Moving warlike production set on the Philippines plenty of Japanese and a crew of Marines battling an important base on the Pacific . The picture is divided in 4 chapters : first , second , third and fourth day . During WWII , October 1944 , a commando is assigned a dangerous mission on the Philippines Islands already inhabited by stranded Japanese forces , they have 38 hours to get their objectives . The Americans are commanded by a captain but he early dies and a sergeant (Hugh O'Brian) rules over soldiers . The group is formed by First Sergeant Steve (Hugh O'Brian) , 2ª Sergent (Mickey Rooney) , Sgt. William (Pete Masterson) , Corporal Alvin Ross (Henry Lauter) , Cpl. Parrish (Amsterdam) , Pvt George (Tony Smith) , Capt. Alonzo (Clam Stadler) and the starring James Grenier , a soldier without experience(James Mitchum , the tale is narrated under his point of view by voice in off) . At the beginning the Marines are successfully in wiping out Japanese . But they are spotted and descended upon by enemies forces ; meanwhile suffering casualties , exhaustion, encounters until execute their mission and to be rescued by a ship . They must go to the other side of the island until Panpassan at a Japanese resort , a 'House of tea' where contact a spy called Miyazaki who has top information and transmit it by radio . Then , the daredevil sergeant and the rockie radio-man soldier (James Mitchum) find themselves vying during the escape . The group must try to survive enemy that undergo a chase and a mini-war , as they fight all by themselves and finally find how wrong his misconceptions are . At the end the survivors endeavor to blow up a pivotal Japanese installation .This is a Schenck-Zabel-Hal Klein Production realised thru United Artists and written by Ib Melchor , a Sci-Fi expert ; being well photographed by Emmanuel Rojas . Flag-waver wartime movie with a typical crew of Marines battling the 'yellow menace' and retrieve a messenger . The film packs warlike action, thrills, drama and is quite entertaining . The story contains a brief studio character seeking human frailty beneath surface heroism . Splendid Hugh O'Brian as tough sergeant , in one of the best roles and James Mitchum -who bears remarkable resemblance his father Robert- is fine , no thanks to mediocre script . Director Ron Winston's skill with the thrills overcomes the artificiality of the story . A cool cast, nice direction from Winston with riveting climax and enhanced by energetic score by Richard La Salle make this a must for wartime fans . The picture was filmed entirely on actual locations in the Republic of the Philippines . The producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the Philippine government and its armed Force . Thanks to the U.S. Department of Defense , U.S. Navy , Marine Corps and Coast Guard , for their invaluable assistance , the producers extended thru United Artists .Others movies concerning the wartime sub-genre about American soldiers battling Japanese on the Pacific islands and Philippines during the WWII are the following : Guadalcanal diary(43)by Lewis Seiler with Anthony Quinn and Lloyd Nolan ; the classic Sands of Iwo Jima(1949) by Allan Dawn with John Wayne ; Beachhead (1956)by Stuart Heisler with Tony Curtis and Frank Lovejoy ; None but the brave, directed and starred by Frank Sinatra; and Between heaven and hell(1956) with Robert Wagner, among them.
... View MoreSo many rookie mistakes.Mitchum is the key man, the last minute radio man who is told to protect his radio at all times. Except in the opening frame, he is wearing a dark red hat that he continues to wear during the entire movie. Here is a group of hand selected specialist in full camouflage and this guy right in the middle is wearing a dark red cap.And the second in command, the sarge knows the exact route of the American invasion fleet. Top-secret restricted information but given to someone on a commando raid. Not that anyone could get captured and tortured.And the demolition expert doesn't know how to keep his head down.Need I say more expect to stream it on Netflix and watch it in 15 minutes. I'll let you find the other insults to the Corp. Hollywood and its love of profits to the max.Don't waste your time
... View MoreI saw this movie when it came out.Sure it's flawed and riddled with clichés, but there's really only one reason to watch it and that's Mickey Rooney and his flippant comments when he gets wounded and confronted by the Japanese.Baked potatoes and you can eat them with the jackets on.That entire scene stuck in my mind all these years and I am re-watching the movie while I type this.The music is quite good.But if you're looking for a war movie that's accurate or reflects reality, this one isn't it.James Mitchum's character reminds me of one of those guys who questions everything and contributes nothing.By the end of the movie, you're rooting for him to get killed just so he'll shut up.Kind of like some liberals out there.
... View MoreThis terrible old war movie was "owned" by a local Tv station and they showed it at least once a month when I was a kid(before cable, only three stations to choose from!) I noticed how the same three Japanese soldiers kept getting killed throughout the entire movie! We were very lucky to ever win this war, since those "dead" Japanese would keep coming back to life! This could almost qualify this as a "Zombie" movie!
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