En patrouille

The cast is terrific, especially the always under-appreciated Dianne Foster in a thankless role, and the dialogue is crisp. But most of the cast is considerably older than their roles, and this movie adds little new information. If you like character-study war movies, this is a good time. I give it 6/10.

This movie was really quite bad. No action, the conflicts were not well dramatized. Alan Ladd did not seem to be giving much of an effort here at all. He looked about 15 years older than his 45 years. However, there are a lot of famous actors in it and only fun part of this was in guessing their names. "Hey, that was Jerry(the beaver) Mathers!" From beginning to end this movie never really got off the ground. The pacing seemed very slow and if I'm not mistaken it was done with a small budget. At one point the destroyer they were on changed to an aircraft carrier during a Japanese strafing run. All the action scenes and scenes were rushed and seemed uninteresting. William Bendix was probably the best of the bunch at the time. The story lines of the side characters were never developed to a point where anyone could care about them.

I recently read the Bev Linet book on Alan Ladd. The book consistently talks about Alan's decline at Warner Bros. The problem with that is the half dozen of his post Paramount pictures I've seen have all been good. Linet's book, written in the 1970's, uses the old New York Times reviews as reference. The trouble there is the Times seemed to hate movies, not just Alan Ladd's. So when you are basing his films on Times reviews and not watching the actual films, you might be off target.

This is a good film. It looks good. The star looks good. It's not 1942 Ladd. But he's trim and fit. The supporting cast is excellent and deep. William Bendix; Keenan Wynn; James Whitmore; Efrem Zimbalist Jr,; Peter Hansen and Joey Bishop. All brings something to the story and their roles. The romance is believable. It's right to have Diane Foster, a 30 year old executive, engaged to another man in the beginning. Too many films gloss the romantic subplot and pretend a beautiful 30 year old woman has waited her whole life for "The man of her dreams" to appear.

The plot is simple but interesting. Ladd plays a commercial artist of a Quaker upbringing. He's a reserve Navy Lieutenant who is called to service during WW2. His superior officer doesn't like Ladd's religious background and fears he won't deliver when needed. Events conspire to make other sailors also question if Ladd can be depended on in action. Will he come through, when needed most?

Alan was a sensitive actor. When he was at ease he was brilliant. For example, with Van Heflin in Shane. His scenes with Bill Bendix here are of the same class. Two old friends back together doing what they do best. Entertaining the public.

Early scenes : French Restaurant and Ladd's Beach House are Paradise Cove, Malibu area.

THE DEEP SIX made a big impression on me as a kid. (I don't recall seeing more than bits and pieces since then.) At that time, World War II movies were big, as were afternoon matinees. After watching this we turned a friend's backyard tree into a submarine conning tower, which gave us hours and hours of play.

Two scenes I particularly remember:

One is when the Japanese, on the pretext of surrendering on a beach, have a machine gun hidden on the back of one of their soldiers. Suddenly he bends over and the guy behind him opens fire with the machine gun, mowing down the helpless and gullible Yanks.

And of course the key scene is when the conscientious objector, played by Alan Ladd, finally fires his gun in defense of his fellow soldiers.

8 out of 10 for the fond memories of youth....