La baie du guet-apens

A squad of Marines arrives at the Philippines, in October 1944. Their mission is top secret; but, if you have some background knowledge, you'll know it has to do with United States General Douglas MacArthur's impending return. The film's Captain is quickly killed off, and handsome "second in command" Sergeant Hugh O'Brian (as Steve Corey) takes over. A distant, no-nonsense hero, Mr. O'Brian was self-described gigolo (servicing a forty-year-old divorcée) as the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He clashes with ill-advisedly red-capped Private James Mitchum (as James Grenier), who has no combat experience. Mr. Mitchum, who also narrates the story, is needed for his radio transmission expertise.

The main conflict is between O'Brian and Mitchum; the film's message about war and heroism is haphazardly told. The film's most obvious fault is that nothing much is done to make any of it seem like it takes place in 1944. The Marines look and act like they could be fighting in Vietnam; this may, or may not be part of the point; it isn't clear. Perhaps, it was felt an authentic filming location (Philippines) would be enough. A nice opening introduces the cast, then neglects most of them. Veteran Mickey Rooney (as Ernest Wartell) and beautiful Tisa Chang (as Miyazaki) play the only noteworthy supporting characters.

**** Ambush Bay (6/13/66) Ron Winston ~ Hugh O'Brian, James Mitchum, Mickey Rooney, Tisa Chang

Much of this film takes place in the dark. So it is impossible to make out what is going on,which is rather frustrating. However what I did see looked cheap and cheesy. The Mitchum character was simply ridiculous. Why was he wearing a red cap in the jungle. Its all very predictable and second rate.

Ambush Bay is not a bad little WW2 "B"movie auctioneer. It blends your standard Pacific theatre war movie, with the old horror trope of our heroes being knocked off one by one letting us wonder who might survive if any at all. Unfortunately that concept is pretty much immediately undermined by the director choosing to use an unneeded narration, which should give the alert viewer a strong hint as to the final outcome. Ambush Bay is full of little positives and negatives, such as this.

It was filmed entirely on location in The Philippines, where the story is set, which is definitely a bonus for a clearly low budget feature. But then there is quite a bit of not particularly well-lit night-time cinematography in the jungle, during which it's pretty difficult to clearly see what action is occurring.

The story involves an elite unit of American marines undertaking a secret mission (Is there any other type?) to a Japanese - held island. They are to make contact with an American spy with vital information which may well affect the result of the war in the Pacific. The trouble is the spy works in a Japanese "tea-house" (pleasure resort for soldiers) and the Americans have no clue to the spy's identity, except a code-name. And beginning with their landing on the island they begin to suffer casualties.

Most associated with the movie had television pedigrees: director Ron Winston, (This was his debut cinema release.) lead, Hugh O"Brian and many of the support cast, including James Mitchum (Yes, Robert's son! The physical resemblance is there, but that's where it ends. Where Dad made acting look easy, Junior makes it look trying.) The arguable exception is Mickey Rooney, who whilst putting in a welcome appearance, is the least likely physical specimen one might expect to see on a mission such as this.

We get very little characterisation in Ambush Bay. Many of the soldiers are killed off, before we even know their names, some it has to be said, in rather silly fashions, for supposedly elite combat troops. Speaking of fashions, I'm not sure why some of them seemed to be wearing baseball caps. It never seemed to be explained. Mitchum's is the most developed character, playing a duck out of water. Drafted into the mission involuntarily because of his radio communication skills, he completes the old trope of a rookie soldier thrown into a situation beyond his control.

Ambush Bay doesn't aim high (even that title??) but what it does do, it does OK. There is plenty of action (some of it, literally unbelievable), a fair degree of suspense and I have to say, that I have seen far worse in terms of entertainment value.

I have seen the movie before years ago on TV and I don't remember much about it from that time. However, this time the first thing I notices all through out the film was-WHATS WITH THE HATS! Each character wore a different style or color hat. I guess the producers wanted the audience to be able to distinguish each actor by the color and style of the hats. Hugh O"Brian was a former Marine so he probably refused to wear an unauthorized COVER (see I did use the right term). His had the symbol in the front. In addition, Mitchem wore jeans. I can't see a real Marine doing that and I also can't see a real Marine talking in such a disrespectful manner. He would have gotten that beaten out of him the first day in boot camp. Me being a gunnut I did notice the man with the M! Garand having the side mounted scope on it (M1D). That really surprised me. When the story opened and the comment was made that the man was an expert with the Garand, he would have carried a M1D and sure enough in the story he did and he used it. All in all it was a good war movie. It was not Platoon but good.

The criteria presented regarding this movie is correct, except for the comment on the US M4 Sherman. In all wars, including the Second World War, forces from all sides wind up capturing enemy equipment. M3A1 Stuart light tanks of US manufacture were caputred by the Japanese in the Philippines (in Bataan) during 1941 and subsequently pressed into their service. The tank depicted in the movie could have been captured during the Guadalcanal campaign as the island kept continuously changing hands, shipped to the Phillipines and assigned to serve whatever division occupied those islands. Simple as that. There are records that show a few Sherman tanks were INDEED captured during the entire Pacific War.