Dreadfully Boring

A Brilliant Conflict

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

... especially if one is making a movie less than a year after one of the most brazen attacks on American soil in U.S. history, the attack on Pearl Harbor. Given that this is a B film and there is no time or desire to plug vital plot holes, this is an interesting little piece of B film history.The premise of the film is outrageous enough - a Japanese aircraft carrier on route to Pearl Harbor spots a pleasure cruise yacht way out in the distance. The people on board are civilians, with one couple just arguing over whether or not they should get married without the least interest in what is going on in the sea around them. With discretion and surprise being key to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the captain of the Japanese aircraft carrier decides to start a potential international incident by blowing the yacht to kingdom come, then trying to kill the survivors in the life raft with one of his aircraft, then trying to sink the passing American sub that picks up the lone woman survivor.Meanwhile back in Honolulu, American secret agent Bill Warren is having a hard time clearing out "fifth column" saboteurs, and no wonder. He openly discusses his true identity and his profession with his girl - nothing impresses the ladies like a little international intrigue! - and with the conversation clearly audible by his chauffeur. When another car pulls up next to his car and takes a shot at him and it turns out his chauffeur is in on the deal he is shocked!...shocked I say!... that everybody seems to know who he really is.Back on the sub, commander Chris Warren is trying to get a message through to somebody - anybody - about the acts of war taken by the Japanese, but all they can do is pick up music from a club in Honolulu. The scene switches to said club where the rattled Bill Warren is discussing the attempt on his life and his fears of Japanese aggression to an acquaintance. Meanwhile in that very club a waiter/Japanese agent goes into the coat room, opens a secret panel and walks into a fully outfitted radio room manned by another Japanese agent! Clever agents to architect and add such a room without the owner or American staff ever noticing! What follows is the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese predicted by Bill Warren, and a cat and mouse game between commander Chris Warren's submarine and the Japanese aircraft carrier that blew up the yacht. Key to the plot - the sub commander and not-so-secret American agent are brothers, and the captain of the Japanese aircraft carrier is the father of the pilot lost at sea trying to sink Warren's sub.The propaganda is blatant and the plot holes border on just too silly, but it is by no means boring. I'd recommend it just for illustrating that to make an effective war picture requires the passage of time so that some perspective can be gained. However, in 1942, the home front probably appreciated little pictures like this that likely raised morale.What's particularly interesting is that it is the supporting ranks of the players here that had bigger careers later on, such as Bruce Bennett as the first officer of the sub and Larry Parks as the radio operator on the sub. Also note that is Lloyd Bridges' voice over the sub intercom in an uncredited role.

As a WWII history buff, I try to watch every WWII film I can find. This one was watchable, but for the informed it was more for comedic effect and an understanding of the racial prejudices of the time than for anything else.I don't even know where to start with this one but it plays to all of the boogeymen of the immediate pre and post Pearl Harbor attack with it's focus on subversion and sabotage when we later learned that even the Japanese themselves put little faith in the Japanese-Americans in Hawaii.Perhaps the most laughable aspect was the presentation of a SINGLE Japanese aircraft carrier as being capable of the destruction wrought at Pearl Harbor, when, in fact, it took SIX carriers and on top of that, they portrayed the carrier as operating completely ALONE, when nothing of the sort would've happened.There is also a scene in which the US Submarine remains on the surface with a single gunner dueling with the attacking Japanese plane when Navy doctrine would've had the sub crash diving upon detection of the incoming plane.All in all, there are simply too many factual errors to even believe that this film actually had a technical adviser... at least one who had ever gone to sea in anything bigger than a rowboat! The only misinformation missing from this film that I can see is that they didn't try to pin on the blame on FDR as many other crackpots did!

This is American exploitation at its worst, and in the case of this film, it ranks as a "Bomb" because it is exploiting a recent American tragedy with no well-meaning intentions whatsoever. The film actually starts off pretty good with a well filmed explosion sequence that destroys a pleasure cruise ship and puts three people aboard a lifeboat. The two men are quickly exterminated by the Japanese, and only Marguerite Chapman survives. A Japanese bomber plane sets out to fill her with holes but somehow she manages to hide from him by holding onto the side of the boat so she cannot be seen. An American submarine en-route to Hawaii rescues her, while the Japanese pilot is quickly punished in a shocking manner by his commanding officer. This leads to an exciting sequence where another Japanese pilot, wounded from being shot by the Americans, determinedly continues to drop bombs on the submarine, which has begun its descent to get out of harms way.Back in Hawaii, it's very clear that there are spies abound, because it's apparent that the driver of the car Chapman is in with her fiancé is being driven by is Japanese. This leads into a chase sequence near Pearl Harbor, which of course, is soon raided. What makes this scene really horrible is the manner in which a radio reporter reveals the devastation. Rather than sounding horrified or even rushed to get the news out, he sounds like he's introducing nominees at the Oscars. This is very off putting and is insulting to American intelligence, if that already hadn't been insulted by the fact that Chapman's fiancée was revealing military secrets in front of an obvious spy.The Japanese are presented in a very stereotypical manner, more interested in dying for honor than having really any sort of mission for why they were attacking America out of the blue. If you thought "Air Force" and "Destination Tokyo" (in addition to dozens of other propaganda films of the time) made the Japanese an extremely nasty enemies, then this one makes them purely evil without redemption. The film was obviously rushed together to take advantage of the timing (released only six months after Pearl Harbor!) and lacks any intelligence whatsoever. Columbia, which specialized in fast paced "B" films that were actually pretty enjoyable, really messed up by letting this one out. The first 20 minutes are promising, but the rest settles into disaster.

This is probably the most important and factual Pearl Harbor movie ever made. Oliver Stone and James Cameron could not have painted a truer picture. The effects are magnificent, and the acting better than Ben Affleck in "Pearl Harbor" or Leo DiCaprio in "Titanic", if that could ever be possible. If you hold your nose, keep your eyes closed and sneeze real hard you will see colors and be dizzied by this masterpiece. A sequel was rumored to have been in the works, but was squelched by foreign powers. Some say it was the investment by offshore interests in Hollywood by means of arbitrage and loose lips. Others say the original cast was so overwrought with their original efforts that they could not perform again for years after, and were not able to be re-cast by new up-and-comers. Rumors will swirl for years, but the original film adds a great insight to future generations as to what it was all about.