What happens when a man can't do what a man's gotta do? From the team of Zinneman, Kramer and Foreman, whose next film would be High Noon, this was a provocative question indeed. Marlon Brando made his screen debut as a World War II veteran paralyzed in the war and now struggling to accept his disability. It is a performance of marvelous sensitivity and physicality. At first a furious rebel against his fate, Brando's Bud Wilchek keeps his fiancée Ellie (Teresa Wright) at bay for years before allowing her to witness the change in his body. He must be able to see it himself first. He builds up his physical strength-working on parallel bars, bowling and playing wheelchair basketball, driving with hand controls. With less tangible results, he works on his despair. Performance anxiety hovers over this film in a very special way, but The Men, and in particular Brando's performance, cuts through the implied machismo. The film strives for a sense of real life, and because of this, supplies no easy outs. With patients in a California veterans' hospital among the ensemble cast, The Men is unique in illustrating a variety of personalities and aspirations among the disabled veterans; Bud (at any rate, Brando) cannot be "typed." Finally, where most films end, this one begins all over again: the emotional strain experienced by Bud and Ellie on their wedding night is portrayed unflinchingly. This bride grows from self-assured helpmate to confused realist, and that is a good start.