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They Were Expendable (1945)
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Overview
User Rating:
Writers:
Release Date:
20 December 1945 (USA)
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Tagline:
A Spine-Tingling Thundering Saga Of The Sea! more
Plot:
A dramatized account of the role of the American PT Boats in the defense of the Philippines in World War II. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
P.t. Boat
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Philippines
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Pearl Harbor
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Ship
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General
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Awards:
Nominated for 2 Oscars.
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NewsDesk:
User Comments:
Geography Made Them Expendable
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Robert Montgomery | ... | Lt. John Brickley (as Robert Montgomery Comdr. U.S.N.R.) |
 | John Wayne | ... | Lt. (J.G.) 'Rusty' Ryan |
 | Donna Reed | ... | Lt. Sandy Davyss |
 | Jack Holt | ... | General Martin |
| Ward Bond | ... | 'Boats' Mulcahey C.B.M. |
| Marshall Thompson | ... | Ens. 'Snake' Gardner |
| Paul Langton | ... | Ens. 'Andy' Andrews |
| Leon Ames | ... | Major James Morton |
| Arthur Walsh | ... | Seaman Jones |
| Donald Curtis | ... | Lt. (J.G.) 'Shorty' Long |
| Cameron Mitchell | ... | Ens. George Cross |
| Jeff York | ... | Ens. Tony Aiken |
| Murray Alper | ... | 'Slug' Mahan T.M. 1c |
| Harry Tenbrook | ... | 'Squarehead' Larsen SC 2c |
| Jack Pennick | ... | 'Doc' |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
135 min | West Germany:107 min (cut version)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification:
West Germany:12 (f) |
Canada:G (video rating) |
USA:Passed (National Board of Review) |
Australia:PG |
Finland:K-12 (1964) |
Sweden:15 |
USA:Approved (certificate #11113)
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
During the shooting of this movie, John Ford had put John Wayne down every chance he got, because Wayne had not enlisted to fight in World War II. Ford commanded a naval photographic unit during the war rising to the rank of captain and thought Wayne a coward for staying behind. After months of heaping insults on Wayne's head, costar Robert Montgomery finally approached the director and told him that if he was putting Wayne down for Montgomery's benefit (Montgomery had served in the war), that he needed to stop immediately. This brought the tough-as-nails director to tears and he stopped abusing Wayne.
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Goofs:
Continuity: During the aircraft strafing scenes when LTjg Ryan is injured, the planes are attacking from astern of the boats. The bullet strikes on the boat start from the starboard bow and go across the boat to the port side, indicating a frontal attack.
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Quotes:
Lt. John Brickley:
Oh, Snuffy... how about getting some torpedoes from you?
Submarine commander: For those cracker boxes of yours? No telling when we'll see a mother ship again.
Lt. John Brickley: How long have you been on patrol?
Submarine commander: Since the day the war started.
Lt. 'Rusty' Ryan: What did you get?
Submarine commander: Two small freighters. We had hard luck.
Lt. John Brickley: Well, while you've been cruising around the Pacific, those 'cracker boxes' have sunk two converted cruisers, an auxiliary aircraft carrier, a 10,000-ton tanker, a large freighter, a flock of barges and numerous sons of Nippon!
Lt. 'Rusty' Ryan: And also in our brief career, we've carried more messages than Western Union!
Submarine commander: Well, if...
Lt. John Brickley: Snuffy... who played the leading lady in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" in 1932 at the Academy?
[...]
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Submarine commander: For those cracker boxes of yours? No telling when we'll see a mother ship again.
Lt. John Brickley: How long have you been on patrol?
Submarine commander: Since the day the war started.
Lt. 'Rusty' Ryan: What did you get?
Submarine commander: Two small freighters. We had hard luck.
Lt. John Brickley: Well, while you've been cruising around the Pacific, those 'cracker boxes' have sunk two converted cruisers, an auxiliary aircraft carrier, a 10,000-ton tanker, a large freighter, a flock of barges and numerous sons of Nippon!
Lt. 'Rusty' Ryan: And also in our brief career, we've carried more messages than Western Union!
Submarine commander: Well, if...
Lt. John Brickley: Snuffy... who played the leading lady in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" in 1932 at the Academy?
[...]
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Mister Roberts (1955)
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They Were Expendable is John Ford's first Hollywood feature since his discharge from the U.S. Navy and the same can be said for Robert Montgomery. Both had served in the Navy and Montgomery in fact on P.T. Boats. From the last presidential election we now know them as Swift Boats.
It's an unusual John Ford film because the usual heavy comedic monkeyshines are rather subdued here. I'm thinking that John Ford wisely decided that World War II being recently over, the country's mood was joyous, but somber in terms of the heavy human cost.
They Were Expendable has the benefit though of the American audience knowing the ultimate victory. The story begins in the Phillipines in 1941 with Robert Montgomery as real life naval hero John Bulkeley, renamed Brickley for the film, trying to convince the brass of the usefulness of the P.T. Boat in combat, not just for scouting and courier duty. Of course that experiment is cut short and the P.T. Boats and their crews are rushed into some on the job experience.
During the film MacArthur, you might recall Gregory Peck saying that he was going to be evacuated from Corregidor by "one of Johnny Bulkeley's torpedo boats." That scene is dramatized as a wordless Robert Barrat plays MacArthur traveling on the boat commanded by John Wayne.
Wayne is Montgomery's second in command of the P.T. boat squadron who is not thrilled to be there. He'd like to be on at least a destroyer. He gradually comes around though. He also gets a fling in the romance department with Navy nurse Donna Reed.
During that interlude John Ford had some of the crew outside singing Dear Old Girl in a comic vein. Ford was never one to not let a good bit of business die with one film. You might remember in Fort Apache and Rio Grande there was some serenading done. And Donna Reed got serenaded on her "Hawaiian" honeymoon with James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life with Ward Bond once again being one of the serenaders. I'm sure Frank Capra would have conceded he stole that from Ford.
The story is first and foremost about some very desperate American armed forces who after Pearl Harbor were at the Japanese mercy. Pearl Harbor had totalled our Pacific fleet and no supplies could get through. Still the troops there fought on bravely, they were in fact by geography expendable.
Wayne and Montgomery give good but subdued performances. No do or die heroics here, just a sobering reminder of a terrible beginning for the Americans in the Pacific theater of World War II.