Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

"To the Shores of Tripoli" is light drama/comedy about new Marine recruits going through boot camp in the 1940's. This movie is made to look like a Twentieth Century Fox musical. There is too much color in the movie. It makes the story look less real. The colors are too bold and bright. You don't see any war scenes, just training scenes. Of course, there is a spoiled, rich Marine recruit (John Payne) in love with two women (Maureen O'Hara and Nancy Kelly), who wants to get out of the Marine Corp. Randolph Scott, who plays the drill sergeant, has the best role in the movie. He trains the recruits and tries to convince John Payne to stay in the Marine Corp. This is a terrific recruiting movie. It is fun to watch. A bit of trivia: both actors have worked with both actresses several times. John Payne made five movies with Maureen O'Hara,and Randolph Scott made three movies with Nancy Kelly. The supporting cast is full of recognizable faces of the 1940's. Only Harry Morgan is known by name because of his fame from television.

PEARL HARBOR seems to have borrowed elements of its plotline from TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI--only this time the cocky hero with plenty of attitude is JOHN PAYNE and the Navy nurse he falls in love with is MAUREEN O'HARA. The scene where she gets even with him in the dispensary is reminiscent of the much more graphic event in PEARL HARBOR's early courtship scene.Anyway, as patriotic flag-waving recruitment films go, this one is typical of what the public clamored for during World War II. I'm sure the stirring drill scenes and dress parade moments, combined with stirring soundtrack music, were geared to get marine enlistments into high gear. And maybe they succeeded.Having put in some military years at the San Diego Naval base, much of the background looks achingly familiar to me. All of the location scenes at the military base have the requisite real flavor while the story itself is the timeless cliche about the spoiled rich boy who is given the rough treatment by a sergeant who wants to turn him into a tough marine. Naturally the over confident military brat becomes a hero in time to rescue his sergeant during a mine sweeping operation--and in time to ensure a happy ending for his romance with nurse O'Hara.JOHN PAYNE is at his best as the cocky young marine, his left eyebrow getting its usual workout as he seeks to outmanouver everyone in his path. He also gets to show off his splendid physique in the scene where hot-tempered O'Hara plays a dirty trick on him. RANDOLPH SCOTT is excellent as the drill sergeant and others in the cast are up to par--including NANCY KELLY in a rather thankless assignment as "the other woman".MAUREEN O'HARA is stunning in technicolor but, as usual, has virtually little to do aside from looking gorgeous in a number of close-ups. Her role is typical of the many innocuous cardboard heroines she had to play in the '40s.Summing up: Nice marine recruitment film, if a bit obvious in its patriotism.

This plot of this film- selfish rich boy joins the armed forces and by turns is converted into a red-blooded selfless team player- is often called cliche'. However, you have to bear in mind that it wasn't at the time it was made; It was one of the genre of plots that became cliche' latter (In fact, it is basically a color remake of "I Wanted Wings"...a much better film IMHO... substituting the Marines for the Air Corps.)But what it does have is a great cast, great production values and the distinction of the first pairing the lovely Maureen O'Hara, stunning in beautiful early Technicolor, and John Payne. Arguably this is one of the great, if minor, pairings of the 40's ("Sentimental Journey", "Miracle on 34th Street", etc.) that culminated in a return to the Marine/Tripoli theme: In 1950 the pair would almost single-handedly capture the city in "Tripoli".Is it great cinema? Nah...but it's a fun picture to watch for buffs.

While the story line is only so-so, the list of stars is quite impressive. The really special part of this movie is the exposure that the Marines in San Diego had to so many of the stars of the day. My father's unit (he was a DI) was used to film the movie. When you see Randolph Scott drilling his men, the close-ups are of Mr. Scott - the far off shots are of my father. My father also appears as an extra in other shots - the most noticeable being the scene where the men are all sitting in the bleachers. The really memorable aspect (and hopefully not TOO sentimental) of all this centers around the fact that this is the only record I have of my father in a "moving picture" (He died in 1952 when I was 3 years old, and the only pictures I have of him are still shots).Additionally, I fondly remember a large autographed picture by Randolph Scott inscribed to my father and the men in the unit - sitting in front of the men are Mr. Scott and my father, both wearing their round DI hats. This picture was also very special to all of us children. Therefore, this movie, while never going down as one of the great ones, will always have a very special place in my heart. It also gives me a better appreciation of movie "extras" and makes me wonder, "who are they and whatever happened to them"!