Fighting Coast Guard

Fighting Coast Guard, it should be called "smoking" coast guard, every scene involves at least one or more actors smoking away to their heart content, never coughing or spluttering it like lung cancer didn't exist. I'm going to rush out and buy some tabs " I need a cig"

A lively studio and stock footage Republic quickie with a pounding score by David Buttolph, set during the war in the Pacific ("Who's Pearl Harbor?") but plainly with an eye on what was brewing in Korea, with Forrest Tucker having a quick scrap with John Russell in the opening sequence to justify putting the word "fighting" in the title.

Beauty among all these beasts is supplied by the amazing Ella Raines as a lady welder, who naturally is usually seen on her nights off.

Good directing and the archive stock Kamikaze footage is good. My Grandfather was in the thick of it and I always think of him being there. He was wounded but survived a Kamikaze attack on USS WASP. I always asked if he was mad at the Japanese but he said no. Imperial Japan fought well...USA fought the wrong enemy.

If this film was supposed to promote the work of the U.S. Coastguard in WW2 it failed miserably. This was largely due to the film spending far too much time on the unconvincing romantic triangle between Forrest Tucker, Ella Raines and Brian Donleavy. Stock footage of WW2 action cannot make up for a very weak storyline.