Main Cast: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed, Cameron Mitchell, Ward Bond
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) believes in PT boats, and as a lowly U.S. Navy lieutenant stationed in the Philippines, that makes him a radical thinker. "Your boats maneuver beautifully," an admiral (Charles Trowbridge) tells him, "but if I'm going into combat, I prefer something a little more substantial." The gently delivered but stinging dismissal stirs the resentment of Lt. "Rusty" Ryan (John Wayne), who tartly tells Brickley that he wants to be transferred to destroyers. The Pearl Harbor bombing makes transfer impossible, especially with the Japanese preparing to invade the islands. So Brickley and Ryan go to work, first as message carriers between the Philippines and Corregidor, then, finally, as ship hunters. They record some successes, but it's a doomed effort: The Americans are hopelessly outnumbered by the Japanese, and with almost all of the Pacific Fleet destroyed at Pearl Harbor, they know help won't arrive to save them. As the Japanese push the U.S. forces back, Brickley and Ryan and their crews hop from island to island, scrounging supplies and taking casualties but keeping up the fight. Just as it appears that they will be forced to fight on Corregidor against the Japanese, they get rescued; they're ordered home to promote their PT-boat successes, and they take the last plane out, hoping to return and avenge their defeats. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
Review
A major work in the career of John Ford, They Were Expendable reflects the great director's love of the U.S. Navy and admiration of the men and women who fought the Second World War. It's a product of wartime, meant to be stirringly patriotic and occasionally saccharine. It almost qualifies as a U.S. Navy product: Star Robert Montgomery was a PT boat captain and Ford and screenwriter Frank "Spig" Wead were high-ranking Navy men. Yet They Were Expendable is nevertheless an admirably restrained and somber work, especially compared to other jingoistic films of the period. As befits its subject, the Navy's post-Pearl Harbor losses, Ford's deep-focus camerawork is an often gorgeous collection of grays and blacks. Ford had just finished an Oscar-winning documentary, Battle of Midway, when he started this movie, and it shows. Wead's script is an appealingly nuts-and-bolts look at Navy men that mostly avoids obligatory flag-waving; even the subplot romance between John Wayne's Lt. "Rusty" Ryan and Donna Reed's Lt. Sandy Davyss is un-melodramatic. Ford uses realistic Florida locations and sprinkles documentary-like close-ups throughout the film. The close-ups get somewhat precious by film's end, but they're effective. Ford blessedly leaves out his banana-peel humor, and in Montgomery has an actor who centers the movie with an interestingly lean and modulated performance despite having no backstory and almost no emotional outpourings -- he scarcely raises his voice. They Were Expendable offers glimmers of the psychological complexity that marks later Ford films like The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. It's a classic that hasn't received its proper recognition. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
Leon Ames - Maj. James Morton; Marshall Thompson - Ens. Snake Gardner; Paul Langton - Ens. Andy Andrews; Jack Holt - Gen. Martin; Arthur Walsh - Seaman Jones; Donald Curtis - Lt. J.G. "Shorty" Long; Jeff York - Ens. "Lefty" Tony Aiken; Murray Alper - Slug Mahan; Jack Pennick - Doc Charlie; Alex Havier - Benny Lacoco, Steward; Charles Trowbridge - Adm. Blackwell; Robert H. Barrat - Gen. Douglas MacArthur; Bruce Kellogg - Lt. Elder Tompkins; Tim Murdock - Ens. Brown; Louis Jean Heydt - Ohio, flyer in hospital; Russell Simpson - Dad Knowland; Vernon Steele - Army Doctor at Corregidor; Philip Ahn - Orderly; Stephen Barclay; Betty Blythe - Officer's Wife; Danny Borzage; Al Bridge - Lt. Colonel; Jack Cheatham - Commander; Fred Coby; William B. Davidson - Hotel manager; Pedro de Cordoba - Priest; Frank Donahue; Michael Economides; John Epper; James Farley - Mate; Lee Tung Foo - Bartender; Wallace Ford; Art Foster; Almeda Fowler; Duke Green; Sherry Hall - Marine Major; Robert E. Homans - Bartender at Manila Hotel; Michael Kirby - Boat crewman; Paul Kruger; Stubby Kruger - Boat crewman; Leota Lorraine; Trina Lowe - Gardner's girlfriend; Jack Luden - Naval Air Captain; William Lundigan; George Magrill; Eve March - Nurse; Kermit Maynard - Airport Officer; Frank McGrath - Slim; Henry Mirelez - Filipino Boy; Jack Mower - Officer; Forbes Murray - Navy Captain; William Neff; Wedgewood Nowell; Robert E. O'Connor - Bartender at Silver Dollar; Max Ong - Mayor of Cebu; Franklin Parker - Navy Officer; Frank Pershing; Nino Pipitone - Bartender's Children; Joey Ray; John Roy; Ernest Sefton; Reginald Simpson; Larry Steers; Sammy Stein - Boat crewman; Harry Tenbrook - "Cookie" Squarehead Larsen; Pacita Tod-Tod - Nightclub singer; Tom Tyler - Capt. on plane; Emmett Vogan - Navy Doctor; Charles Calhoun; Blake Edwards - Boat Crewman; Robert Thom; John Trent; Leonard Stanford; Roque Ybarra; Roy Thomas; Karl Miller; George Bruggeman; James Carlisle; Harold Kruger; James Magill; Leslie Sketchley - Marine Orderly; Jack Stoney; Robert Strong; Charlie Murray, Jr. - Jeep Driver; Jack Carrington; Bruce Carruthers; Tony Carson; Roger Cole; Jane Crowley - Officers' Wife; Larry Dods; George Economides; Frank Eldredge; Mary Jane French - Lost Nurse; Jon Gilbreath - Sub Commander; Michael Kostrick; Jack Lee; Leonard Mellin; Bill Nind; Dan Quigg; William McKeever Riley - Boat Crew Member; Dutch Schlickenmeyer; Phil Schumacher; Eleanore Vogel; Hansel Warner; Billy Wilkerson - Sgt. Smith; John Carlyle - Lt. James; William McCormick - Wounded Officer at Airport
Credit
Malcolm Brown - Art Director, Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Edward O'Fearna - First Assistant Director, John Ford - Director, Frank E. Hull - Editor, Douglas Biggs - Editor, Herbert Stothart - Composer (Music Score), Earl K. Brent - Songwriter, Herbert Stothart - Songwriter, Joseph H. August - Cinematographer, John Ford - Producer, Cliff Reid - Producer, Ralph S. Hurst - Set Designer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Arnold A. Gillespie - Special Effects, Michael Steinore - Sound/Sound Designer, Frank Wead - Screenwriter, William L. White - Book Author
They Were Expendable is a war film released in 1945. The movie was directed by John Ford.
The film is based on the book by William L. White, relating the story of the exploits of John D. Bulkeley, a motor torpedo boatsquadron commander and Medal of Honor recipient, and Robert Kelly, a skipper, during the World War II Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941–1942. The characters of John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (John Wayne) are fictionalized name changes of the actual subjects. While both book and film depict actions which did not occur, they were believed to be real during the war and the film is noted for its verisimilitude.
The film opens with a demonstration of the capabilities of PT boats in Manila Bay, Philippines in December 1941. Lieutenant J.G. 'Rusty' Ryan (John Wayne) becomes disgusted when his superiors refuse to see the small boats as viable naval craft and is in the process of writing his request for a transfer when news arrives of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Ryan and Lt. John Brickley's (Robert Montgomery) demands for combat assignments for their squadron are frustrated for a time, but they are eventually allowed to show their capabilities. From there on, there are mostly 'action' scenes, with the exception of Ryan's romantic interludes with Army nurse Sandy Davyss (Donna Reed). With the mounting Japanese onslaught against the doomed American garrisons at Bataan and Corregidor, the squadron is sent to evacuate General Douglas MacArthur, his family, and a party of VIPs.
This done, they resume their attacks against the Japanese, who gradually whittle down the squadron. As boats are lost, their crews are sent to fight as infantry. Finally, the last boat is turned over to the Army for messenger duty. Brickley, Ryan and two ensigns are airlifted out on one of the last planes because the PT boats have proved their worth. The remaining men, led by Mulcahey, are left behind to continue the fight.
According to Ben Mankiewicz, a host of Turner Classic Movies, Ford, a well-known taskmaster, was especially hard on Wayne, who did not serve in the armed forces, during filming. When Ford had health problems, he turned to Montgomery — who had actually been a PT boat commander — to take over for him, rather than Wayne. Montgomery did so well, he was directing in his own right within a couple of years.
