They Were Expendable (1945)

The PT boat unit Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three defends the Philippines from Japanese invasion during World War II.

Directors:

John Ford (as John Ford Captain U.S.N.R.), Robert Montgomery (uncredited)

Writers:

William L. White (book), Frank Wead (screenplay) (as Frank Wead Comdr. U.S.N. {Ret})

Stars:

Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

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 / Radio Announcer
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'

Storyline

In the wake of Pearl Harbor's surprise attack, World War II hero, Lt. John Brickley's experimental squadron of agile fast-attack Patrol Torpedo boats is sent to warm and humid Manila to avert a potentially imminent Japanese invasion. As he and his second-in-command, Lieutenant "Rusty" Ryan, desperately try to prove the newly-founded naval unit's worth, the enemy launches a devastating all-out attack--and despite the PT boat flotilla's undeniable success--the considerably outnumbered and outgunned American soldiers are fighting a losing battle. Little by little, the Philippine campaign is doomed to cave in, as comrades-in-arms perish in the sea. Is there glory in defeat?

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Plot Keywords:

p.t. boat | philippines | u.s. navy | corregidor | bataan | 

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Taglines:

A Tribute to Those Who Did So Much . . . With So Little!

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 December 1945 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fuimos los sacrificados

Filming Locations:

Florida Keys, Florida, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min 107 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Ford was quick to show newcomers to his set who was in control. Robert Montgomery received an amusing rebuke from Ford early in the shooting after suggesting a different way to compose a shot. Ford listened, then made the shot Montgomery's way. Asking if he thought it went well, Montgomery replied that the shot went fine. Ford asked, "Did you really like it?" and Montgomery replied that he did. Ford then opened the camera, yanked the film out, and handed it to his actor, saying, "Here - take it home with you."

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Goofs

Brickley tells Rusty he can't go on the mission and takes "Shorty" in the 31 boat instead. The scene that shows Brickley departing the dock, Rusty is on the bow of the 34 boat moored to the left of the 41 boat. The scene shifts to behind the 41 boat and shows the 31 boat leaving the mooring on the left side of the dock where Rusty and the 34 boat were shown in the earlier scene.

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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...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: Manila Bay In the Year of Our Lord Nineteen hundred and Forty-one

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Alternate Versions

MGM produced a different version, dubbed and with credits in Spanish, probably to be used by television stations. This version omits the final sequence (nearly more than 15 minutes of running time) and the film ends a previous scene with Robert Montgomery and John Wayne saying farewell to the soldiers that had to remain in the Phillipines, then the scene cuts to a plane leaving the island and to a "The End" title in Spanish. This version aired in Argentina in a cable station called "Space". Turner Network Televsion, in all Latin American countries, used to air the film in its original form. However, they lifted the Spanish language dubbing from the old version and, without any explanation why, the last minutes of the film play in English.

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Connections

Features Hell Divers (1931)

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Soundtracks

The Battle Hymn of the Republic
(uncredited)
Written by William Steffe (lyrics) & Julia Ward Howe (lyrics)
[Heard under last shot of airplane leaving.]

User Reviews

"As big as they come..."

This is one of John Ford's best. There is a factoid circulating that this film, released in 1945 when we were about to end the war, was a flop because no one wanted to hear about a defeat in the Philippines, but Tad Gallagher's research shows this not to be true. It was a success, and for good reason.

It's got about everything you'd expect in a war movie released during that year, and it's finely done. Beginning with the photography and location shooting, in which Florida provides a first-rate substitute for the Philippines. No bravura acting is apparent, and none is called for. Montgomery is stolid as the squadron commander. Wayne, as his exec, follows orders competently and even is rather moving when he recites Robert Louis Stevenson's epitaph during a funeral scene, foreshadowing his famous scene when he's given the gold watch in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon." Marshall Thompson plays an inexperienced new man, not for the last time. Ward Bond is a hearty boatswain's mate. Donna Reed, looking enchanting, is Wayne's aborted love interest. She doesn't have much screen time, but good use is made of what she has, and after all, it's hard to bang a full-blown romance into this kind of film.

It's pretty downbeat for Ford, when you come right down to it. One after another the "cardboard boxes" that, along with a handful of submarines, constituted MacArthur's navy are lost. Blown-up, wrecked, requisitioned by the Army, or just disappeared. The editing is fine too. Wayne's 34 boat is strafed and damaged by Japanese airplanes and he manages to beach it in a deserted area. He and his men struggle ashore through the surf. The planes return and they bomb it and strafe it until it erupts in flame, sending a geyser of seawater into the air. As Wayne emerges from cover there is a shot of him staring bleakly at his burning boat, then the seawater cascades over his figure forming a black-and-white rainbow as it does so. The eruption of water and its finally falling on Wayne's figure couldn't have been better times if a stopwatch had been used, a fine example of technical expertise.

Made as it was during the war years, it couldn't be more realistic than it is. Sometimes this is a weakness, due not to Ford and his crew but to the strictures of the time. The MTBs were glamorous duty. They were developed during WWI, when ships were mainly designed to be big enough to outshoot other big ships, and torpedoes hadn't proved themselves. Well, they did during the first war, delivered by torpedo boats that were small and fast and could duck under the big guns to deliver their weapons. (The destroyer was originally meant to be a "torpedo boat destroyer.") In WWII they served in every theater and were valuable assets. But they weren't suitable for blue-water work and were mostly used in sheltered waters. "They Were Expendable" shows them attacking under fire at high speed, in some very exciting shots. In real life, as Richard Tregaskis has reported, the engines delivered about 40 knots when new -- fast, but not that fast. A bit faster than a new destroyer, about the same speed as a torpedo. But under conditions in which maintenance was difficult or impossible, as they were here, the efficiency of the engines dropped and so did the boat's speed. The usual technique was not to attack at full speed with flags flying, but to sneak up as quietly as possible on an enemy ship, launch the torpedoes, then get out quickly. Also the torpedoes malfunctioned frequently, and the launching mechanism used gunpowder which flashed when ignited and revealed the boat's position. By the end of the war the boats had reverted to a more primitive system in which the weapons were simply dumped overboard. But that has nothing to do with the movie except that these observations reveal the major action scenes to be what Gallagher calls a boy's matinee program. It didn't happen that way.

Nevertheless, this is an honest movie. We lose, although we've done the best we can. And one of our boys can't kill a dozen of their boys. And you can tell Ford is behind the camera. Lots of booze. A reverence for authority. (MacArthur, whom his biographer, William Manchester, called "a remarkable man", is seen only from a distance, kind of like a spiritual vision seen in the clouds. MacArthur's complexity couldn't be dealt with, and shouldn't have been.)

It's a well-done film, thoughtful and exciting. The enemy aren't referred to as Nips, nobody calls them names or tries to explain their motives. Hemingway may have enjoyed it if he ever saw it because it is a very nice illustration of "grace under pressure." See it if you can.