A few weeks in the life of Admiral William Halsey who matches wits with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto as he defends Guadacanal from the Japanese.
James Cagney and Robert Montgomery formed a production company to film the life of Admiral Halsey. Montgomery served under Halsey during World War II and had moved behind the camera after working for John Ford in They Were Expendable. Montgomery directed parts of that film after Ford was injured on set which spurred his interest in direction.
Cagney felt that most of the directors he worked with were idiots and relished the idea to play something a little more understated than his usual flamboyant characters.
This was clearly an important film for both men. The tone is very solemn and the sense of death hangs over most of the story. A decision was made to not show any battle scenes and there is no Japanese bashing throughout the story. To add even more gravitas, the background score is choral music.
Cagney and the rest of the cast a very good, but Robert Montgomery's direction is stagy, the characters move on and off screen more like they are appearing in a play then a film. Still, this is a good film even though it's more a character study than a war film.
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| Cagney and Montgomery |
Halsey's defense of Guadalcanal was a high point in his navel career, unfortunately towards the ends of the war he made a series of screw ups which included sailing his fleet into not one but two typhoons.
115 minutes.
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