Standard-issue WWII Marine Action programmer (well, slightly subpar programmer) has Pat O’Brien & Robert Ryan fighting in the Pacific (Guadalcanal); taking R&R in Australia; training recruits Stateside; then back to the Pacific as part of a major multi-force operation. Frank McHugh (as company cook) & Barton MacLane (as top Sargent) hang around for comic relief between military forays which give journeyman helmer Harold Schuster a chance to build a little apprehensive suspense before the iffy special effects kick in (along with uncomfortably real bits of actual war footage). The main interest comes during the break period, set in Australia, where Ryan falls hard for Aussie Air Force Auxiliary gal Ruth Hussey. Wounded just before a planned quickie marriage, his hospital stay gives O’Brien a chance to swoop in and ‘rescue’ his pal from wedlock, stealthily shipping him Stateside. But O’Brien isn’t protecting him, he’s saving him for himself, suffering from jealousy, the green-eyed monster. The messaging is subliminal, but clear enough: O’Brien, a man whose only family is the Marines, is bromantically possessive; and then some. You could do something with this situation . . . but not in 1944.*
DOUBLE-BILL: *Try John Huston’s messy, unfocused, fascinating REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE to see how far things had (and hadn’t) changed by 1967.
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