It's the story of the USS Belinda, an attack transport, whose mission is to take Marines and soldiers to the beaches of the Pacific and land them, usually under fire. And it's not badly done.
Jeff Chandler is the necessary tough but fair captain of the Belinda. He remains isolated from the men throughout, as he must, since he's in command, and must whip the new sailors and officers into shape. As in every other war movie you can think of, he must be cruel to be kind.
The exception to this formula is "The Caine Mutiny," in which the crew are seasoned and efficient, while the new commanding officer is petty, incompetent, and half nuts.
Be that as it may, the film has some good things going for it. One is the photography by William Daniels. The shots aboard and around the ship are convincing. When you watch the Belinda from the air, you see a real Navy transport, suffering a real list, emitting real smoke from its damaged deck, and being towed by real LCVPs. The combat scenes are model work but reasonably effective. Especially impressive are the special effects used during the Kamikaze attacks at Okinawa. The tiny suicide airplanes in the distance are gradually enveloped in exact replicas of the small blotches of exploding 40 millimeter shells, as if the far-off sky were erupting in dozens of black freckles. And, as a bonus, they aren't accompanied at first by loud bangs on the sound track because, as in real life, they're too distant for the noise to register. A fine and convincing job that required some thought. Not too much, but some.
Jeff Chandler is reliable without being memorable. George Nader as the only other experienced seaman aboard is the audience proxy and does a professional job, as do most of the supporting cast, especially Charles McGraw as the Beachmaster and Richard Boone, as the manly but unforgiving Lieutenant Fraser. Even Lex Barker, the ex Tarzan, pulls off his role as the ineffective executive officer enacts his role with aplomb, though, according to Boone, who holds him in contempt, he has nothing but good manners and a toothpaste smile. Barker retains both features as he "grows into his stripes" and finally qualifies for his own command, although his maturation is no more than mentioned, rather than illustrated. Some of the minor roles are embarrassingly bad. The chicken grinder should have stuck to grinding chicken guts. And Ensign Twitchell, who has the mind and temper of a spoiled ten-year-old overplays a part that is already over-written.
I rather like it, too, because it's the story of an unglamorous ship, an Attack Transport. There are lots of movies about carriers and destroyers, but none others that I know of that deal with APAs, some of which were manned by U. S. Coast Guard personnel. Finally, the most tense sequences, aside from the Kamikaze attacks, deal with the salvage of the half wrecked Belinda. There are no exciting moments imposed on the narrative by a landing party armed with Tommy guns. There is, though, a rather extended flashback involving Nader's courtship of Julie Adams. It's only saving grace is that, amidst the torpid romance, Julie Adams is on display for a few minutes in an appealing white swim suit. And she is an elegant-looking dish.
Jeff Chandler is the necessary tough but fair captain of the Belinda. He remains isolated from the men throughout, as he must, since he's in command, and must whip the new sailors and officers into shape. As in every other war movie you can think of, he must be cruel to be kind.
The exception to this formula is "The Caine Mutiny," in which the crew are seasoned and efficient, while the new commanding officer is petty, incompetent, and half nuts.
Be that as it may, the film has some good things going for it. One is the photography by William Daniels. The shots aboard and around the ship are convincing. When you watch the Belinda from the air, you see a real Navy transport, suffering a real list, emitting real smoke from its damaged deck, and being towed by real LCVPs. The combat scenes are model work but reasonably effective. Especially impressive are the special effects used during the Kamikaze attacks at Okinawa. The tiny suicide airplanes in the distance are gradually enveloped in exact replicas of the small blotches of exploding 40 millimeter shells, as if the far-off sky were erupting in dozens of black freckles. And, as a bonus, they aren't accompanied at first by loud bangs on the sound track because, as in real life, they're too distant for the noise to register. A fine and convincing job that required some thought. Not too much, but some.
Jeff Chandler is reliable without being memorable. George Nader as the only other experienced seaman aboard is the audience proxy and does a professional job, as do most of the supporting cast, especially Charles McGraw as the Beachmaster and Richard Boone, as the manly but unforgiving Lieutenant Fraser. Even Lex Barker, the ex Tarzan, pulls off his role as the ineffective executive officer enacts his role with aplomb, though, according to Boone, who holds him in contempt, he has nothing but good manners and a toothpaste smile. Barker retains both features as he "grows into his stripes" and finally qualifies for his own command, although his maturation is no more than mentioned, rather than illustrated. Some of the minor roles are embarrassingly bad. The chicken grinder should have stuck to grinding chicken guts. And Ensign Twitchell, who has the mind and temper of a spoiled ten-year-old overplays a part that is already over-written.
I rather like it, too, because it's the story of an unglamorous ship, an Attack Transport. There are lots of movies about carriers and destroyers, but none others that I know of that deal with APAs, some of which were manned by U. S. Coast Guard personnel. Finally, the most tense sequences, aside from the Kamikaze attacks, deal with the salvage of the half wrecked Belinda. There are no exciting moments imposed on the narrative by a landing party armed with Tommy guns. There is, though, a rather extended flashback involving Nader's courtship of Julie Adams. It's only saving grace is that, amidst the torpid romance, Julie Adams is on display for a few minutes in an appealing white swim suit. And she is an elegant-looking dish.