• Gets a little too much of its momentum and tone from the fact that the viewer knows that (even without the heavy-handed shot of the calendar) the peaceful idyll of Pearl Harbor is about to explode literally, figuratively and sexually.
• I have a hunch that the treatment of Prewitt was partly the inspiration behind many sequences in Cool Hand Luke (1967)
• I read in The Telegraph's 2010 retrospective that Sinatra took a massive paycut to appear in From Here to Eternity, electing to receive only $8,000 for the film and gambling that this would revive his flagging career (it did). What's perhaps more famous about Sinatra's appearance here, however, is that it's purported to be the origin of the sub-plot in The Godfather film (and original book) about Johnny Fontane using his mob connections to get him onto a film—the one with the famous horse's head in the bed. I don't believe it for a moment, but it's nonetheless interesting it was based on an actual appearance that we actually experience.
• The lacklustre marching performed by "actors slapdash squash-bashing, idle on parade" feels an improvement over a hypothetical version in which the armed forces got completely behind the film and provided actual soldiers, for it imparts a sense of laziness that matches the general vibe of the soon-to-be-shattered idyll of Hawaii. On the other hand, David Thomson remarked in 2011 that "The Army is treated as a tough boarding school, but a place that can be reformed and fought for after 7:50 a.m., December 7, with unflawed conviction."
• The bit at the end where Lorene (which isn't even her real name) lies to Karen is fantastic. Wish we had more of that screenwriting throughout.
Synopsis: In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.