THE FILM
FILM DIRECTOR: Otto Preminger
SCREENWRITER: Wendell Mayes
FILM STARS: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Henry Fonda, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Brandon deWilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, Franchot Tone, Patrick O’Neal, Carroll O’Connor, Slim Pickens, James Mitchum, George Kennedy, Bruce Cabot, Barbara Bouchet, Larry Hagman
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: James Bassett
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Four Square
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1965
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1962
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Harm’s Way
NOTES
GENRE: War, Drama
WORDS: Part war film and part domestic melodrama. The book was a best seller when released and it got the deluxe treatment and cast. The book reads a little like “Peyton Place” with boats and guns (and that’s not necessarily a bad thing). The film is strange. It’s big budget, with a literate script, and a big cast who, rightly or wrongly, all play the screen personas they are associated with, but the settings are anachronistic and it needs colour. They got the big things right and then fumbled on the small things. As with all things Otto Preminger, there is, still, something compelling about the film. I haven’t read the book yet.
LINKS
TRAILER
MUSIC
Two pieces by Jerry Goldsmith
The Love theme
the Battle theme
It is an odd film. It’s not particularly gripping as a war movie and has ,as you say, the melodrama about the private lives of the main characters. Henry Fonda looked embarrassed in his cameo as the Admiral commanding the American fleet.
Fun fact, when he was a young man John Wayne applied to join the US Navy Academy but was rejected, I think, because he had defective eyesight. He ended up going to USC and then getting into the movies.
If things had worked out a little differently, we would never have heard of JW, and Marion may well have been at Pearl Harbour in December 1941.
I had read that JW applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, at Annapolis. Don’t know if it is accurate. If he had of had a military career subsequent criticism of him (lack military service) may have been diminished. In the recent Trumbo movie there is a confrontation between Trumbo and Wayne (I don’t know that they met in real life – there is no mention of that in Bruce Cook’s bio on him (which the film is apparently based on) or in Trumbo’s book of letters) where he refers to the fact he was a war correspondent and then quizzes JW about his WW2 military career (or lack of one). Of course the scene is wholly disingenuous. Many stars didn’t serve. Wayne didn’t serve but he did tour the pacific for the USO (including Australia – he came to Brisbane) in 1942 and 1943 (or 43 and 44) so he was in harms way (sic) as much as Trumbo was, perhaps. (Garry Wills’ 1998 book, “John Wayne’ America: the Politics of Celebrity” (which has many errors I recollect) says he received a chorus of boos when he walked onto the USO stages in Australia and the Pacific Islands … I find that unlikely, at least if it refers to his ultra patriot image. He wasn’t a big star like he was later, was still mainly known for westerns, and hadn’t taken the ultra patriotic stance of the post war years. If there were any boos they would have been of envy because he was shagging (on the the screen and in real life) Marlene Dietrich et al). I should have noted that the irony about Trumbo and Wayne, and their politics and outlooks, is that Trumbo would have been earning truck loads more than Wayne throughout the 30s and 40s. I have ventured off topic … and will again by mentioning Christopher Trumbo (Dalton’s son and also a screenwriter (manly TV)) co-wrote the JW film Brannigan.
I think Hank does okay – doesn’t seem embarrassed so much as just realising some of his long bits of dialogue are ripe, perhaps … he even gets to squeeze Abe Lincoln into one.
Not many stars , other than Jimmy Stewart, saw real combat. I think Clark Gable flew on some bombing missions over Germany and Tyrone Power was a transport pilot in the pacific. Henry Fonda served in the navy but as I recall, he had an intelligence job at headquarters. Robert Montgomery served in the pacific but I am not sure how big a star he was before 1942.
One guy you have to admire is John Ford. Filming the battle of Midway documentary took some serious guts. There was no certainty the Americans would win the battle- I believe the Japanese outnumbered the Americans- and being on a WW2 aircraft carrier was a dangerous proposition at the best of times. The ships had little protection and were full of high explosives and aviation fuel. It didn’t take much for them to detonate.
Do you know if JF ever gave JW a hard time for not having served?
True (though you can add David Niven, Robert Montgomery, Sterling Hayden (who was a minor star)) – some future stars saw combat of course though (Marvin, Bronson, Curtis, etc etc (and Audie murphy and Neville Brand of course)). Many served in the military though, as you know, something like only 10% of an army (at least in the west) actually see combat.
I think you know enough about JF to know the answer to “did JF ever give JW a hard time for not having served”.
I think criticism of JW for not serving in the war is misplaced. Looking at Wikipedia; JW was born in 1907 and was thus 34 in December 1941. Even if he had enlisted straight away, he would not have completed training and been deployed until 1943/44, when he would have been 36/7. Something that is often lost sight of ( ironically, due in part to the way Hollywood casted war movies) is that almost all of the combat forces in the WW2 US military were young men in their twenties. It would be rare to find someone in a combat zone aged 35 plus unless they had served before the start of the war (such as Jimmy Stewart) and held some ranking position. The point is, even if JW had enlisted and volunteered to see combat, it would have been highly unlikely that he would have been permitted to have done so on age grounds. I think your point about JW rendering more valuable service by making morale raising visits and movies is plainly correct.
Yes, I think the criticism is a mix of an attack on his politics (or what his politics are perceived to be) and “tall poppy” syndrome. Though, he is partially responsible for making himself an easy target. (Gable, who served, and Cooper who didn’t, were bigger stars at the time and equally hawkish though not as vocal). Everything you said was correct (he also had four kids by the outbreak of the war – the US didn’t send off fathers of large families who had no previous military experience). Of course, for the attacks to hold water, then words like “served”, “military service”, “draft”, “military”, “saw action” have to remain unclear. If they are clear, as you said, then very few major or minor stars saw combat or were infantry “grunts”. Most of the stars in JWs position, did, as he did, morale building in and out of war zones. It would take some conviction to go from smoozing Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell, or Jean Arthur to storming beaches in the pacific or living in shelled out holes in Italy.
Of course JW did regret not “serving” but as you say that may not have amounted to much. Even Ford, who was wounded, wasn’t in the regular army (Navy) but in the OSS and he went into harms way (sic again) often though not with a gun but with a camera (or directing a cameraman).