Defensores da Bandeira

While the story line is only so-so, the list of stars is quite impressive. The really special part of this movie is the exposure that the Marines in San Diego had to so many of the stars of the day. My father's unit (he was a DI) was used to film the movie. When you see Randolph Scott drilling his men, the close-ups are of Mr. Scott - the far off shots are of my father. My father also appears as an extra in other shots - the most noticeable being the scene where the men are all sitting in the bleachers. The really memorable aspect (and hopefully not TOO sentimental) of all this centers around the fact that this is the only record I have of my father in a "moving picture" (He died in 1952 when I was 3 years old, and the only pictures I have of him are still shots).

Additionally, I fondly remember a large autographed picture by Randolph Scott inscribed to my father and the men in the unit - sitting in front of the men are Mr. Scott and my father, both wearing their round DI hats. This picture was also very special to all of us children. Therefore, this movie, while never going down as one of the great ones, will always have a very special place in my heart. It also gives me a better appreciation of movie "extras" and makes me wonder, "who are they and whatever happened to them"!

I agree with the evaluation of bsmith5552 that it is a disappointing flagwaver, and essentially a U.S.Marine recruitment film. But it has its own place in history. I have just been refreshed as to that place in history by watching again the film version of Leon Uris's first (and maybe best) novel, Battle Cry. Uris dramatized his own experience as a young marine, first training in the States, then in Wellington and elsewhere in New Zealand and finally fighting in the islands of the Pacific He has a fascinating picture of what it was like for young Americans to find themselves in a strange and previously unheard of land like New Zealand. I was a Kiwi teenager in Wellington at that time and can vouch for the accuracy of Uris' depiction of the impact of the descent of thousands of young marines on our city and of their interaction with the locals. To the Shores of Tripoli screened in Wellington in 1942, not long after Pearl Harbor, in the time the newly formed Marine Divisions were there preparing for their involvement in the war in the South Pacific. Through that film we saw on our screens the training only months earlier of the men who were now in our midst. Bsmith5552 speaks of the repetitive sequences of close order drill. I watched the marine band perform those intricate marching exercises in colour film in a local cinema ("picture theatre" in our brand of English). This was the same week I saw them do it live in Wellington. I was transfixed as I saw utterly committed young marines rise and stand to attention in their places in the cinema as the Marines Hymn came through on the film's sound track. I was not simply present at a piece of entertainment. I was watching live drama. To the Shores of Tripoli may not have been a great movie. But in the South Pacific in 1942, when we (maybe unlike today's Iraquis) welcomed the Marines as life savers, preserving us from a Japanese invasion, it had its place in the drama of that time. I viewed it sixty years ago with great interest. I would like the little niche it has in cinema history to be remembered.

Darryl Zanuck personally signed his name to this seminal, jaw-droppingly glamourous war movie full as leading lady Maureen O'Hara put it, of "unfurling flags, marching men, and martial music" and "credited with more new enlistments in the United States Marine Corps than any other promotional campaign that year". Shot at San Diego Marine Base, it also represents a key moment in film history as Miss O'Hara's first Technicolor production, for which she'd been becomingly transformed into a brunette.

While it was in production (SPOILER COMING:) Pearl Harbor was bombed (a moment when according to the movies every single American simultaneously had their radios on when the news first hit the airwaves); cue the outrageous super-patriotic climax when John Payne finally puts his love-life on hold the better to head for the Pacific.

Hirohito and Tojo probably never saw it; but Dr Goebbels probably needed oxygen after seeing this one!

The plot of "To the Shores of Tripoli" is very, very similar to the very popular "Buck Privates" starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. But, unlike this film from the year before, "To the Shores of Tripoli" is not meant to be a comedy. Like the earlier film, this one starts with an obnoxious and self-assured brat of a man (John Payne) walking into the Marine base--assuming because of his connections that he will be accorded special privileges. But, like the other film, his father goes behind his back and insists that his son needs character building and NO exceptions or special favors should be granted to him. And, like "Buck Privates", the brat manages to make a nuisance of himself until, ultimately, he finds redemption. In the interim, he relentlessly chases a pretty nurse (Maureen O'Hara), tangles repeatedly with his Sergeant and makes a few friends--then alienates them with his boorish attitude.

Overall, the film looks great. It's filmed in full color--the sort of intense 1940s color that doesn't quite look real, but is better in some ways than real life! The acting is excellent (with Payne, O'Hara and Randolph Scott) and there is a nice group of actors who play the recruits such as Harry Morgan (in his first film), "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom and William Tracy (famous for his Sergeant Doubleday films with Hal Roach). As for the story, it's very predictable and formulaic throughout, but it's well-made formula! Mindless but very enjoyable wartime propaganda that must have done a lot to bolster the public behind the war effort.

After watching this movie, I now know where the "Officer and a Gentleman" screen writers probably got their idea for the character Sgt. Foley. Randolph Scott was the Sgt. Foley of the 1940s. This movie was made during World War Two, but it spares us the jingoistic propaganda associated with most war movies of that era and offers interesting and likable characters, especially Maureen O'Hara as a Navy nurse and John Payne as the recruit. While watching this movie I thought of Richard Gere and how he would have fit in well in this movie. The similarities between this movie and "Officer" must be more than just coincidental. "Officer" was more intense but this movie did not need to rely on such theatrics to maintain audience interest because the star of this movie was the USMC itself.