TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

malcolmgsw Looking for something to watch over Christmas i found a VHS that i had bought of this film 8 years ago which i hadnt gotten around to seeing.Well all i can say is that after watching it it will be at least another 8 years before it gets another viewing.It is difficult to understand how this film cost so much to produce when the sets at times look as cheap as those you would expect to see in an early TV production.The film plods on aimlessly for well over 2 hours which induced me to nod off from time to time.Coopers is the only worthwhile acting performance the rest are quite awful,matching script and direction.Also given the fact that they are supposed to be in Java where it is rather hot don't they ever sweat?De Mille is his usual overblown self in the prologue and also in the directors chair.Given the reprehensible way Hoppy acted towards the nurse i couldn't have cared less whether he survived.

xerses13 For his third TechniColor extravaganza Cecil B. DeMille (CB) took on World War II (WWII). Yes, THE BIG ONE, THE BIGGEST ONE and hopefully never to be repeated. Now what would you expect from CB master of the BIG. Some tide changing battle like MIDWAY were the fate of Empires hang in the balance. An aerial epic with our boys and their bombers up against the flying hordes of Nazi Germany. NO, we get some obscure incident in an early war debacle centered around Java. Listening to one of Franklin Delano Roosevelts (President U.S.A.) fire side chats (ie radio) CB picked up on the story of Dr. Corydon M. Wassell and how he evacuated wounded soldiers and seaman from the approaching Japanese invaders. Of course if made today by Michael Moore, Steven Spielberg or Oliver Stone the Japanese would be liberators of the Javanese from their evil colonial overlords, the Dutch. Funny though the Japanese liberation also included enslavement of their little brown brothers. Must have been some sort of 'Greater East Asian CoProsperty Sphere' bonus, full employment under duress.Maybe we should not been that surprised by CBs choice of subject. He did have a habit of picking up on obscure historical incidents and blowing them up for the big screen. Examples of this are in his first two (2) color features THE NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE and REAP THE WILD WIND. The thing though this is a big, long production, filmed in color with a first rate cast which means it was very expensive and we get back very little. Think we could have at least started off with a the naval battle showing the defeat of the ABDA Fleet (American, British, Dutch, Australian) then the air attack on the Marblehead (CL12). That would of given us a clue why we were in such desperate straits. This film is largely a lost opportunity. A lot more could have been done even with keeping the story focused around Dr. Wassell. The alternative would have been to hand the project over to another director, shorten the film to ninety (90) minutes which is about what the story deserved. Sorry CB, your lowest rating yet. CB to us means CERTIFIED BIGNESS and this film is just small.

chisum This is an entertaining movie if somewhat dated ,still worth an occassional veiwing. Gary Cooper carries the film with a great performance showing him for the star he was. The cast is packed with good character actors and actresses,and is filmed in colour,based on a true story that De Mille heard on the radio as told by FDR. The story of how the doctor rescues some badly injured sailors in the Phillipines is told in a flagwaving way,with humor and tragedy side by side. One reveiwer asks about Hoppy a badly wounded soldier who is left stranded on the wrong side of a demolished bridge,the film shows the Japanese closing in on him and a nurse then they disapear. In C.B,deMILLES BIOGRAPHY he reveals that Hoppy did survive and at the end of the credits he told the film audience this fact.

THMUR Although the movie is slow-moving at times and crying out for tighter editing, Gary Cooper's Dr. Wassell is appealing and the story line compelling enough to make watching this film time well spent. The story of a Doctor, who after being second to discover the source of a major epidemic in China, joins the Navy and ends up caring for a group of injured American sailors stranded on JAVA during WWII. I learned a lot from this film that I didn't know about the war in the Pacific and the Dutch involvement. This and the quiet heroics of Wassell and other characters makes for a fascinating watch. "The Story of Dr. Wassell" is a solid period film with a number of surprisingly good actors.