This story of a Quaker gunnery officer on a Navy destroyer in World War II bears some resemblance to Howard Hawks' "Sergeant York" but not much. Will Allan Ladd manage to overcome his unwillingness to fire at the enemy and save the lives of his shipmates? Well, it seems to be an on-again off-again switch with Ladd, unlike Sergeant York who simply rendered unto Caesar those things that were Caesar's.
Ladd's story seems to be laid out according to the numbers. We first get to know him as an interesting guy, introducing his girl friend (who is completely dispensable) to Amer Picon, a Basque liqueur rarely found in America these days.
Ladd may be adventurous in his taste for liquor and, for all we know, his taste in women, but he's not anxious to shoot at an unidentified aircraft when they're at sea. The men disparage him. One of the officers, Keenan Wynne, hates him. His only supporter seems to be "Frenchy" Shapiro, an unlikely character played by William Bendix. Bendix was in real life an old friend of Ladd's by this time. The conflict is cleared up during a landing party in the Aleutian Islands, in which Frenchy is killed and Ladd wounded.
The script was partly written by Harry Brown who was responsible for some genuinely unusual -- even arty -- dialog in "A Walk In The Sun." But here it's no better than average. The funny banter among the enlisted men is silly rather than funny. The supporting players mostly do their jobs professionally but Ladd himself adds nothing. He was never a bravura performer and no one expects him to be. But he was doing a lot of booze and barbiturates during this period and although he was only in his 40s he looked puffy eyed and creaky. There's a terrible scene towards the end, when he and Bendix are being brought back to the ship in a lifeboat. Bendix dies in his arms and Ladd can't quite grasp the fact. He goes on mumbling to the dead body and when told that Bendix is gone, he says aloud, "Frenchy? Dead?" And he doesn't sound dazed with pain or shock. He sounds plastered.
It's a little painful to watch Ladd walk his way through this routine script because, given a certain undemanding kind of role, he could be quite good. But everything seems to jar in this film. Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians has never seen bright, sunny weather like this. Even the model work in "Destination Tokyo" went to the trouble of simulating the cold and the dreary fog.
I guess the message is supposed to be that some things are worth killing for. But, in the worst moment of the film, the hortative notion goes beyond that -- somewhere into the realm of "killing others is fun." Ladd and Bendix are making their escape from a Japanese-held island. Most of the enemy patrol is killed, but one wounded Japanese soldier wanders out into the open, a few feet away. Bendix raises his Tommy gun, then hesitates, grins, nudges Ladd and gestures that Ladd should have the privilege and fun of shooting and killing a wounded enemy. Killing wounded enemy soldiers and airmen was routine on both sides in the Pacific theater, but turning it into the equivalent of an amusement park ride is something else.
Ladd's story seems to be laid out according to the numbers. We first get to know him as an interesting guy, introducing his girl friend (who is completely dispensable) to Amer Picon, a Basque liqueur rarely found in America these days.
Ladd may be adventurous in his taste for liquor and, for all we know, his taste in women, but he's not anxious to shoot at an unidentified aircraft when they're at sea. The men disparage him. One of the officers, Keenan Wynne, hates him. His only supporter seems to be "Frenchy" Shapiro, an unlikely character played by William Bendix. Bendix was in real life an old friend of Ladd's by this time. The conflict is cleared up during a landing party in the Aleutian Islands, in which Frenchy is killed and Ladd wounded.
The script was partly written by Harry Brown who was responsible for some genuinely unusual -- even arty -- dialog in "A Walk In The Sun." But here it's no better than average. The funny banter among the enlisted men is silly rather than funny. The supporting players mostly do their jobs professionally but Ladd himself adds nothing. He was never a bravura performer and no one expects him to be. But he was doing a lot of booze and barbiturates during this period and although he was only in his 40s he looked puffy eyed and creaky. There's a terrible scene towards the end, when he and Bendix are being brought back to the ship in a lifeboat. Bendix dies in his arms and Ladd can't quite grasp the fact. He goes on mumbling to the dead body and when told that Bendix is gone, he says aloud, "Frenchy? Dead?" And he doesn't sound dazed with pain or shock. He sounds plastered.
It's a little painful to watch Ladd walk his way through this routine script because, given a certain undemanding kind of role, he could be quite good. But everything seems to jar in this film. Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians has never seen bright, sunny weather like this. Even the model work in "Destination Tokyo" went to the trouble of simulating the cold and the dreary fog.
I guess the message is supposed to be that some things are worth killing for. But, in the worst moment of the film, the hortative notion goes beyond that -- somewhere into the realm of "killing others is fun." Ladd and Bendix are making their escape from a Japanese-held island. Most of the enemy patrol is killed, but one wounded Japanese soldier wanders out into the open, a few feet away. Bendix raises his Tommy gun, then hesitates, grins, nudges Ladd and gestures that Ladd should have the privilege and fun of shooting and killing a wounded enemy. Killing wounded enemy soldiers and airmen was routine on both sides in the Pacific theater, but turning it into the equivalent of an amusement park ride is something else.