Sadly Over-hyped

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It appears most reviewers of the film here treat is as a propaganda piece. Since I'm no fan of Communism I didn't find it as bad as most, though the patriotic approach did get heavy handed at times. What would you expect in a John Wayne flick - he "shot at the other guy because he was an enemy".Infiltrating labor unions and intending to plague the islands of Hawaii with disease infested rats made the Commies a bad bunch in this story. Even so, Big Jim McLain had time enough on his hands to fall for the personal secretary of one of the Commie collaborators, though unknown to either one of them at the time. I don't know how, but Nancy Vallon (Nancy Olson) managed to get better looking as the movie progressed. The Duke must have had that affect on her, especially after he told her that "what I think about you has to be said in the dark".Politics aside, the movie is an average effort and certainly a product of it's times. That doesn't make it a bad one, even as some viewers bemoan Nurse Namaka's (Soo Young) view that Communism is a vast conspiracy to enslave the common man. Sounds over the top, though I don't know of any common men from former Soviet bloc countries who would disagree.

It's interesting and difficult to assess films with extremist viewpoints that were made at times when their viewpoints were considered perfectly acceptable. BIRTH OF A NATION is one such flick, with its heroic Ku Klux Klansmen saving the day. BIG JIM MCCLAIN is another film of this ilk. It was made in a time when a small but unfortunately powerful political and media cabal successfully convinced the public that Commie Spies were infiltrating everywhere. To stop them, all we needed to do was rip up the Constitution and set up a secret police to arrest these evil foreigners and their native-born Fellow Travellers. That we had just spent five years stopping a similar system in Germany never entered into most folks' minds. But I digress.... Wayne and Arness star as agents of the secret police.... err, investigators for the House Un-American Activities Commission ferreting out a group of obviously intellectual and well-traveled Commies and Commie Dupes who use the Constitution to prevent their prosecution. That's pretty much sums up the film. The film is a sad recitation of various bugaboos held by the conservatives. The Commies are highly intelligent, well-educated, and philosophical, and possess a wide view of the relationship between nations and an even better understanding of the rights inherent in the Constitution. The Good Guys are common folk without any intellectual pretense, possess a strong nationalistic bias, and dislike the Constitution because it prevents their actions. Hmm, sounds like the Bush Adminstration....The film is ripe for revival. The same script performed now could be a riotous dark comedy. Maybe throw in a few catchy song and dance numbers.

Early in the film Wayne and Arness take the US Navy "picket boat" out to Battleship Row and the superstructure of the USS Arizona, long before the familiar white memorial was built. This little side trip provides a continuity. The 50's fear of Communism was seen, in that era, as being informed by the experience of the attack at Pearl Harbor 11 years before. Folks then knew from bitter, bloody experience, that evil in the world existed, and they were trying to thwart the new evil. It may appear ham-handed to us today, but, in the context of the times, finding the enemy through investigative techniques probably appeared preferable to another sneak attack. Having read the above comments, I also appreciate the way the writers heaped praise on the local, Hawaiian, police.

Anyone who doesn't believe that the US engages in propaganda needs to see this film. This film, made during the McCarthy era with the aid of the US government, seems like it could have been scripted by Joseph McCarthy himself. John Wayne and James Arness are HUAC investigators out to break up a communist cell in Hawaii. There is no actual discussion of what communism IS, only that it is pure evil and must be stopped at all costs. The pair take the time to visit aging ma and pa farmers who give what is supposed to be a heart-rending account of how their son turned to communism, bit the scene only evokes laughter. Hilarious dialogue includes the Duke's line, "I wanted to hit you, but now I see you're a little guy. That's the difference between us -- we don't hit the little guy." While I am giving this film a rating of 3 out of 10, I actually recommend seeing it. The rating is based on the quality of the film, but this unabashedly gung ho movie definitely fits in the "so bad it's good" category.