Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Up until World War II the US Marines was an elite fighting force and under the control of the Navy. It is still that. But between the World Wars and under the leadership of one far sighted commandant John Lejeune the Marines developed as specialty mission, amphibious landing. When the Pacific war came and would be fought across the ocean from several directions toward Japan, the Marines became invaluable with their training for amphibious landings across those countless Pacific islands. It became in fact four divisions because the USA needed a lot of Marines.That's what Marine Raiders is all about. A couple of veterans of the Corps, Pat O'Brien and Robert Ryan, are ordered back from combat to train what the Marines hope will be half a million of them. O'Brien says it's orders, but Ryan really resents being pulled from combat. However in combat he could never have met Ruth Hussey and gotten things going with her.Knowing that background which I described makes you understand Marine Raiders a lot better. It still holds up well and those jungle combat scenes once again have RKO utilizing the old King Kong sets. And it's historically accurate even if it doesn't give all the background I did.

During World War II, the US Marine Corps had two elite units called Raiders. They didn't last long and were absorbed into the rest of the Marine Corps. The Army had its elites -- the paratroopers, the Rangers, now Delta Corps; the Navy has its SEAL teams. But the Marine Corps decided it didn't need any elites because the entire Corps was elite.Robert Ryan and his superior officer Pat O'Brien, are Rangers on Guadalcanal. The film open with a brief, almost surreal, battle scene on the sound stage. Ryan is wounded. Back in New Zealand, he meets the inevitable woman at a party, Ruth Hussey. Before the first night is over they have agreed to be married.BUT -- and it's a necessary but -- O'Brien, who has never met Hussey, thinks that Ryan has the jitters and is lonesome and just fell for the first "ewige Weib" that crossed his path. So O'Brien has Ryan hijacked back to the states, to Camp Pendleton. This introduces the conflict between Ryan and O'Brien, erstwhile friends.The business about Hussey has to be in there somewhere, otherwise what we'd have is not a dramatic story but a training camp film. And, indeed, the boot camp experience is brought in and put on display as if by 1944 no one had yet become familiar with its tribulations. But don't worry. O'Brien and Ryan make up, and Hussey gets her Marine. A captain too; a juicy catch. The film ends with another burst of heroism on a fictional island.The movie is über-typical. You can't get more typical. It has friendship, romance, battle, and patriotism. (They left out the "mail call" scene.) O'Brien comes across as likable but already a bit old for front-line combat. Ruth Hussey's role is unimportant except insofar as it precipitates that argument between the two principals. But Robert Ryan is, let's say, interesting. He's young, somewhat handsome, and more relaxed than I've seen him elsewhere. Of course he's best as a psychopath -- those glittering steely eyes, the scowl. But this is really a decent performance, although the role itself isn't demanding. He was quite good in a few other later films -- "Crossfire" and "On Dangerous Ground," in both of them, a pustule waiting to pop.It's all stage bound except for a bit of newsreel footage. That's not necessarily the kiss of death. It's the script and the clumsy direction and editing that torpedoes the movie. The gags between the two comic reliefs are extended and unfunny. And if you want to see combat effectively mounted on a sound stage, see "Bataan" or the excruciating fifteen-minute combat sequence in "Pride of the Marines." And on the night of their first meeting, Ryan is dancing with Hussey and admits he loves her. The scene lacks conviction, never mind poetry. For impending loss, watch the scene of the pilots dancing with their wives in "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo."

Army Major Steve Lockhart(Pat O'Brien)and Marine Captain Dan Craig(Robert Ryan)are veterans of the fierce fighting at Guadalcanal...they join and train young soldiers in Australia. The fighting scenes are engaging; but otherwise this is a typical rally 'round the flag flick. Of course what would this war drama be without a rivalry over a woman...Ruth Hussey. MARINE RAIDERS is very watchable and co-stars: Frank McHugh, Martha Vickers, Barton MacLane and Russell Wade. O'Brien slides into his role with ease; on the other hand Ryan at times seems wooden. Kudos to Harold D. Schuster, who directs this RKO Radio Pictures WW2 warfare noir.

The jungle battle scenes in opening of this film incorporate an atmosphere one usually finds in film noir. The portrayal of Guadalcanal and the related background music tend in this direction, which was not found in many of the war movies of 1944. Special credit should be given to the director of lighting, especially relative to the deep three-dimensional effect created with the interplay of light and dark.