Teufelskerle in Fernost

The story begins in Korea and you see some Marines fighting the enemy briefly. Soon, they are given leave and do what many American soldiers did during the Korean War...they all head to Japan to chase women and behave like total clods. Then, after a lot of hijinks, they head back to war....where you hope they're all blown to bits.

While the film is in color and clearly it had a budget far greater than an Ed Wood film, it is NOT particularly good. Most of this is because the writing and dialog are pretty bad...and the soldiers are easy to dislike. Even the exalted director, Raoul Walsh, couldn't make this script enjoyable.

By the way, a few things to mention. First, although IMDB says the film was made in Okinawa, one brief scene in particular was clearly filmed at Kinkaku-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. Also, check out the biography for the hotel manager, Heihachirô Ôkawa. The information on IMDB is scant...but if you Google his name, you'll learn some interesting things about his life during and after WWII.

Caught the movie while surfing, and would've kept on looking except they mentioned they were going to Yokosuka Japan for leave. Having been stationed in Yokosuka the year it was released, I had to stick around to see if they'd show any part of it. The movie kept mentioning the Ginza, which of course, is in Tokyo. They probably were trying to refer to Honcho Street in Yokosuka, which was the main sailor bar street, and was definitely not the street they showed at night in the movie. When they entered an alleged Yokosuka bar, I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Instead of a small, dingy, crowded bar with tables, booths and bar girls hustling fleet sailors for drinks, it was like a 50's night club in America, complete with tablecloths and lamps on tables with a stage and chorus girls. IOW, nothing like any of the bars I saw in the two years I was stationed there. We base sailors, at the Naval Communications Station there had our own bar, the Bar Midnight, which was an all-night bar, not subject to cinderella liberty rules, as were the Honcho Street bars. My first question was 'Why name Yokosuka as a destination city for leave, which they constantly referred to as 'furlough', an Army term..If you arrive by ship, perhaps, but Tokyo would've been the destination for R&R from Korea, not Yokosuka. There was a Marine barracks on the base, but their main duty was guarding the Main Gate, running the Brig and firing the 105 mm howitzers at ceremonies, not running an 'intelligence unit' on base. And come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing a Marine Shore Patrol unit off-base. My second question was 'Who the hell wrote this . . . crud?' A very derivative movie, nothing original or truly funny.

Geez, this thing was awful. The acting was horrid. The writing was pathetic. I am not sure how this thing got made. I think it was supposed to be a comedy, but the intellectual level is kindergarten at best. I know some people say you have to not take some movies seriously, I get that and can often do that. But when they are this bad you just find your jaw dropping in amazement at how it somehow finds a way to get worse and worse. Terrible movie!

Marines Let's Go is a film about a group of leathernecks on leave in occupied Japan just before the outbreak of the Korean War. It's the usual hijinks you find in service comedies. Tom Tryon and David Hedison went on to have some substantial careers.

Tom Reese is the leader of the group, I imagine because Raoul Walsh couldn't get Lee Marvin for the part. Reese is the sort that seems to be only happy in combat. The kind us poor civilians should give a wide berth to.

The film should have ended right when the Marines are put on alert and the leaves canceled. It was an average enough comedy, but it got kind of silly when it turned abruptly serious during the beginning of the Korean War. Ruined the film, the combat situations were hardly convincing.

No wonder Raoul Walsh couldn't get any name players for this one.

joebat23 was overly kind in his grading of this movie, it is absolutely terrible. The plot couldn't even be called sophomoric, the acting was atrocious and the reasoning of the characters was juvenile. Add to this the incredibly bad dialog and an "Intelligence department" that can't figure out what is going on when it should be painfully obvious and you have a movie that makes those Police Academy movies seem like high art worthy of a Nobel Prize.

The only reason I can think of to watch this movie is that a relative is in it and even then I don't think you should lest you lose any regard you have for that relative.

Oh, if you are expecting any even halfway decent battle scenes, forget it.