Once Before I Die (1966)

The biggest problem with this one is the fact that John Derek couldn't resist the temptation to make it artsy, using every camera trick in the book to awe his viewers. All it ends up doing is making us want to turn away from it in disgust. The story is a mix so ambiguous that it ends up making no sense. It's interesting that he cast James Dean lookalike Rod Lauren in a major role and then filmed him in torrid love scenes with his then-wife Ursula Andress, especially odd since Derek and Andress both bedded James Dean........just before he died. Lauren's death scene in the film is downright laughable as he is somehow shot multiple times through a large tree trunk, with not so much as a single facial expression of shock, pain or agony. Weird scene. Andress is obviously there to be the "one before they all die", and the film is a total waste of some fine actors. A real mess.

Yeah, the story is a mess and some of the performances are wacked-out but it has its moments. Has anybody mentioned that Ursula Andress looks grrrrrrrrreeeeat in a wet, white blouse? Derek's films, though lacking coherence, could be visually impressive and this one was ahead of its time with some psychedelic shots that would eventually become tiresome by about 1969. Ron Ely (from Amarillo, Texas) gives a pretty good performance and the U.S. Cavalry uniforms are well done But, Andress is such a dolt that you pray she'll meet a slow and agonizing death. After a low flying Zero strafes a polo match, leaving Filipino corpses strewn about, Miss Andress pouts and whines about needing to take her puppy with her on the long trek to Manila. Pretty boy singer Rod Lauren does his best James Dean and scores with Ursula while the rest of the gang takes out a Japanese tank. Talk about dereliction of duty! Ursula's charms then make him impervious to enemy bullets. As for Richard Jaeckel, I will just have to believe that he was a psycho from the word go."Once Before I Die," you won't understand it but you may love it!

John Derek has never made a good movie in his life. He's been IN some good ones, but he's never MADE a good one, and there's no better example of his almost complete lack of talent as a filmmaker than this. He takes a potentially interesting story--the guerrilla war waged against the Japanese after their takeover of the Philippines in World War II--and for some reason turns it into a game of who's going to nail Ursula Andress before the Japanese kill everybody. Derek apparently thought that the sight of Andress, his wife (or girlfriend, or whatever she was) at that time, in various stages of undress was enough to draw people into the theaters (it wasn't). Because of that, he obviously paid no attention whatsoever to minor things like having a coherent script, directing the other actors, maintaining a semblance of continuity--trivial matters like that. The only saving grace (professionally, that is) is Richard Jaeckel's performance as a soldier eventually driven insane by the fighting. Jaeckel was always one of the most watchable actors around; he had that cockiness and explosive quality that Cagney had, and no matter how lousy the movie was (like this one), he always pulled it up a couple of notches. Unfortunately, he wouldn't have been able to pull this thing up with a crane. Its infuriating pretentiousness is its main undoing. The dialogue is so Ed Woods-ian in its rambling, nonsensical "what-the-HELL-are-they-talking-about?" absurdity that you finally find yourself wishing that the Japanese would come in, whack everybody and put the cast--and the audience--out of their misery. An absolutely painful experience that makes you wonder, "How in God's name did he get anyone to put up the money to make this thing?" Skip it.

This film, in spite of a few capable performers, like Ron Ely and Richard Jaeckel, for example, deserved to be left in the jungles of the Philippines from whence it came. Ursula Andress (once dubbed by the press as "Ursula Undress") is nice to look at, but in this film she hasn't much to do except show off her well-nourished superstructure through anachronistic wet clothing - The screenplay certainly doesn't show off her acting ability. John Derek treats her contributions to this picture like one of those front-page, soft-focus pictorials in "Playboy" that Andress (and, subsequent subject Linda Evans) did so often throughout the 1960s and 70s. For better material featuring Ursula Andress, see "Dr. No" (1962) and "Casino Royale" (1967). What a waste of time for anyone looking for serious drama about the post-Pearl Harbor Philippine invasion of 1941-42.