Norman Mailer's classic comes to the big screen courtesy of director Raoul Walsh (Objective, Burma!; High Sierra) and an ensemble of seasoned actors and fresh-faced up-and-comers. Raymond Massey and Cliff Robertson play officers whose opposing views on military leadership are the two poles between which a platoon's fate is stretched during the war of the Pacific. Massey's Gen. Cummings advocates fear as the guide to goading men to face death, whereas Robertson's Lt. Hearn vehemently disagrees. Hearn is hard-pressed, however, to find the better nature within the sadistic Sgt. Croft (Aldo Ray), whose own wartime ethos seems to be pure hatred. Pounded inside this crucible are the men of the platoon: pals Roth (Joey Bishop) and Goldstein (Jerry Paris), scout Martinez (Henry Amargo), medic Rhidges (James Best), older vet Red (Robert Gist), Southerner Cpl. Wilson (L.Q. Jones), nerve-case Minetta (Greg Roman) and new father Gallagher (Richard Jaeckel).

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Despite an ad campaign wherein RKO Radio congratulated itself for its "guts," this long-delayed film version of Norman Mailer's bestselling WW2 novel The Naked and the Dead still had to pull most of its punches (especially when it came to four-letter words). Aldo Ray heads the cast as sadistic sergeant Croft, who'd as soon kill one of his own men as he would the Japanese. Sensitive, moralistic Lieutenant Hearn (Cliff Robertson) tries to put a leash on Croft, but he's ordered to keep out of the situation by psychotic General Cummings (Raymond Massey), who is convinced that soldiers will fight harder the more they hate their superiors. The film wavers uncomfortably between excessive violence and excessive moralizing, with time out for a few ill-conceived slapstick setpieces (including an outsized barroom brawl) and romantic interludes with such zaftig beauties as stripteaser Lili (Lili St. Cyr) and good-time girl Mildred (Barbara Nichols). In one of his first film appearances, comedian Joey Bishop plays Pvt. Roth, whose reaction to Sgt. Croft's relentless anti-semitism culminates in a spectacular death scene. Distribution of The Naked and the Dead was taken over from the failing RKO Radio operation by Warner Bros., who also changed the name of the film's widescreen process from SuperScope to WarnerScope.

Excerpt from B+N located HERE

1080P Single-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video

Edition Details:
• Trailer (2:34)

Blu-ray  Release Date: August 28th, 2018
Standard Blu-ray case