| In Harm's Way | |
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Film poster by Saul Bass |
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| Directed by | Otto Preminger |
| Produced by | Otto Preminger |
| Written by | James Bassett (novel) Wendell Mayes |
| Starring | John Wayne Kirk Douglas Henry Fonda |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Loyal Griggs |
| Editing by | George Tomasini Hugh S. Fowler |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 6, 1965 |
| Running time | 165 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
In Harm's Way is a 1965 American epic war film produced and directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, and Henry Fonda.[1]
It was the last black-and-white World War II epic and the last black-and-white John Wayne film. It received a mixed response over the years as a war story that had a simple story, a charge leveled against Preminger's later movies, starting with this one. The screenplay was written by Wendell Mayes based on the novel Harm's Way by James Bassett.
The film recounts the lives of several US naval officers and their wives or lovers while based in Hawaii as the US involvement in World War II begins. The title of the film comes from a quote from American Revolutionary naval hero John Paul Jones: "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way."
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John Wayne stars as U.S. Navy Captain Rockwell "Rock" Torrey, a divorced "second generation Navy" son of a career Chief Petty Officer. A Naval Academy graduate and career officer, Torrey is removed from command of his heavy cruiser for "throwing away the book" when pursuing the enemy and then being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After several months of desk duty ashore in Hawaii and recuperation from a broken arm he suffered in the attack on his cruiser, he is promoted to Rear Admiral and given a crucial mission early in 1942 requiring the same sort of guts and gallantry he previously displayed as commanding officer of his cruiser.
Though it makes use of the same heroic persona that Wayne displayed in his Westerns, this persona is very much restrained under Otto Preminger's direction. We learn more of the character's human qualities: his estrangement from his son, now an Ensign in the Naval Reserve (played by Brandon De Wilde), and his romance with a divorced Navy Nurse Corps Lieutenant (played by Patricia Neal), which brings out his yearning for a stable emotional anchor in his life. The Wayne/Neal relationship forms the emotional crux of the movie, and the two stars give sensitive performances.
There are sub-plots involving characters played by Kirk Douglas and Tom Tryon, who offer differing portraits of two other career naval officers associated with Wayne's command. Douglas portrays Commander, later Captain, Paul Eddington, a wayward sort of career officer who has resigned as a Naval Aviator and returned to the Surface Navy because of an unhappy marriage. His wife's numerous "love" affairs and drunken escapades have become the talk of Honolulu and her death during the Pearl Harbor attack - in the company of an Army Air Corps Officer (Hugh O'Brian), with whom she has just had a wild fling on a local beach - drives Eddington into a bar brawl, a stint in the Brig, and exile as the "...officer in charge of piers and warehouses..." in a "backwater island purgatory" as he calls it, until reprieved by Torrey and assigned as Torrey's Chief of Staff - and finally into the rape of Navy Nurse Annalee Dohrn (Jill Haworth) (engaged by this time to Torrey's son), who then, fearing she might be pregnant and tossed aside by Eddington, commits suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Having been originally trained as a Naval Aviator, Eddington requisitions a PBJ patrol bomber which he then flies solo on an unauthorized reconnaissance flight to locate elements of the Japanese fleet. He goes down to a fiery death in a redeeming act of sacrifice, finding and giving advance warning of the huge Yamato battleship task force on its way to blast Torrey's much smaller force off the islands. Tryon portrays Lieutenant, junior grade, later Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander, William "Mack" McConnell, a conventional type of young surface naval officer only a few years removed from the Naval Academy, with a characteristic Navy wife of the period (played by Paula Prentiss), who is ever solicitous and faithful, a true family man with an enviable marriage, in stark contrast to Eddington's almost tragic and isolated figure.
The film presents a relatively unromanticized and realistic picture of the American Navy and its officers in the period before and shortly after the start of World War II, complete with bureaucratic infighting among the brass and sometimes disreputable private acts by individuals. Its sprawling narrative is typical of Preminger's works in which he examined institutions and the people who run them (such as the American Congress and the Presidency in Advise and Consent, the Catholic Church in The Cardinal and the British Intelligence Service in The Human Factor).
Many believe Wayne's underplayed performance was due to the fact that he was seriously ill with lung cancer when the film was made. Shortly after filming ended in August 1964 he was diagnosed with the disease, and a month later underwent surgery to remove his entire left lung and two ribs. Co-star Franchot Tone was soon to develop lung cancer and died of the disease in September 1968.
Many of the non-military costumes and hairstyles worn by the women throughout the film were contemporary to the mid-1960s period during which the film was made, rather than of the early 1940s. This is particularly noticeable at the dance which opens the film. Many of the extras in this scene were, in fact, active duty officers and their spouses assigned to various commands in Oahu.
The film was shot in black-and-white by Loyal Griggs, who composed his scenes in the scope format often using deep focus (Griggs was nominated for a Best Cinematographer Academy Award for his work). Jerry Goldsmith's musical score is also notable, as is the work of Saul Bass in the credit titles sequence (this sequence actually comes at the very end of the film, an interesting departure from the norm in a major Hollywood production at the time).
The film received extensive cooperation from the Department of Defense, especially the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. Though at the time of the filming (late 1963-1964), very few ships in active Navy service resembled their WW-2 configuration, and the only WW-2 vintage heavy cruiser USS Saint Paul (CA 73) in the role of the straw bottom cruiser (referred to only as the "old swayback"), and an accompanying destroyer, USS Philip (DD-498), that took on the role USS Cassidy were extensively filmed on. Other US Navy ships that participated include destroyers USS Braine (DD 630), USS O'Bannon (DD 450), USS Renshaw (DD 499), USS Walker (DD 517), submarine USS Capitaine (SS 336) and the attack transport USS Renville (APA 227). All of the destroyers had to have their modern (1960's) ASW gear covered over with fake gun-mounts or deck houses. Additional smaller vessels were provided in support, as well as an HU-16 Albatross amphibious aircraft, even though said aircraft did not enter the US inventory until 1949. The HU-16 likely substitutes for a PBY Catalina, of which no flyable examples were likely available for the film schedule.
Another anachronism is the widespread use of the M151 MUTT light utility vehicle as a World War II jeep instead of the World War II-era Willys MB and/or Ford GPW, the M151 having not even entered production until 1959. Also used were a few 1950's vintage 63 ft USCG rescue launches that were made over to resemble Elco 80 ft torpedo boats, as the few that existed were not available for use.
The climactic battle with the Japanese fleet was staged mostly with model ships. Kirk Douglas thought the special effects poor and complained bitterly to both the director and the studio about it. He offered to re-stage the scenes at his own expense using the special effects people who worked with him on Paths of Glory.
Other ongoings that went down during the filming included Kirk Douglas being allowed to hold Yom Kippur services for Jewish Naval Officers who were extras on the set and a clash between director Preminger and actor Tom Tryon which climaxed when Preminger screamed behind Tryon "RELAX!!" The stars of the film successfully talked Tryon into staying with the film: he almost quit.
In Harm's Way was nominated for the 1965 Academy Award for Cinematography (Black-and-White) for cinematographer Loyal Griggs.[2] It was also screened at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition.[3]
Patricia Neal received a 1966 BAFTA Film Award as Best Foreign Actress for her performance in the film.[4]
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times panned the film observing, "This is a slick and shallow picture that Mr. Preminger puts forth here, a straight, cliché-crowded melodrama of naval action in the Pacific in World War II..." and characterized it as "a film that is virtually awash with flimsy and flamboyant fellows with all the tricks of the trade of Hollywood."[5]
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