'Gung Ho!': The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders (1943)

Director:

Ray Enright

Writers:

W.S. LeFrançois (story)
Lucien Hubbard (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 December 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Tagline:

Battle cry of the Marine raiders!

Plot:

The true story of Carlson's Raiders and their World War II attack on Makin Island.

Plot Keywords:

Island | Pearl Harbor | Submarine | Revenge | Stock Footage

Cast

Randolph Scott	...	Colonel Thorwald
Alan Curtis	...	John Harbison
Noah Beery Jr.	...	Cpl. Kurt Richter
J. Carrol Naish	...	Lieutenant C.J. Cristoforos
Sam Levene	...	Leo 'Transport' Andreof
David Bruce	...	Larry O'Ryan
Richard Lane	...	Captain Dunphy
Walter Sande	...	'Gunner' McBride
Louis Jean Heydt	...	Lieutenant 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

Also Known As:

Gung Ho! (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Actor Harold Landon, who plays Frankie Montana in the film, relates that the actors who played Japanese soldiers were actually Filipino and Chinese.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Leo 'Transport' Andreof arrives in the jeep, he is wearing Staff Sgt stripes, but when he enters the building, he is now wearing Sgt stripes.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Loose Women (1996)

Not-bad war picture

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.