"Battle of the Coral Sea" director Paul Wenkos' World War II epic "Tarawa Beachhead" qualifies as a grim, War-Is-Hell, combat movie about the U.S. Marines in the South Pacific. Kerwin Mathews and Ray Danton portray jarhead officers who clash because the latter is an ambitious but reckless glory hound while the former is a down-to-earth guy. This is one of those World War II movies were we were our own enemy. Many World War II movies during the 1950s adopted this inward look. Indeed, the Japanese adversaries are never given any lines and their perspective of the fighting isn't a part of the action. They remain the traditional enemy with whom we have no sympathy. They like to ambush G.I.s, play possum so they can kill again, and love to snipe at our guys. Meanwhile, Mathews and Danton buck heads because one believes the other murdered a soldier in cold blood. Danton argues that he was an accident, but earlier he had warned Mathews that he would shoot him for disobeying an order. Some brief, romantic moments occur in the middle of "Tarawa Beachhead," but the disposable love story never interferes with the action. As a matter of fact, once our heroes go off to fight the Japanese, the romance is dropped and we see nothing of Julie Adams.
U.S. Marine Lieutenant Joel Brady (Ray Danton of "The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamonds") sees war as "the key to the city." The action unfolds on Gaudalcanal in 1942 as Brady and his company cross the island. They come upon some caves where the Japanese have established deadly machine gun nests. Although they are in different theaters of operations, "Tarawa Beachhead" resembles the 1962 Don Siegel movie "Hell Is for Heroes. The G.I.s in "Hell Is For Heroes" found themselves pinned down by withering German machine gun fire. The G.I.s there resort to hand grenades and satchel charges to silence these pillboxes. Basically, "Tarawa Beachhead" is about Marines who have to blow-up pill boxes.
During the opening scenes on Guadalcanal, when they are contending with machine gunners concealed in caves, one of Brady's soldiers, Johnny Campbell (John Baer of "Riding Shotgun"), cracks up and runs. Brady guns him down Campbell with Sergeant Tom Sloan (Kerwin Mathews of "Barquero")watching. These two guys start out hating each other from the get-go. At one point, Sloan observes, "I want to see you blow-up green and stink like they're gonna stink." Such a comment to a superior officer is rather harsh. The sneaky Brody recommends Sloan for a field commission and Sloan winds up in New Zealland working for a high-ranking officer, General Keller. Sloan takes time out to visit Campbell's widow (the lovely Julie Adams of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon")and give her some of her late husband's mail. Keller uses Sloan on a secret mission to investigate the construction of new Japanese pill boxes and has Captain Brody lead the raid.
When they meet later, Brody calls Sloan and he the good cowboy and the bad cowboy. Sloan has lost none of his resolve now that he is an officer. He vows to Brody, "I'm going to take those bars and cut you wide open with them." Ironically, during a bunker scene near the end, Brody turns into a flesh & blood character who can no longer see the point of leading his men against such an entrenched obstacle.
Wendkos does a good job with a standard-issue war movie with some authentic combat footage cut into the action.
U.S. Marine Lieutenant Joel Brady (Ray Danton of "The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamonds") sees war as "the key to the city." The action unfolds on Gaudalcanal in 1942 as Brady and his company cross the island. They come upon some caves where the Japanese have established deadly machine gun nests. Although they are in different theaters of operations, "Tarawa Beachhead" resembles the 1962 Don Siegel movie "Hell Is for Heroes. The G.I.s in "Hell Is For Heroes" found themselves pinned down by withering German machine gun fire. The G.I.s there resort to hand grenades and satchel charges to silence these pillboxes. Basically, "Tarawa Beachhead" is about Marines who have to blow-up pill boxes.
During the opening scenes on Guadalcanal, when they are contending with machine gunners concealed in caves, one of Brady's soldiers, Johnny Campbell (John Baer of "Riding Shotgun"), cracks up and runs. Brady guns him down Campbell with Sergeant Tom Sloan (Kerwin Mathews of "Barquero")watching. These two guys start out hating each other from the get-go. At one point, Sloan observes, "I want to see you blow-up green and stink like they're gonna stink." Such a comment to a superior officer is rather harsh. The sneaky Brody recommends Sloan for a field commission and Sloan winds up in New Zealland working for a high-ranking officer, General Keller. Sloan takes time out to visit Campbell's widow (the lovely Julie Adams of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon")and give her some of her late husband's mail. Keller uses Sloan on a secret mission to investigate the construction of new Japanese pill boxes and has Captain Brody lead the raid.
When they meet later, Brody calls Sloan and he the good cowboy and the bad cowboy. Sloan has lost none of his resolve now that he is an officer. He vows to Brody, "I'm going to take those bars and cut you wide open with them." Ironically, during a bunker scene near the end, Brody turns into a flesh & blood character who can no longer see the point of leading his men against such an entrenched obstacle.
Wendkos does a good job with a standard-issue war movie with some authentic combat footage cut into the action.
