Main Cast: Ronald Reagan, Nancy Davis, Arthur Franz, Robert Arthur, William Leslie
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 81 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Future "first couple" Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis made their only joint film appearance in Hellcats of the Navy. Ronnie plays Casey Abbott, commander of a WW2 submarine, while Nancy portrays navy nurse Helen Blair, Abbott's off-and-on girlfriend. During a delicate mission in which his sub is ordered to retrieve a revolutionary new Japanese mine, Abbott is forced to leave frogman Wes Barton (Harry Lauter) behind to save the rest of his crew. But Abbott's second-in-command Don Landon (Eduard Franz) is convincing that Abbott's sacrifice of Barton was due to the fact that the dead man had been amorously pursuing Helen. The rest of the film is spent proving Abbott right and Barton wrong. Based on a book by former USN vice-admiral Charles A. Lockwood (played in the film by Maurice Manson) and retired USAF colonel Hans Christian Adamson, Hellcats of the Navy is a much better film than Reagan's detractors would have one believe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Rudi Feld - Art Director, Nathan Juran - Director, Jerome Thoms - Editor, Mischa Bakaleinikoff - Composer (Music Score), George Greeley - Composer (Music Score), Irving Lippman - Cinematographer, Charles H. Schneer - Producer, David Lang - Screenwriter, Raymond T. Marcus - Screenwriter, Hans Christian - Book Author, Charles A. Lockwood - Book Author
Reagan plays Captain Casey Abbott, commander of the fictional submarine USS Starfish, who is ordered to undertake a dangerous mission which sees him attempting to cut off the flow of supplies between China and Japan in the heavily-mined waters off the Asiatic mainland. When a diver, who is Abbott's competitor for the affections of Nurse Lieutenant Helen Blair (Davis) back at home, gets into a dangerous situation, Abbott must struggle to keep his personal and professional lives separate in dealing with the crisis.
Reagan noted in his autobiography that he was disappointed in the film overall, having expected a result more like Destination Tokyo, a major Warner Bros. film of a decade previous. The diminishing status of the films he was offered led to his voluntary absence from the big screen.
The script for Hellcats was written under a "front" pseudonym by Bernard Gordon, aka "Raymond T. Marcus." A victim of the blacklist and a former member of the Communist Party, Gordon found it ironic[citation needed]that the one on-screen pairing of the Reagans was penned by a man who could not sign his own name to the script, since he was a victim of a blacklist the star denied ever existed. (Reagan stated this denial in 1980 to Joseph Alsop, although it is also clearly at odds with his wife Nancy's experience in the 1950s, having been mistaken for another "Nancy Davis" who was indeed on the "do not hire" list).[citation needed]
As a result of this film and Mr. Reagan's service as Commander in Chief, the Reagans are particularly revered by the Navy, which was especially evident during Mr. Reagan's funeral services.[citation needed]
