Alicia
I love this movie so much
Wordiezett
So much average
SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
edwagreen
What saves this routine film is the sharp sudden comic turn when the babies show up. It is at this point when Charles Laughton shows his mettle. From the beginning of the film, I thought that Laughton had been terribly miscast.While Brian Donlevy is in solid form, kudos must go to Robert Taylor, especially when he is confronted with the infants on board.Until the arrival of the babies, the film was quite dull at best. Walter Brennan plays his usual role as a dedicated enlisted man. Amazingly, he recovered real fast to sink that Japanese ship.What weakens this film is that there is no really romantic interests in it. Yes, we could have had it despite the misery that World War 11 brought as well as the human sacrifices that had to be endured.
ecapital46
This film starts very strong with Robert Taylor playing a Ivy League-trained Reserve Navy Officer who so far during WWII has become accustomed to serving duty in an assignment on the fringe of the war as an Admiral's aide where he enjoys plenty of hobnobbing with females at Washington DC social events. His commitment is put to the test when his boss assigns him as Executive Officer of a rusty WWI Tin Can that he must now man and ready for deployment.Brian Donlevy is solid as always as the Tin Can's skipper and given our current Middle East military call-ups, the film points to some interesting issues regarding the Reservist Taylor serving on active duty in wartime. A film worth watching, but ultimately, however, it saps itself too deep in corny WWII patriotic sentimentality, thereby missing an opportunity to become one of the better war films.
BullMoose
The story is fiction but the war was very real when this movie was made. While not intended to be a comedy, it has it's moments of humor. I heard it said this was to be a British movie but was switched to Hollywood because Britian was in deep straits and under attack at the time. Whatever the reason, it plays pretty well except for the old US 4 piper destroyer sinking a modern Japanese battleship (not a Japanese destroyer) . Not very likely, but that's Hollywood for you. However, the acting by Charles Laughton is classic. He does indeed steal every scene he's in and that takes some doing when one of the other actors is Walter Brennan. Laughton's John Paul Jones speech to the ship's company is superb and stirring even 60 years later.-BullMoose
Chuck-66
WW II Propaganda film, good entertainmentThis is the story of a young officer (Taylor) dismayed to be deployed on an old ship, a WW I destroyer with convoy escort duty. Even worse, he has to contend with a Skipper (Donlevey) who runs the ship by the book but with unseen compassion and talent. Laughton plays the fleet commander, a crotchety admiral who soon realizes the true caliber of Donlevey tho he is frustrated by the tactics Donlevey takes.If you like WW II movies this is definitely "OK+"... not great, but entertaining throughout.Chill Wills and Walter Brennan add to the story with both comic and tradgic portrayals.Some very good action scenes as well.I'd Check it out if you enjoy WW II sea stories.
