James Bassett's novel was pretty retrograde for the mid 1960s. It endorsed every apple-pie value imaginable. Adulterers and rapists die. The Navy was good, but politicians, high-class Bostonian elites, public relations personnel, journalists, and rear echelon headline mongerers were condemned. On top of that the book was clumsily written. Everyone -- men and women alike -- seemed to speak with the same cadence and vocabulary. Cliché followed cliché. When -- Full speed ahead; damn the spoilers! -- when Rockwell Torrey loses a leg at the end of the story, he's ashamed to face his girl friend because he's "only half a man." I'm not making that up. And when, on the eve of battle, an officer confesses that he's scared to death, Wayne admits that he too is scared. We've seen that identical exchange dozens of times. In this case Wayne's deportment didn't convince me he was really scared. He seemed strung out behind 3 milligrams of Xanax.
The novel could have been written with Hollywood in mind because it has all the audience appeal of any other commercial effort -- three (or maybe four) romantic relationships going on at once, bureaucratic intrigue with heroes and villains, and an opening sea battle and an even bigger climactic engagement.
Wendell Mayes, the screenwriter, pulls all these threads together in a way that, while still leaving this a mediocre effort, improves on the book, if only by shortening it.
John Wayne exudes relaxed authority, which is his forte. He could have walked through the part but he does a thoroughly professional job. Kirk Douglas is second in the credits but has a much smaller part as Wayne's competent but tormented assistant. Both men were aging visibly by this time in their careers and at times it seems that Douglas is wearing a Kirk Douglas mask, but Douglas at least gets the few humorous moments in the story.
Brandon De Wilde was splendid as the little boy in "Shane" eleven years earlier, and fine as the naive teen in "Hud." Here, as a Wayne's estranged son, a young Harvard-educated PT boat officer, he's adequate but no more than that.
Patricia Neal is Wayne's girl friend, a savvy but gentle nurse. She's no longer a glamorous kid either, but her face seems careworn and soft. She's a suitable mate for Wayne. Jill Haworth is the saucy young nurse who is engaged to De Wilde but tempts Douglas beyond the point of redemption. She's more figure than talent. There's a third romance between the heroic Tom Tryon and the achingly horny Paula Prentiss, but it's not clear why this narrative thread was left in the script. The intrigues and their dynamics are dazzling enough without it.
The battles were done with models, as was usual at the time, and the special effects are okay for the period, but compare the contemporary "Sink the Bismarck" to see how it could have been more convincingly executed. That last engagement was a bit confusing because when ships are exploding, it's hard to tell one from another.
Historically the whole affair is fiction. Well -- two real figures appear on the screen. Admiral Husband Kimmel (Franchot Tone) who got all the blame for the naval disaster at Pearl Harbor and whose head rolled, and Admiral Nimitz (Henry Fonda) who has two or three short scenes of no particular distinction.
The climactic battle steals elements from Guadalcanal (if we don't stop the Japanese from finishing that airstrip, we're sunk), Surigao Strait (the Japanese are caught by mines and torpedo boats in a narrow channel during a night action), and Leyte Gulf (a super battleship and numerous escorts against a lesser fleet of American ships, with the Japanese turned away at the last minute by a display of American gallantry). Nice black-and-white photography.
It's not a bad movie but rather strictly routine. There are no stand out performances because there are no opportunities for stand out performances. The script is too bland for that. Preminger does manage one actually shocking incident. It takes place in the officer's john, and involves Douglas slapping the evil-looking Patrick O'Neal several times across the face -- hard. Otherwise, it's by the numbers.
The novel could have been written with Hollywood in mind because it has all the audience appeal of any other commercial effort -- three (or maybe four) romantic relationships going on at once, bureaucratic intrigue with heroes and villains, and an opening sea battle and an even bigger climactic engagement.
Wendell Mayes, the screenwriter, pulls all these threads together in a way that, while still leaving this a mediocre effort, improves on the book, if only by shortening it.
John Wayne exudes relaxed authority, which is his forte. He could have walked through the part but he does a thoroughly professional job. Kirk Douglas is second in the credits but has a much smaller part as Wayne's competent but tormented assistant. Both men were aging visibly by this time in their careers and at times it seems that Douglas is wearing a Kirk Douglas mask, but Douglas at least gets the few humorous moments in the story.
Brandon De Wilde was splendid as the little boy in "Shane" eleven years earlier, and fine as the naive teen in "Hud." Here, as a Wayne's estranged son, a young Harvard-educated PT boat officer, he's adequate but no more than that.
Patricia Neal is Wayne's girl friend, a savvy but gentle nurse. She's no longer a glamorous kid either, but her face seems careworn and soft. She's a suitable mate for Wayne. Jill Haworth is the saucy young nurse who is engaged to De Wilde but tempts Douglas beyond the point of redemption. She's more figure than talent. There's a third romance between the heroic Tom Tryon and the achingly horny Paula Prentiss, but it's not clear why this narrative thread was left in the script. The intrigues and their dynamics are dazzling enough without it.
The battles were done with models, as was usual at the time, and the special effects are okay for the period, but compare the contemporary "Sink the Bismarck" to see how it could have been more convincingly executed. That last engagement was a bit confusing because when ships are exploding, it's hard to tell one from another.
Historically the whole affair is fiction. Well -- two real figures appear on the screen. Admiral Husband Kimmel (Franchot Tone) who got all the blame for the naval disaster at Pearl Harbor and whose head rolled, and Admiral Nimitz (Henry Fonda) who has two or three short scenes of no particular distinction.
The climactic battle steals elements from Guadalcanal (if we don't stop the Japanese from finishing that airstrip, we're sunk), Surigao Strait (the Japanese are caught by mines and torpedo boats in a narrow channel during a night action), and Leyte Gulf (a super battleship and numerous escorts against a lesser fleet of American ships, with the Japanese turned away at the last minute by a display of American gallantry). Nice black-and-white photography.
It's not a bad movie but rather strictly routine. There are no stand out performances because there are no opportunities for stand out performances. The script is too bland for that. Preminger does manage one actually shocking incident. It takes place in the officer's john, and involves Douglas slapping the evil-looking Patrick O'Neal several times across the face -- hard. Otherwise, it's by the numbers.