IN HARM'S WAY Movie Review

1965 Otto Preminger

This long, lumbering naval epic predates the various 1980s television mini-series about World War II. It's the same mixture of soap-opera action away from the battlefields and cheap-looking naval special effects that are no more convincing on the small screen than they were in theaters. Apparently, most of the budget was spent on a first-rate cast of actors who walk through substandard material.

A two-minute plus opening tracking shot establishes the scene as Pearl Harbor, December 6, 1941. At an officer's party, Liz (Barbara Bouchet), the drunken wife of Cmdr. Eddington (Kirk Douglas), makes a spectacle of herself. Since her husband is at sea with Capt. Rock Torrey (John Wayne), she heads off for a skinny-dip in the ocean with a pilot (Hugh O'Brien). Are they in for a nasty surprise the next morning! When the Japanese attack (depicted in brief, grainy shots of airplanes and a few explosions in the ocean), Lt. William McConnel (Tom Tryon) manages to get his destroyer out of the harbor before it's bombed. At the same time, Torrey and Eddington's ship is sent to fend off the Japanese fleet and suffers a devastating attack.

Several plot twists later, Torrey is sailing a desk and Eddington is shipped off to a remote supply base. Enter Cmdr. Powell (Burgess Merdith), script writer turned intelligence officer; Lt. Maggie Haynes (Patricia Neal), a nurse who sets her cap for Torrey; Ens. Jere Torrey (Brandon de Wilde), Rock's estranged son; and his fiancee Ens. Annalee Dorne (Jill Haworth), Maggie's roommate. Those are the good guys. On the other side are the ineffectual Adm. Broderick (Dana Andrews) and his stooge, Cmdr. Owynn (Patrick O'Neal). The rest of the supporting cast is filled with such veterans as Henry Fonda (sporting a curious Southern accent), Franchot Tone, and many other names and faces who would become much more famous in the following decades.

Unfortunately, they're all saddled with a convoluted story that's so idiotically written it's unfair to judge the actors' work. For the most part, they do not embarrass themselves too much. More than any of the others, Wayne looks like he wishes he were somewhere else. Still, the film is not without interest as an example of the cozy working relationship that the entertainment industry and the military enjoyed in the years between World War II and Vietnam. The scenes that were filmed aboard real ships with Navy personnel look bright, shiny, and freshly ironed. Those recruitment poster excerpts stand in jarring comparison to the models used for the battle scenes and the pedestrian interiors. When the focus moves away from the fighting, as it often does, the story has much more to say about the early 1960s than the early 1940s. The sexual attitudes in particular are pure '60s, with an uncomfortable sniggering subtext that's never far from the surface. The absurd and convenient resolution of one seduction plotline is too bizarre to be described, much less believed. Throughout the film, the characters' emotions are exaggerated to unrealistic extremes.

One clue to the bad writing comes in the place names that were invented for the fictional campaign. When Torrey says, “You're gonna mop up Gavoobutu and mount the invasion of Lavoovona,” it sounds even sillier than it reads. The few scenes that suggest jungle combat don't amount to anything, and though the effects used in the naval battles may have some nostalgic value, they're certainly not going to engage and persuade younger viewers, who demand a certain level of authenticity in both visual and emotional terms.

Cast: John Wayne (Capt. Rockwell Torrey), Kirk Douglas (Cmdr. Paul Eddington), Tom Tryon (Lt. William McConnel), Patricia Neal (Lt. Maggie Haynes), Paula Prentiss (Bex McConnel), Brandon de Wilde (Ens. Jeremiah Torrey), Burgess Meredith (Cmdr. Egan Powell), Stanley Holloway (Clayton Canfil), Henry Fonda (Adm. Chester W. Nimitz), Dana Andrews (Adm. Broderick), Franchot Tone (CINPAC I Admiral), Jill Haworth (Ens. Annalee Dorne), George Kennedy (Col. Gregory), Carroll O'Connor (Lt. Cmdr. Burke), Patrick O'Neal (Cmdr. Neal Owynn), Slim Pickens (CPO Culpepper), Bruce Cabot (Quartermaster Quoddy), Larry Hagman (Lt. Cline), Hugh O'Brian (U.S. Army Air Corps Major), Jim Mitchum (Ens. Griggs), Barbara Bouchet (Liz Eddington), Stewart Moss (Ens. Balch), Tod Andrews (Capt. Tuthill); Written by: Wendell Mayes; Cinematography by: Loyal Griggs; Music by: Jerry Goldsmith. Producer: Otto Preminger, Paramount Pictures, Sigma. Awards: British Academy Awards '65: Best Actress (Neal); Nominations: Academy Awards '65: Best Black and White Cinematography. Running Time: 165 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta, LV, Closed Caption.