The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)

Set during the Korean War, a Navy fighter pilot must come to terms with with his own ambivalence towards the war and the fear of having to bomb a set of highly defended bridges. The ending of this grim war drama is all tension.

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

Valentine Davies (screenplay), James A. Michener (novel)

Stars:

William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
William Holden	...	Lt. Harry Brubaker
Grace Kelly	...	Nancy Brubaker
Fredric March	...	Rear Adm. George Tarrant
Mickey Rooney	...	Mike Forney
Robert Strauss	...	Beer Barrel
Charles McGraw	...	Cmdr. Wayne Lee
Keiko Awaji	...	Kimiko
Earl Holliman	...	Nestor Gamidge
Richard Shannon	...	Lt. (j.g.) Olds
Willis Bouchey	...	Capt. Evans (as Willis B. Bouchey)

Storyline

It is the Korean War and Lt. Harry Brubaker is a fighter-bomber pilot on the aircraft carrier USS Savo Island. A WW2 veteran and Naval Reserve pilot, he was drafted back into service from civilian life. This makes him quite resentful and cynical about the war. Now he has a dangerous mission to perform, and he is not sure he is up to the task.

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Plot Keywords:

lighting a cigarette | pilot | fear | bridge | navy | 

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Taglines:

The screen's explosively real drama of love and war! (US 1959 reissue)

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

December 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

Les ponts de Toko-Ri

Filming Locations:

USS Kearsarge, Pacific Ocean

Box Office

Gross USA:

$4,700,000, 31 December 1955

Company Credits

Production Co:

Perlberg-Seaton Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

F9F Panther jets from US Navy squadron VF-192 were also used to film Men of the Fighting Lady (1954). After the filming of these two movies, the squadron name was changed from "Golden Dragons" to "World Famous Golden Dragons".

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Goofs

The aircraft carrier on which most of the action takes place is referenced as the "Savo Island" in this movie as well as the book upon which it is based. However, in reality the aircraft carrier USS Savo Island CVE-78 was a much smaller ship, a Casablanca-class escort carrier, too small to be appropriate for an admiral to use as a flagship. Plus, Savo Island was decommissioned shortly after World War Two, several years before the story takes place. Instead the actual ship used in the movie is USS Oriskany CV-34, an Essex-class fleet carrier which really did participate in the Korean conflict. Several scenes clearly show her ship number "34" on the flight deck.

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Quotes

[Nestor has just been killed by North Korean troops]
Mike Forney: Poor Nestor. They were going to give him a medal, too.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: With Task Force 77 U.S. Navy Off the coast of Korea November, 1952

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Connections

Featured in The Fifties (1997)

User Reviews

Superb film

This is a truly superb film on any number of grounds. First, and generally unknown, it is based on a real incident, the so called "Battle of Carlson's Canyon" which was waged early in the Korean War in an attempt to interdict North Korean supplies on their way to the front. James Michener had gone out to the carrier ESSEX (CV-9) and had been very impressed with the men of VF-172, a Banshee fighter squadron. The book is astonishingly realistic...if one compares what he wrote as a novel with the contemporary Navy strike reports (which were then highly classified), it is amazing how much he got "right." It is also a good look at carrier aviation in the last days of the "straight-deck" carrier with hydraulic catapults and a paddle-waving landing deck officer...all that disappeared after Korea with the introduction of the angled deck, the steam catapult, and the Fresnel-lens mirror landing system. The book is in my view the finest air war novel ever written, bar none, and the movie is the same for the film genre. Incidentally, when made into a film, Grumman Panthers were used in place of Banshees, and one of the pilots who flew in the making of the film was a very young Lt. j.g. named Alan Shepherd--later one of the Mercury and Apollo astronauts. Not to be missed!!!