New Movies: Fascination with the Deviate

France, 1944. Hysterically, a German soldier tries to break the American sergeant's stranglehold. But there is no escape; the grip grows tighter until the soldier chokes to death. The sergeant releases his victim —and his own breath returns in a series of orgasmic spasms.

France, 1952. The country has changed, but the sergeant is the same: a psychotic homosexual who hides his desires from the world—and from himself—beneath a barrage of bluster. In the title role of The Sergeant, Rod Steiger continues his obvious fascination with the deviate character. Where he was the screaming,...