Inferno no Pacífico

Sometimes it's hard to keep track of all the pro-America war movies Hollywood cranked out during the height of WWII. A lot of them had similar names, too! Pride of the Marines, Salute to the Marines, Marine Raiders, Call Out the Marines, We Are the Marines, and maybe more, were all made between 1942 and 1945. The one in the middle of the list stars Pat O'Brien as a commander who oversees training leading up to battle in Guadalcanal. He and his captain, Robert Ryan, aren't thrilled about taking all the new boys under their wing. They want to get to the fighting - but as we all know, there will be plenty of time for that.

Although the main focus of the movie is the Marines, honestly, the romance is more memorable. I never thought I'd see the movie where Robert Ryan leads a gusto-filled waltz. But in Marine Raiders, he dances with Ruth Hussey until the restaurant owner kicks them out in the wee hours of the morning. Robert grins, "We've got a lot more swirling to do!" and keeps dancing. How is it possible that such an adorable, sweet fellow would get typecast as a bad guy the rest of his career? Maybe after he joined the Marines (right after this movie!) and became a drill sergeant, the men he trained were just used to his toughness and shouting. Or maybe it was just Crossfire. Crossfire was his first villainous role, and I don't think he ever bounced back from it.

Ruth is dutifully doing her part for the war effort, and they go through the pros and cons of getting married before the war and risking Ruth becoming a widow, or waiting until Robert returns - if he does. Ruth is a very patriotic lady, and her final scene probably had the women in the audience (during 1944) reaching for their handkerchiefs. This movie has a clear message, one that rings as true now as it did then: Bless them all!

War soft drama directed by Harold Schuster (On the Sunny Side) featuring the US Marine Corps during the Pacific War against Japan. In the fall of 1942 at Guadalcanal, a kind of Stalingrad-like battle in South Pacific, the Marine Raiders led by the major Steve (Pat O'Brien, The Navy comes through) with the help of his captain Dan (Robert Ryan, Behind the Rising Sun) fight at night the Japanese in the jungle. As lieutenant Tony (Russell Wade, The Ghost Ship) is found "horribly mutilated" by the enemy, a hot-tempered Dan avenges him, but Steve rebukes him for being too imprudent: the reasonable way of acting is thus opposed to the impulsive one. In the meanwhile, the sergents Louie (Frank McHugh, A Medal for Benny) and Maguire (Barton MacLane, Bombardier) argue about the way of putting pepper in the soup, making the comic counterpoint of the two main characters.

As they now rest in their rear camp in Australia, Dan meets Ellen (Ruth Hussey, Tender Comrade), a woman auxiliary in the Australian Air Force, and they fall in love. They plan to get married quick, but as Dan is injured in a Japanese bombing, Steve objects to the impatient and sudden decision of his friend and he makes him sent back with him to the San Diego Marine camp in California. Here they train the new recruits to join the rising corps of the Marines, but Dan, without any news from Ellen, longs to go back for action in the Pacific.

As the camp commander (Edward Fielding, Pacific Rendezvous) hesitates to send Dan back to fighting, Steve talks in his favor and they both go to take part, one year after their previous battle, in the liberation campaign of the strategic Bougainville island in the Australian mandated Territory of New Guinea. Will Dan be able to retrieve his beloved Ellen and shall they manage to carry on their goals? Will Dan and Steve find the right way to fight alongside in spite of their sharply different attitudes within this "largest invading force in the history of the Pacific area"? The plot follows the becoming of the characters in this film dedicated to the Marine Corps efforts to win the war.

U. S. Marine Corps Major Steve Lockhart (Pat O'Brien) and Captain Dan Craig (Robert Ryan) survive the battle of Guadalcanal. Dan falls for Lt. Ellen Foster (Ruth Hussey) during a furlough in Australia, but both he and Steve get sent to the new Marine training facility back in the U. S. After a period of time spent training new recruits, they all look forward to taking the fight to the Japanese once again. Also featuring Frank McHugh, Barton MacLane, Richard Martin, Martha Vickers, Russell Wade, Robert Andersen, Cliff Clark, Selmer Jackson, and Blake Edwards.

Much of this is unexceptional wartime morale boosting, but there were a few sections that I liked, such as the various training bits, including a tour of the base kitchen, a class on edible plants and insects of the Pacific islands, and a class teaching the Japanese language, which is something certainly useful but that I don't recall seeing in other movies of the sort. I also liked the final battle sequences. The director made the unusual decision to film both this and the scenes at the beginning as night scenes, which may have been a cost-cutting measure, but it added some atmosphere, too. Shortly after filming was completed, Robert Ryan joined the Marine Corps for real and didn't appear in another movie for three years.

The jungle battle scenes in opening of this film incorporate an atmosphere one usually finds in film noir. The portrayal of Guadalcanal and the related background music tend in this direction, which was not found in many of the war movies of 1944. Special credit should be given to the director of lighting, especially relative to the deep three-dimensional effect created with the interplay of light and dark.

While Pat O'Brien's films often lacked realism, he was a fun actor to watch and his films almost never failed to entertain. Robert Ryan was also extremely entertaining (but a bit underrated) but a different sort of actor--much more believable and ordinary (in a good way). With both these wonderful actors in the film, it's no surprise that I'd watch this film!

As far as the film goes, it is a pretty standard WWII action film. It chronicles a group of Marines through some nameless engagements as well as a romance between Ryan and Ruth Hussey--who, inexplicably, was cast as an Australian--though she hadn't a trace of the proper accent. Nothing great here, but competently done. Oh, and despite Ryan receiving second billing, clearly he's the leading man here, though O'Brien was the household name--thus the billing. Worth seeing but not necessary unless you are a Robert Ryan fan.