7/25/2023 0 Comments Brandon de wilde bandHis scenes with the warm and wonderful Patricia Neal are some of his best the pair seem to have picked up where they left off in Operation Pacific fourteen years earlier. Either Preminger brought out the solid actor in Wayne, or the Duke decided to leave his tiresome ’60s western persona behind for this one. John Wayne plays his part with an authority and easy-going likability that builds on his work in old gung-ho WW2 movies. Otto Preminger’s flair with actors doesn’t fail him, and only his mishandling of some special effects hurts the realism of his climactic ‘gut busting, mother-lovin’ Navy war’ surface battle. In Harm’s Way is a monumental military soap opera, well cast and well told, with only a bad subplot or two to momentarily bog it down. Battling the Japanese and weathering enough subplots to float a battleship, Torrey’s island-hopping campaign races toward a head-on naval clash with the enemy fleet. Jere’s hostility toward his father results in his assignment as aide to sleazy public relations lizard Commander Neal Owynn (Patrick O’Neal), who rides the coattails of incompetent Admiral ‘Blackjack’ Broderick (Dana Andrews), a screw-up who Torrey must gently indulge. It so happens Dorne has an interest in Torrey’s estranged son, Ensign Jere Torrey (Brandon De Wilde), who eventually responds with a marriage proposal. With the help of Commander Egan Powell (Burgess Meredith), a screenwriter-turned intelligence man, and friendly nurse Lieutenant Maggie Hayes (Patricia Neal), Rock weathers the post-Pearl career storm to become one of the key fleet Admirals in the South Pacific campaign under Admiral Nimitz CINCPAC II (Henry Fonda) Powell and Torrey devise a complicated, ambitious plan to retake strategic Pacific islands.įurther down the chain of command, Torrey’s trusted aide Captain Paul Eddington (Kirk Douglas) falls apart after the death of his faithless wife (Barbara Bouchet), and proceeds to display erratic behavior, especially with the young and inexperienced nurse Ensign Annalee Dorne (Jill Haworth). While Commander Kimmell CINCPAC I (Franchot Tone) takes the fall for the loss of the fleet, Torrey hangs on as a staff strategic planner. Captain Rockwell Torrey (John Wayne) has the good fortune to be out of port when the raid begins, but some bad luck with a Japanese submarine costs him his command. Navy, and cues the varied destinies of an epic-full of colorful characters. The attack on Pearl Harbor brings war to the U.S. Preminger’s company filmed in Hawaii with a great deal of U.S. The movie begins and ends with large naval battles, one historical and the other semi-fictitious. This show sees Preminger filming on a much bigger canvas. Otto Preminger’s only previous military film was 1955’s The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, not one of his best efforts. All employ large casts and a couple are also big-scale epics In Harm’s Way invents fictional characters directly involved in important wartime events. In Harm’s Way is almost the last of Otto Preminger’s sprawling multi-character book adaptations, that examine a moment in history or a sector of society: Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Advise and Consent, The Cardinal, Hurry Sundown. Wayne is at his paternal best in this picture and his post-cancer True Grit. We’ve got John Wayne, just before he went under the knife for lung cancer his relaxed, easy gait enhances his performance. Just twenty years removed from the war, a strong group of characters evoke a worthy reverence for the experience. Written by Wendell Mayes from the novel Harm’s Way by James Bassettįans familiar with the TV miniseries The Winds of War might say that show is a better combat-soap about the Navy war in the Pacific, but for my money Otto Preminger’s In Harm’s Way has always been more than satisfactory. Starring: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Franchot Tone, Patrick O’Neal, Carroll O’Connor, Slim Pickens, George Kennedy, Barbara Bouchet.įilm Editors: Hugh S. Street Date J/ Available from Paramount Movies / 13.99 The star-gazing isn’t bad either - Kirk Douglas! Patricia Neal! Henry Fonda! Paula Prentiss! The finish is a huge naval battle with impressive live-action special effects, and given a moody music score by Jerry Goldsmith.ġ965 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 167 min. Soap-opera scenes aside, it’s a thrilling epic directed with Preminger’s well-known reserve. Hollywood’s last big all-star war epic in Black & White? Otto Preminger took a happy film company to Hawaii for this enormous saga about the Naval push in the Pacific Theater of WW2, with none other than John Wayne as the competent commander leading the charge.
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