An Annapolis Story

Very patriotic soap opera of the life of two close-knit naval cadet brothers (McCarthy and Derek) in love with the same woman (Diana Lynn, an absolute delight in a straight role). The stars charm, 50's period flavor (the only thing missing is a bottle of Coca-Cola), and classic story line carry the film. Enough interest for naval buffs and romance fans...and in glorious color! Good choice for a Red-White-and-Blue patriotic holiday.

Compact, well-paced, and easy on the eyes (as well as the brain), this is a worthy example of the "second features" coming out of Hollywood in the early to mid 1950s. It knows its place on the bottom half of a double-bill and has no pretensions to rise above its status.

The story line about the brothers-turned-rivals is satisfyingly predictable and intermixed with it is footage of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, back in the days when it was all-male and all-white. There's also a bit of aerial footage as the two brothers move from Annapolis to Pensacola to Corpus Christi and finally to Korea. There's even a street-scene shot of Tokyo in the post-war era.

John Derek, Diana Lynn, and Kevin McCarthy make an attractive threesome -- particularly in that glorious Technicolor of the era -- but despite all the obvious opportunities for shower-room and locker-room scenes at the Academy, there's very little beefcake. So much testosterone, so little skin! There is, however, a brief scene of a swimsuit-clad Diana Lynn and John Derek running out of the ocean and onto a beach, so we do get a glimpse of Derek's bare chest just about a year before it was caressed by Vincent Price's whip in 1956's "The Ten Commandments." Alvy Moore supplies the comic relief. (Does anyone "buy" him as a naval cadet?)

With a pretense of being a salute to a great American institution and the brave officers it produces, this film relies on choppy inserts of combat stock footage, flat dialogue, and improbable situations (but nonetheless a very predictable plot swiped from the 1928 film "Annapolis") to "glorify" a great tradition. Everyone looks great, including the Navy fighter jets, and there are some respectful shots of Academy traditions, but if the studio wanted to make a cinema salute to Annapolis and its graduates who served in the Korean war, it should have employed a more creative and/or dedicated director and more talented writers, film editors, and cinematographers. Annapolis deserves better. For dramatic contrast see John Ford's salute to West Point: "The Long Gray Line."

When I reviewed the film Annapolis that starred James Franco and Tyrese Gibson a few years ago I remarked that one of the big flaws I found in that film was the lack of anything resembling academics in the film. That is made up for in An Annapolis Story where you do see a well rounded depiction of the experience of being a midshipman there. But in fact romantic rivalry comes before anything else in this film.

The rivalry is between two brothers attending the Naval Academy post World War II. One brother got an appointment through the ranks as a veteran of the Navy, Kevin McCarthy. The second is younger brother John Derek who got it via academics and a Congressional appointment.

These brothers have a bit of a rivalry going in everything from academics to athletics. Both are on the football team, McCarthy a by the book type and Derek inclined to go out on his own. The rivalry is friendly until Derek starts making moves on McCarthy's long time girl Diana Lynn. Then it gets quite ugly.

It continues right through Naval Air Training in Pensacola and into the Korean War when both become fighter pilots on those new jets. As to what happens and who Lynn chooses in the end you'll have to see the film to find out.

A lot of good newsreel footage for the combat scenes and location shooting at the Naval Academy helps this film out in so many ways. Having been to the Naval Academy several years ago, I can testify not too much has changed for the more recent Annapolis or from the time An Annapolis Story was filmed there. An Annapolis Story is a decent B film from Allied Artists and a sincere tribute to the midshipmen who have graduated there and whom this country owes so much.

And it's to the Naval Academy and every midshipman whoever attended since the 1840s when it was founded that this review is respectfully dedicated.