However, his excellent and relatively restrained performance in THE RACK helped him be a genuine star. His second, SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME was an excellent film and finally gave Newman some recognition, but some people must have thought that his success could have been a fluke-especially after his first film. His first, THE SILVER CHALICE, he later described as one of the worst movies ever made. That fact is brought out quite clearly in this fine film. Those points are not the same with every individual. The Rack is the story of one man who reached a breaking point while in captivity. It would come even closer to home during the Vietnam War. These were all new issues for the American public to face. It's why the atrocities that happened and more important the fact that the prison keepers never viewed what they did as atrocities.

Someone who didn't die at his duty and allowed himself to be captured was one worthy of contempt. Their view of prisoners was one radically different from the western one. The Pacific Theater of World War II and later the Korean War put us against enemies of an oriental culture and the second one flavored with Marxism.

Marvin's scene in the witness stand is also classic. Also in the film is Lee Marvin who was a fellow prisoner and who is the original accusatory witness against Newman. Prosecuting Newman is Wendell Corey and his defense counsel is Edmond O'Brien a good pair of cinematic legal adversaries if there ever was one. Walter Pidgeon gives the best performance in the film, his scenes with Newman after he gets the news are what great acting is all about. It was after a welcome home party for Newman that Pidgeon receives the word about Newman's court martial. His father Walter Pidgeon is in the service, his brother was killed in Korea, and the brother's wife Anne Francis has stayed with Pidgeon.

Making things triply worse is the fact that Newman comes from a military family. After the disaster of The Silver Chalice and his subsequent success in Somebody Up There Like Me, Newman's performance in The Rack assured his future stardom. The Rack casts Paul Newman in his third film as a returning prisoner of war who is put on trial for collaborating with the enemy during the Korean War.

Paul newman lee marvin