Movie Review: China Sky (1945)

Genre: Romantic War Drama  

Director: Ray Enright  

Starring: Randolph Scott, Ruth Warrick, Ellen Drew, Anthony Quinn  
Running Time: 78 minutes  

Synopsis: In World War Two, American doctors Gray Thompson (Randolph Scott) and Sara Durand (Ruth Warrick) operate a hospital in a strategically important Chinese mountain village, assisted by the local Dr. Kim and nurse Siu-Mei. Thompson is oblivious to Sara's love, and returns from a trip with new wife Louise (Ellen Drew). The village is an important base for militia leader Chen-Ta (Anthony Quinn), and subject to daily Japanese bombings. Chen-Ta's wounded Japanese prisoner Colonel Yasuda looks to exploit Dr. Kim's fragile psychology and Louise's inflamed jealousy to gain a tactical battle advantage.

What Works Well: The adaptation of writer Pearl S. Buck's 1941 novel benefits from a war-torn, stoic-village-under-threat ambiance. The passionate love triangle maintains focus on characters, but the war remains close thanks to Colonel Yasuda's evil scheming, Chen-Ta's dashing horse-mounted courage, and the constant threat of Japanese air force bombing runs.

What Does Not Work As Well: The acting and directing are all about one-shot, read-the-lines expediency. Dr. Thompson is a special kind of naïve, first missing Sara's passion, then dropping new bride Louise into a war zone and abandoning her in a bomb shelter with strangers, and finally failing to notice the tension between the two women. Other than the swashbuckling Chen-Ta, the Chinese characters are presented as meekly subservient to the Americans. 

Key Quote:

Louise, taunting Sara about Thompson: You'd do anything to get him, you know you would...but yours is such an antiseptic charm.

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Movie Review: Return Of The Bad Men (1948)

Genre: Western  

Director: Ray Enright  

Starring: Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, George "Gabby" Hayes, Anne Jeffreys  

Running Time: 90 minutes  

Synopsis: It's the 1880s in the Oklahoma territories. Populations are on the move as statehood and a land rush looms, and outlaws like the Youngers, the Daltons, and Billy the Kid plot to take advantage of the lawlessness. In the town of Braxton, rancher and former lawman Vance Cordell (Randolph Scott) is engaged to Madge (Jacqueline White), daughter of crusty banker John Pettit (George "Gabby" Hayes). Vance's plans to relocate to California are disrupted when the gang of Bill Doolin (Robert Armstrong), which includes Bill's niece Cheyenne (Anne Jeffreys) and brutal killer the Sundance Kid (Robert Ryan), targets John's bank.

What Works Well: The director and producer combination of Ray Enright and Nat Holt team up again for a successor to 1946's Badman's Territory, featuring the same historical setting and many of the same cast members (but in different roles). This is a notably better effort with rational pacing and an engaging plot line extending to two towns (Braxton is abandoned and the characters settle in Guthrie). A viable love triangle and a redemption arc (through Cheyenne's story) add texture, and shades of grey emerge among the outlaws. Robert Ryan makes for a chilling villain, and George "Gabby" Hayes spreads his wings (a bit) in a role other than "sidekick".

What Does Not Work As Well: The production never threatens to exceed solid B groundings. The historical explanation about towns abandoned for other towns is sketchy at best, the action scenes are executed with practiced clunkiness, and the idea of stuffing most of the famous bandits of the west into the same time and place is blatantly contrived and in any case toothless.

Conclusion: Trots straight between proficient and unexceptional.



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Movie Review: Badman's Territory (1946)

Genre: Western

Director: Tim Whelan

Starring: Randolph Scott, Ann Richards, George "Gabby" Hayes

Running Time: 98 minutes

Synopsis: In lawless territory near Oklahoma, the town of Quinto is a refuge for notorious bandits including the James and Dalton gangs. Texas lawman Mark Rowley (Randolph Scott) and his deputy brother Johnny arrive in town but have no authority. Mark starts a romance with newspaper editor Henryetta (Ann Richards), who is agitating for law and order. Mark also has encounters with James gang associate Coyote (George "Gabby Hayes), and outlaw Belle Star (Isabel Jewel).

What Works Well: The concept of lawmen and gangsters intermingling on neutral turf creates possibilities for unique interactions (including with local Indians treated with some respect); and the debate between maintaining lawlessness or pursuing statehood carries political interest. Randolph Scott is a strong presence, and Ann Richards leaves an impression as a strong-willed newswoman surrounded by hostility.

What Does Not Work As Well: With production values 15 years behind the times, this is an unsophisticated, poorly written, and badly paced western. Director Tim Whelan is incapable of the most basic character introductions, and instead haphazardly throws people and action at the screen. Four writers had a hand in creating a chaotic script which still gets distracted for a long period by a barely consequential horse race. The large supporting cast is bland, robbing the numerous outlaws of any edge. 

Conclusion: A clumsy combination of narrative disorganization and inept execution.



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Movie Review: Trail Street (1947)

Genre: Western

Director: Ray Enright

Starring: Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Jeffreys, George "Gabby" Hayes, Madge Meredith

Running Time: 84 minutes

Synopsis: The town of Liberty, Kansas is in the middle of a conflict between cattlemen and farmers. Allen Harper (Robert Ryan) is a landowner helping farmers deal with the harsh conditions, while the evil Logan Maury (Steve Brodie) wants to build a cattle empire and is happy to chase the farmers back east. Both men pursue a romance with Susan (Madge Meredith), but saloon girl Ruby (Anne Jeffreys) is in love with Logan and resents his interest in Susan. With the violence increasing, legendary Marshal Bat Masterson (Randolph Scott) arrives in Liberty to impose the rule of law.

What Works Well: This sturdy B-western delivers a conflict-filled plot inspired by the struggle to raise crops in dry and barren land. A romantic quadrangle, bursts of action, and a couple of good saloon songs (courtesy of Anne Jeffreys) maintain engagement. A deep cast of colourful characters includes Gabby Hayes in fine form as the talkative side-kick, and slimy saloon owner Carmody (Billy House) provides annoyingly effective support to the bad side of the street. Director Ray Enright animates Liberty with an army of extras, leading to a raucous climax.

What Does Not Work As Well: The film never threatens to rise above its humble ambitions, not helped by a rather disinterested Randolph Scott as Bat Masterson (an actual legend of the west). After wandering into town about halfway through, he stretches credibility by imposing his will through mere presence. 

Conclusion: A worthwhile if competently routine trip out west.



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Movie Review: Ride Lonesome (1959)

A routine but robust western, Ride Lonesome is a modest package delivered with minimal fuss. 

In rugged desert terrain, veteran bounty hunter Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) arrests fugitive Billy John (James Best), but not before Billy sends his men to fetch help from his brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef). Ben has a multi-day journey to escort Billy to Santa Cruz, and at a rest stop operated by Carrie Lane (Karen Steele) and her husband, Ben and Billy encounter outlaw Sam Boone (Pernell Roberts) and his sidekick Whit (James Coburn, in his screen debut).

Ben and Sam create an uneasy temporary alliance with a common objective of delivering Billy to justice, Sam intent on securing an amnesty in the process. Once Mr. Lane is confirmed as dead the group continues the trip to Santa Cruz, and have to fight off an attack by tribal warriors intent on kidnapping Carrie. Frank and his men are soon in pursuit, and with Ben choosing the long and slow trails, Sam starts to suspect that Ben's real target is Frank, with Billy being used as a lure.

The sixth of seven westerns directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott (who co-produced the films with Harry Joe Brown, hence the "Ranown Cycle" label applied to the series), Ride Lonesome is written by their frequent collaborator Burt Kennedy. Clocking in at an efficient 73 minutes, the film is a compact effort, never threatening to rise much above budget and talent limitations, but also easily maintaining a basic level of engagement and competency.

Majestic CinemaScope photography and sometimes clumsy editing summarize the film's ambitions and constraints. On close examination the plot makes little sense, and the portrayal of the Mescalero natives is particularly obtuse: their attack consists of riding in circles to offer themselves as best possible targets, and this after their Chief offers a horse as a trade for Carrie. But the film does work its way to a stirring climax, Brigade's real intentions revealed in a final confrontation with Frank. The jagged bond between Brigade and Boon is another steady source of spiky macho posturing with multiple possible outcomes.

The elemental dialogue matches the stiff performances. Kennedy's script stays in clipped economy class, and Scott, showing all of his 61 years, appears particularly uninterested in expressing any emotion other than cold and stoic. Pernell Roberts breathes more life into the Sam Boone role, while Lee Van Cleef is largely wasted: the seemingly critical character of Frank appears in all of two scenes. Karen Steele brings plenty of incongruous glamour to the desert, Boetticher not restraining any of the salivatory ogling by the sweaty men in her company.

Ending with an unforgettably fearsome image of a fiery cleansing, Ride Lonesome also rides straight and true, but along a narrow trail.



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Movie Review: To The Shores Of Tripoli (1942)

An atrocious wartime propaganda film for the US Marines, To The Shores Of Tripoli mostly features men marching in formation.

Confident and cocky anti-authoritarian Chris Winters (John Payne) is the son of a storied Marine, and joins the training academy in San Diego. His drill sergeant Dixie Smith (Randolph Scott) is a friend and colleague of Winters' father. While undergoing training, Chris immediately sets his sights on Lieutenant Nurse Mary Scott (Maureen O'Hara), and does all he can to win her heart.

Chris also tries to help another hapless trainee get better, while his society girlfriend Helene (Nancy Kelly) regularly shows up to distract him from his pursuit of Mary. Chris proves himself a good soldier-in-the-making, but is still unsure if he wants to join active service, with the attack on Pearl Harbor looming.

Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, To The Shores Of Tripoli (the title refers to a line from a Marines song) at least looks gorgeous in rich Technicolor. But no other redeeming elements are on display. Approximately half of the 86 minutes consist of platoons marching in formation this way then that, twirling their rifles in the training academy courtyard. With the war effort requiring an influx of volunteers, joining the Marines is made to look no more difficult than a high school marching band.

The movie's other half is a horrid attempt at a romance between Chris and Mary, both of them partaking in lying, deception and abuse. His behaviour fluctuates between manipulation and harassment, she gets her revenge by burning his skin, and this is all supposed to be the basis for a happy couple.

Director H. Bruce Humberstone is even tripped up by the most basic objectives of the film. Despite a most docile training regime and Chris proving his heroism, the muddled conclusion manages to question whether joining the military is ever worthwhile. A new ending was slapped together after the Pearl Harbor attack to change the lingering tone, but nothing can save this wretched effort from its misery march.

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Movie Review: Man In The Saddle (1951)

A sturdy western with appealing artistic touches, Man In The Saddle does not stray far from genre conventions but carries a stylistic kick.

Rich landowner Will Isham (Alexander Knox) is about to marry Laurie (Joan Leslie), the former sweetheart of the much more humble cattle rancher Owen Merritt (Randolph Scott), who is still very much in love with Laurie. Will is keen to extend his influence and eliminate all competition both real and perceived, by good means or foul. His band of enforcers is led by Texan Fay Dutcher (Richard Rober). Meanwhile, Hugh Clagg (John Russell), another of Will's men, is lusting after independent cattle woman Nan Melotte (Ellen Drew), but she only has eyes for Owen.

Will goes about buying out adjacent landowners, but when Owen refuses to sell, their conflict becomes violent with a series of back-and-forth raids, murders and reprisals, and Laurie has to decide whether she can stand by her new husband. When Owen is wounded and forced to flee to the hills, it is Nan who helps him out, which further inflames Hugh's rage.

Notably directed by Andre DeToth, Man In The Saddle features noir and suspense touches rarely seen in a western. Just when what seems to be a traditional saloon shootout scene is about to ignite, DeToth turns out all the lights, allowing the bullet flashes and little else to tell the story. Several other scenes feature backlighting, silhouettes and shadows, heightening the drama.

In the film's most famous scene, a prolonged fist fight between Owen Merritt and Hugh Clagg literally brings down the roof and extends for hundreds of yards down a snowy embankment. As the punches fly, DeToth finds the time to inject a classic suspense element featuring a shotgun trapped under fallen debris.

The plot is only slightly above average, but the two overlapping romantic triangles add a dash of originality. Laurie is unusually clear that her marriage to Will is all about convenience and loveless social climbing, leaving all the threads hanging with Owen. Meanwhile the down-to-earth Nan is exactly Owen's type of woman, if only he can peel his eyes off Laurie and rescue Nan from Hugh. DeToth doesn't allow the romances to bog down the film but they do provide a potent power source.

Also adding to the film's appeal is Will's soft spoken, clearly insecure but immensely powerful villain, a classic example of a man who undeservedly has everything but won't be satisfied until he pushes too far for his own good.

Elsewhere Man In The Saddle is a straightforward 87 minutes of stock acting and gunplay or fisticuffs at regular intervals. The second half runs out of new ideas and defaults to raid and counter raid, rinse and repeat to run down the clock, with several scenes of riders on the plains extending well past what is necessary to pad the already thin running time. But with DeToth at the helm, the Man In The Saddle is just that bit more intriguing that he needed to be.

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Movie Review: When The Daltons Rode (1940)

A raucous western, When The Dalton Rode is historically suspect but packs action, stunts, extras, comedy and romance into a thrilling package.

On his way to Guthrie, lawyer Tod Jackson (Randolph Scott) stops in Coffeyville, Kansas and inquires about his childhood friends the Daltons. Soon he stumbles upon Bob Dalton (Broderick Crawford) who is the local Marshal, and his brothers Grat (Brian Donlevy), Ben (Stuart Erwin), and Emmett (Frank Albertson) and their Ma (Mary Gordon). Tod also meets and quickly falls in love with local girl Julie (Kay Francis), before finding out that she is Bob's girlfriend.

Along with family friend Ozark Jones (Andy Devine), the Daltons are pushed into taking the law into their own hand when the evil Kansas Land and Development Company threatens their property and Ben is accused of murdering a surveyor. With Bob as the gang leader the Daltons take to the hills and become notorious outlaws, robbing a succession of banks and trains in several states. Meanwhile Julie is left behind, very much in love with Tod but unable to give up on Bob.

Only loosely inspired by actual events, When The Dalton Rode joins the stream of movies from the era taking a sympathetic look at famous western outlaws. After a slow opening half an hour, director George Marshall kicks the action into gear and the remainder of the brisk 82 minutes of running time is genuinely impressive.

Once the Daltons turn into a gang, the action is unrelenting, and the set pieces are very well staged. When The Daltons Rode is particularly notable for the frequency and quality of stunts, including a perfect Yakima Canutt under-the-stagecoach special, several leaps from horses onto trains, with an exclamation mark featuring a succession of horses and riders galloping off a moving train.

Not satisfied by the breathless thrills, Marshall throws in plenty of humour, almost all of it courtesy of Andy Devine's Ozark character, who is incongruously a magnet for the ladies. The comedy always threaten to border on the ridiculous, but Marshall and Devine conspire to consistently land the jokes on the right side of funny and sometimes hilarious, a memorable pie-on-a-wagon moment taking home the cake.

Marshall also deploys throngs of extras in several teaming crowd scenes of prodigious power. An unruly courthouse melee and a mob near-lynching are executed with unusual raw intensity, cinematographer Hal Mohr allowing his cameras to get up close and personal with the carnage of angry men - and some women - pushing and shoving with intent.

All the focus on the wild antics of the Daltons does mean that the two notable stars take a back seat for most of the film. Tod Jackson and Julie are more framing devices than central characters, and here are used to ensure that empathy can be parked with two people who stand for good. The romantic chemistry evaporates early with a telling moment at the end of the film where an old codger mistakes Tod and Julie for brother and sister. Randolph Scott and Kay Francis grin and bear it, Scott never even wearing a gun and allowing himself to be frequently victimized. Broderick Crawford gradually takes over the film in an impressively aggressive performance as Bob Dalton.

When The Daltons Rode may be a sympathetic and fictional portrayal of murderous outlaw thugs, but it is nonetheless a rollicking good time.

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Movie Review: Albuquerque (1948)

A routine western, Albuquerque enjoys a couple of rousing moments but never rises above its humble ambitions.

A stagecoach on the way to Albuquerque is held up by a gang of thugs and passenger Celia Wallace (Catherine Craig) is robbed of $10,000. Fellow traveler Cole Armin (Randolph Scott) rescues young Myrtle Walton from inside the runaway wagon. Once in Albuquerque, Cole realizes that his uncle John Armin (George Cleveland), a ruthless and widely despised but wheelchair-bound freight line tycoon, runs the town and masterminded the holdup to try and shut down the rival business of Celia and her brother Ted (Russell Hayden).

Cole abandons his uncle and goes into business with the Wallaces, and with the help of grizzled wagon driver Juke (George "Gabby" Hayes) they start winning contracts to transport ore along dangerous mountain trails. John, his chief goon Steve Murkil (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and the corrupt Sheriff Ed Linton (Bernard Nedell) do all they can to sabotage their upstart rivals, including recruiting the beautiful Letty Tyler (Barbara Britton) as an undercover corporate spy.

Not exactly a B western but perhaps no more than a B+, Albuquerque suffers from a bland script, predictable characters, asinine plot developments and wooden acting from an underpowered cast. Most of the shootout scenes are poorly staged, and the dialogue is of the plastic variety.

On the positive side, director Ray Enright has an eye for the interesting perspective and often disarmingly finds clever angles. Enright also knows a highlight when he sees one, and delivers a solid sequence of suspense with an out-of-control ore-filled wagon pulled by 12 mules hurtling down a narrow mountain pass. The film was shot in Cinecolor, the poorer cousin of Technicolor, but Enright makes the most of the excessively vivid palette and does a decent job stitching together scenic location shots with in-studio close-ups.

But the good elements are undone by a mechanical plot filled with gaping holes, cheapish production values and the most basic good guy - bad guy characterizations. The opening stage coach robbery sequence sets the tone, a poorly edited mess in which the bandits seem to simply vaporize after a few shots are exchanged. Later Cole has the remarkable ability to never miss a shot while his opponents of course can never find the target. The cast surrounding Scott is talent-challenged, with Enright over-reliant on George "Gabby" Hayes' old codger schtick. However, George Cleveland in a wheelchair is an effective villain.

Albuquerque is passable for what it is, a below average western ticking off the most conventional boxes for an undemanding audience.

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Movie Review: Ride The High Country (1962)

A western exploring the changing times, Ride The High Country (also known as Guns In The Afternoon) gets bogged down in a tedious subplot and plods its way into blandness.

Former respected Marshall Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) has fallen on hard times. He arrives in the gold rush town of Hornitos, California, where he accepts an assignment from the local bank to provide security services on the dangerous trail to and from the Coarse Gold mining camp. Steve recruits his old friend Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) as backup. Gil himself is also past his glory days and along with his young sidekick Heck Longtree (Ron Starr) is now part of a cheesy traveling wild west show.

The trio head out to the gold camp, with Steve unaware that Gil and Heck have intentions to double cross him. Along the way they rest at the ranch of religious zealot Joshua Knudsen (R.G. Armstrong) and his daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley). Heck is immediately attracted to Elsa, but she has already decided to marry Billy Hammond, who is working the gold mines. Elsa is desperate to escape her father and joins Steve, Gil and Heck as they journey to the mines. Once there, her husband-to-be Billy (James Drury) and his boorish brothers Elder (John Anderson), Sylvus (L. Q. Jones), Jimmy (John Davis Chandler) and Henry (Warren Oates) prove to be nothing but trouble, making Steve's security assignment much more complicated.

The second film directed by Sam Peckinpah and the final screen role of Randolph Scott's career, Ride The High Country contains some points of interest. Filmed in CinemaScope and featuring some stunning mountainous scenery bathed in rich colours, the film carries strong visual appeal. The story of two aging and imperfect veterans in the twilight of their life experiencing the dying days of the old west, the film contains many of the themes Peckinpah would return to in later efforts.

Ride The High Country is punctuated with reminders that the past was better, the glory days have been firmly left behind, and final acts should be invested to either polish a legacy or chase a final pay day. However, after a slow but steady start, that appealing narrative stumbles, and badly.

The intrusion of Heck, Elsa, Billy and his idiot band of brothers starts as an irritating distraction and is allowed to morph into the dominant story. Heck and Elsa have nowhere near the depth of Steve and Gil, and yet many precious scenes are burned on their non-romance and the rough treatment she receives at the hands of her father and then the Hammond clan. Steve's mission to protect the gold trail is forgotten, the simmering tension with Gil taking a firm back seat for long stretches, much to the film's detriment.

Peckinpah also falls into the trap of inserting unnecessary juvenile fistfights or face slaps at regular intervals, the film often descending into literal and only partially intended slapstick.

McCrea and Scott bring grizzled maturity to their roles, and are by far the best thing about Ride The High Country. Their journey to atonement would have been worthwhile, but this western drama rides the wrong horse.

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The Movies Of Randolph Scott

All movies starring Randolph Scott and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Jesse James (1939)

When The Daltons Rode (1940)

To The Shores Of Tripoli (1942)

The Spoilers (1942)

Gung Ho! (1943)

China Sky (1945)

Badman's Territory (1946)

Trail Street (1947)

Albuquerque (1948)

Return Of The Bad Men (1948)

Man In The Saddle (1951)

Ride Lonesome (1959)

Ride The High Country (1962)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Spoilers (1942)

A western with an excellent cast and rich plot mixing business with romance, The Spoilers is an enjoyable story set in the madness of the Alaska gold rush.

It's 1900, and gold mining has transformed Nome, Alaska, into a bustling but lawless town. Cherry Malotte (Marlene Dietrich) runs the local saloon and presides over the town's social pulse. Her loyal assistant Bronco (Richard Barthelmess) harbours a hopeless crush on Cherry, but she is awaiting the return of her true love, mine owner Roy Glennister (John Wayne). The business of mining in Nome is in turmoil: claims and counterclaims to seize control of mines are causing rifts between miners and newcomers looking to make a quick profit. Recently arrived gold commissioner Alexander McNamara (Randolph Scott) appears to be at the centre of many of the dubious claims, while also casting an eye towards Cherry.

Roy arrives back in town but to Cherry's horror he is in the company of the attractive Helen Chester (Margaret Lindsay), the niece of newcomer Judge Horace Stillman (Samuel S. Hinds). Roy appears to want to enjoy the company of both Helen and Cherry, while Judge Stillman's arrival to bring some law and order is viewed with a mix of relief and suspicion. Roy clashes with his partner Al Dextry (Harry Carey) on whether to trust the legal process to determine the ownership of their mine, but there is a lot more going on than initially meets the eye.

Directed by Ray Enright, this was already the fourth film version of the Rex Beach novel, and one of two 1942 films to unite Dietrich, Scott and Wayne (the other was Philadelphia). With Scott sinking his teeth into a rare antagonist role as a corrupt businessman amidst a love, lust and gold story with Dietrich the centre of attention of three men, The Spoilers offers amplified versions of many traditional western elements: saloon brawls, corrupted attempts at frontier justice, and a mad rush in search of quick riches, spiced with multiple often hidden personal agendas.

The film thrives in an environment of frontier lawlessness where no one can fully claim the moral high ground. The characters start at grey and moves towards sinister. Even Cherry, conceivably the purest person in town, meddles with the paperwork at the gold claims office. Roy thinks nothing of two-timing the women in his life, while McNamara is superficially on the side of officialdom but actually seeking his own fortune. And these are just the main characters. Sidekick Bronco, ambitious Helen and Judge Stillman have their own motivations, and the film benefits by gradually establishing a reality that no one arrives in Nome seeking the greater good.

The trio of Wayne, Scott and Dietrich share the screen time equitably, and ensure a high calibre of dedicated talent in every scene. Dietrich doesn't get to sing but easily places Cherry at the heart of the film and elegantly wears several fetching dresses, while Wayne and Scott enjoy their time playing much less than perfect characters. Margaret Lindsay, Harry Carey and Richard Barthelmess offer capable and animated support.

The Spoilers suffers from a few of weaknesses. The comic elements are often overplayed, and tend to undermine what is a good drama. Many men are shot and killed in the film, the deaths are instantaneously dismissed as funny and the violence stepped over like inconveniently placed trash. An unfortunate blackface episode is also played for laughs but nevertheless confines the film to a very different era.

Enright does better in lovingly creating an engrossing aesthetic: Nome is presented as a ramshackle town heaving with activity in every corner, with a main street overrun by ankle-deep mud. Cherry's saloon is the gathering place where every seat is occupied, deals are struck, alliances are made, and disputes are settled with brawls. Fittingly, the film ends with a legendary and prolonged two-man fistfight, extending from the upper balcony of the saloon through the lower level and out to the street. Every piece of furniture and pane of glass is shattered in pursuit of barefisted justice, frontier style.

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Movie Review: Gung Ho! (1943)

Inspired by the true story of the Marine Raider Battalion responsible for the Makin Island assault during World War Two, Gung Ho! aims for inspirational but just delivers well-intentioned hokeyness.

A few months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the Marine Corps calls for volunteers to join a newly created special unit tasked with conducting dangerous missions in the Pacific theatre. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Thorwald (Randolph Scott), a large number of men step forward. Some are motivated by personal circumstances, others are prone to extreme violence, and a few are simply keen to kill Japanese soldiers. Thorwald emphasizes the need for innovation and teamwork, and the men adopt the Chinese phrase Gung Ho, meaning "work together", as their rallying cry.

After undergoing rigorous training including learning the art of fighting in close-quarters, the men travel by submarine to the strategically located Makin Island, where their mission is to attack the Japanese garrison and destroy all enemy installations. Significantly outnumbered, the Marines use the element of surprise to land on the island and engage the heavily fortified Japanese defenders in vicious combat.

Directed by Ray Enright, Gung Ho! effectively conveys the brutalities of the conflict, sometimes with startling honesty. The Marines are seen to attract killers and psychopaths, and the training emphasizes the need to kill quickly and silently with nothing but a knife. There is no sugar-coating the horrors of war or the need to turn men into efficient killing machines in order to win it, and in the 1943 context of a raging conflict with an uncertain outcome, the movie's stance is lucid.

The production values are rudimentary, and the performances solidly second rate. As the battalion leader, Randolph Scott gets to deliver a couple of speeches meant to be inspirational, but his first speech is drowned out by the background drone of machinery at the Marine base where the movie was filmed (there must have been no budget or no time to schedule another take). His second speech, at the end of the movie, is delivered in cringe-inducing manner straight to the camera in a most comprehensive demonstration of Scott's lack of talent for anything other than Grade B westerns.

The rest of the cast includes Robert Mitchum in an early credited role, J. Carrol Naish as a soldier of Greek origin, and a large number of actors who never really made it past secondary features. Some attempts are made to provide a few back stories to personalize the soldiers, including a clumsy narrative about competitive half-brothers in love with the same woman.

Gung Ho! is at its best in recreating the battle on Makin Island, Enright finding and maintaining a decent amount of momentum and no shortage of heroism as the Marines fight their way against the superior numbers of a resolute enemy. When war is the message and talent is thin, its best to let the bullets do the talking.

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