The Naked and the Dead is a 1958 widescreen [1]film based on Norman Mailer's World War II novel The Naked and the Dead. Directed by Raoul Walsh and filmed in Panama the screenplay attributed to the Sanders Brothers adds a strip tease and larger action scenes to Mailer's original narrative. Filmed by RKO just before its demise the film was released by Warner Brothers and was the last film Raoul Walsh directed for that studio.
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Filled with flashbacks, the film relates the story of Lt Hearn (Cliff Robertson) who is an aide to a General (Raymond Massey) who treats Hearn as a son and a friend. When Hearn challenges the General's authority and makes a suggestion that the General takes as his being impotent, Hearn is transferred to lead an Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon.
The platoon is led by Sgt Croft (Aldo Ray), a professional soldier who runs the war his own way. The General sends the platoon on a mission behind enemy lines with the platoon disliking Hearn.
The film has Croft being killed and Hearn surviving; the opposite of the book.
The film was eventually picked up by Paul Gregory and Charles Laughton to be made after The Night of the Hunter. Terry and Dennis Sanders who had worked on the screenplay and Stanley Cortez who had photographed Night of the Hunter were to write and photograph the film[2] with Laughton directing. Press releases of the time said that Robert Mitchum was to star and Walter Schumann would compose the score.[3] The box office failure of Night of the Hunter led to the film being taken over by Raoul Walsh who brought in an uncredited writer to redo the Sanders screenplay[4][5] whilst Cortes was replaced by Joseph LaShelle.
The film was made on location in Panama with 250 American soldiers as extras, Hawaiian born soldiers as Japanese soldiers[6] and local actors from the Canal Zone Theatre Guild appeared in the film.[7]