'Gung Ho!': The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders (1943)The true story of Carlson's Raiders and their World War II attack on Makin Island. Director:Ray Enright |
|
| 0Share... |
'Gung Ho!': The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders (1943)The true story of Carlson's Raiders and their World War II attack on Makin Island. Director:Ray Enright |
|
| 0Share... |
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Randolph Scott | ... |
Col. Thorwald
|
|
|
|
Alan Curtis | ... |
John Harbison
|
| Noah Beery Jr. | ... |
Cpl. Kurt Richter
|
|
|
|
J. Carrol Naish | ... |
Lt. C.J. Cristoforos
|
|
|
Sam Levene | ... |
Leo 'Transport' Andreof
|
|
|
David Bruce | ... |
Larry O'Ryan
|
|
|
Richard Lane | ... |
Capt. Dunphy
|
|
|
Walter Sande | ... |
'Gunner' McBride
|
|
|
Louis Jean Heydt | ... |
Lt. Roland Browning
|
| Robert Mitchum | ... |
'Pig-Iron' Matthews
|
|
|
|
Rod Cameron | ... |
Rube Tedrow
|
|
|
Grace McDonald | ... |
Kathleen Corrigan
|
| Milburn Stone | ... |
Cmdr. Blake
|
|
|
|
Peter Coe | ... |
Kozzarowski
|
|
|
Harold Landon | ... |
Frankie Montana
|
Seven weeks after Pearl Harbor, volunteers form the new 2nd Marine Raider Battalion whose purpose is to raid Japanese-held islands. The men selected come from different walks of life but have toughness in common. Under command of Colonel 'Thorwald', they're trained in all imaginable forms of combat. Then, after a perilous submarine journey, they face a daunting first mission: to annihilate the much larger Japanese garrison on Makin Island, in a lengthy battle sequence. Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
A lot has been said about this picture's outrageous jingoism, and that's a valid point, but this wasn't intended to be a history lesson (although it's based on a true story), it was made as propaganda to further the war effort, and at that it succeeds. It's quite well made, the battle scenes are exciting and very well done, and it probably did what it was intended to do, which was to give the public something to feel good about; in 1943 the war wasn't going all that well for the Allies. Robert Mitchum was starting to get bigger parts about this time; he has a fairly substantial part here, and his laconic style is quite evident. Some of the dialogue is a bit difficult to get past (one soldier says he wants to join the unit that is being put together to raid a Japanese-held island because "I just don't like Japs"), and some of the heroics are a bit much, but overall it's no worse, and a bit better, than many of the war pictures to come out of Hollywood around that time.