webb, second in command of MASH 8666. He's a bit of a lonely figure with a past that doesn't really get explored much, but he's obviously a superb doctor. Into his life comes Lt. Ruth McGara (June Allyson) and they develop an interesting relationship that both sometimes fight against, that sometimes neither takes very seriously and that seems to eventually develop into something real. There wasn't really much passion (or chemistry) between them, but the relationship seemed believable to me in the circumstances, where such relationships probably come and go pretty quickly depending on who gets transferred where and when. It's a cautious relationship understandably, and so perhaps the emotional connection that sometimes seems lacking actually works. It's that relationship that's the plot device that moves this forward.

Interspersed are vignettes of war. The hospital comes under fire on occasion, it's constantly on the move to keep up with wherever the front happens to be, there's some reflection on the impact of the war on Korean civilians, and the most exciting scene of the movie is probably the North Korean prisoner who manages to smuggle a grenade into the hospital. It's not an exciting, action-packed war movie. It seems to simply give a look at the life of those serving in a MASH unit, and it seems to be one of the many "tribute" sort of movies that were made in the era. Although casualties are certainly present throughout, it's also not at all graphic in its depictions, and (even understanding the greater sensitivities the industry at the time had to such things) I found it ridiculous that Webb could perform chest surgery on a young Korean boy which included an open heart massage and yet apparently not get a spot of blood on him while doing it!

It's not great. I would call it interesting, mostly for its look at a MASH unit before M*A*S*H*. (5/10)