sentences:  The film performed poorly at the box office in the USA but did better in Europe.Critic Nora Sayre, film critic for "The New York Times", thought the film was too wholesome, so much so that Sayre wanted harm to come to the characters.Yet she appreciated Sven Nykvist's cinematography and wrote, ""The Dove" ... is probably far too wholesome for most of the families I know, although there may be a radiant audience lurking just outside the realms of my acquaintance ... Joseph Bottoms, as the young sailor, smiles too much in the first half of the movie; after that, he cries too much.