• Rating:
• Genre: War
• Movie Type: War Drama, Combat Films
• Themes: War At Sea, Military Life
• Director: John Ford
• 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

Cast

• Robert Montgomery - Lt. John Brickley
• John Wayne - Lt. J.G. "Rusty" Ryan
• Donna Reed - Lt. Sandy Davys
• Cameron Mitchell - Ens. George Cross
• Ward Bond - Boats Mulcahey

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; Tim Murdock - Ensign Brant; 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

Joseph H. August - Cinematographer; Earl K. Brent - Songwriter; Malcolm Brown - Art Director; John Ford - Director; John Ford - Producer; Cedric Gibbons - Art Director; Arnold A. Gillespie - Special Effects; Frank E. Hull - Editor; Ralph S. Hurst - Set Designer; Cliff Reid - Producer; Herbert Stothart - Composer (Music Score); Herbert Stothart - Songwriter; Frank Wead - Screenwriter; Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer; Douglas Biggs - Editor; Edward O'Fearna - First Assistant Director; William L. White - Book Author

Similar Movies

Back to Bataan; The Fighting Seabees; From Here to Eternity; Pt 109; San Demetrio, London; Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo; Tora! Tora! Tora!; An American Guerrilla in the Philippines; Operation Pacific