A brilliant 24-year-old writer-producer-director-cameraman named Stanley Kubrik and a sensuous Hollywood unknown (opp. page) have distilled crucial elements of war and passion into a film of extraordinary emotional impact. Released this week, Kubrik's Fear and Desire centers on four soldiers, of unidentified nationality, lost behind enemy lines in an unidentified war. Their nerve-bruising misadventures point up the personality of each: the jittery recruit; the smooth-talking, philosophically inclined lieutenant; the tough sergeant; and a placid average type. Only two survive.

Kubrik was a successful magazine photographer at 17, set out to work on the film in '50 with $20,000 from friends and relatives. Shooting, mostly in California's San Gabriel Mountains, took a month. The rest of the time went for editing and drumming up another $80,000. Kubrik gives full credit to associates, says "Ten thousand things connected with film making are harassing, but it was all worth the trouble."

People Today, April 8, 1953