The Gallant Hours

Except for a few shots of planes and ships, "The Gallant Hours" mostly takes place in fairly stark room sets, and feels a little like a photographed stage play.

The film overcomes any shortcomings with James Cagney's performance as William F. Halsey Jr., a leader who literally had the fate of a number of nations on his shoulders, including mine, Australia. Cagney not only looks like his subject, but also seems to be channelling him.

The film brings home that the United States victory over the Japanese in the Solomon Islands in 1942 was a close run thing. Although sometimes outnumbered, daring strategy, brilliant codebreaking and courage turned the tide. This was before the full mobilisation of America's industrial might and manpower had by 1945 virtually made the Pacific an American lake.

The director of "The Gallant Hours", Robert Montgomery started as an actor, but he was also a decorated naval officer in WW2. He was a strong character and once admonished John Ford on the set of "They Were Expendable" for belittling John Wayne in front of the cast for not enlisting during the war.

Maybe it was just as well Montgomery didn't include battle scenes in "The Gallant Hours" because they would have been either the bathtub model effects of that CGI-less era or would have incorporated documentary footage, which never integrated seamlessly.

The film has a memorable hymn-like theme sung a Capella by a male choir: "Away He Went". However even Miklos Rozsa may have been wary of using so much reverence so often in his score for "King of Kings".

The film reminds Australians and New Zealanders how much is owed to those Americans who put it on the line in the Solomon Islands in 1942. But now, in 2018, it seems another nation is following Imperial Japan's old path down through the South China Sea and into the Pacific, albeit with artificial islands and debt entrapment instead of torpedoes and 16-inch shells, but relentlessly nonetheless.

During a visit to New Zealand in 1954, the retired Halsey said something about those crucial battles in the Solomons that may seem more prescient now...

"I hope we never have to do anything like that again. But if we do, I hope we are all together again. We certainly formed a wonderful team that time, I'm sure we could do it again if we had to. And God help us if we ever have to do it again".

This classic film is about Admiral Halsey's leadership of the US forces in the South Pacific during the early part of World War II. The film is more about leadership than warfare. Combat is not depicted on screen, so this film would not appeal to those who seek lots of action. I strongly recommend the film, especially to history buffs.

Robert Montgomery directs this brief, but informative study of Adm. William F. 'Bull' Halsey Jr. in the Pacific during WWII. James Cagney is super as the highly decorated and revered Fleet Commander. Stoic, stern, confident and compassionate...Cagney in one of his best film performances.

Supporting cast is a mix of veteran actors and younger stars: Walter Sande, Les Tremayne, Dennis Weaver, Richard Jaeckel, James Yagi, Robert Burton and Ward Costello.

Arrgghh!! Whether or not this is a good film, I am surprised that most of the reviewers don't mention the god-awful men's chorus that inappropriately drones on and one with even greater solemnity than a Biblical epic!! It's horrible and annoying--and undermines much of the film. Why this was chosen for the soundtrack I have no idea, as it grates on the nerves like no other soundtrack I can recall! Yes, it's that bad and after a while it sounds almost like bees swarming--I kid you not! Aside from the demoniacally-inspired chorus, the next thing you'll probably notice is the unusual style of the film. Instead of a typical bio-pic, this one is told in a semi-documentary style--with very serious narration punctuating various vignettes of a very small portion of Admiral Halsey's life. This small cross-section of his life consists of just five weeks!! So, it's hard to exactly call this a 'bio-pic' as it would seem to imply more than just a tiny portion of the subject's life.

The film is also surprisingly different from what you'd expect because the telling of the story is very straight-forward and without adornment. Simple and direct seem to be the motto for this film...and have a male chorus that sounds worse than cats begin tortured.

If you want a film version of all of Halsey's life or a warts-and-all film, this is not the movie for you. However, it is very competently made and worth seeing...even with the evil chorus from Hell--though I AM deducting two points for this!

Helped in fact by an astonishing physical resemblance to Admiral William F. Halsey that audiences today can't appreciate, James Cagney in his next to last film before retirement makes a very believable and strained Bull Halsey recollecting those harrowing weeks during the seesaw battle for Guadalcanal.

If one is looking for battle scenes and lots of blood and gore skip this film. If one however would like to see a study about the strain of command than this film is ideal. Cagney drops all of the mannerisms that we normally associate with him in playing Admiral Halsey. It's a restrained and mature performance.

The Gallant Hours is also a tribute to the men of our fighting forces in the Pacific who took and held on to the key island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons and halted the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations.

Director Robert Montgomery did the film in documentary style and at times you feel like you're in the brain of Admiral Halsey, weighing each decision he makes with him. The familiar voice you hear narrating is that of Montgomery who was no longer acting and now was mostly concerned with production and with political work for the Republican National Committee.

The Gallant Hours is a fine character study of one of America's greatest naval heroes and should not be missed.