Rating: 
Summary: Decisive Action Under Pressure
Review: "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not go
fast; for I intend to go in harm's way." - John Paul Jones
Early in the film, Rock Torrey [John Wayne] and his exec, Commander Eddington [Kirk Douglas] observe a new heavy cruiser sail from Pearl Harbor to join the fleet, and Wayne's next line contains the movie's title: "A fast ship going in harm's way!"
This film is about exactly that - fast ships and men going in harm's way!
"In Harm's Way" is about decisiveness when under pressure, about thinking fast on one's feet, with no regrets.
The scene in CINCPAC's private study right after CAPT Rock Torrey [Wayne] is promoted to Rear Admiral. CINCPAC [Henry Fonda] is rightfully impatient with Admiral Broderick [Dana Andrews], who is egotistical, but unwilling to decide to attack, much like Civil War Union General McClellan. CINCPAC recalls that Lincoln brought in a hard-nosed general named Grant who didn't care less about organization, he just pointed his battalions in the right direction, and he charged the enemy. The whole theme of the film is contained in CINCPAC's next line to Rock Torrey:
"You're gonna be my Grant!"
I also noticed that Director Otto Preminger briefly revisits his theme of an informant-plant as an in-house bad guy, a theme he covered more extensively with Peter Graves as the Nazi barracks spy in "Stalog 17".
The characters all have flaws, but each one rises to the occasion when the war calls on them to give their best. Rock Torrey does not waste a second driving straight into battle, no matter how impossible the odds! This is the classic stuff of Hollywood Magic and also of inspiration!
Buy this DVD! There is inspiration in this old film, and as with the good old Duke, the actors capture all the best things about taking brave risks and decisive action when in harm's way.
On any level you want, "In Harm's Way" delivers!
Rating:
Summary: God save the Mac(s)!
Review: (Hint:HE does!) I'm kind of on a John Wayne movie spree these days. When I saw that Otto Preminger directed this film, I just had to see it, easily understood if you've read any of my other reviews. I didn't know this film would be about Pearl Harbor and the beginnings of the Pacific naval campaigns. The cast is spectacular, although I don't know some of the main actors' names other than Fonda, Douglas or O'Connor. Jill Haworth, I knew of from Preminger's Exodus. Poor girl, bad things always happen to her in Preminger's films. The last half was most suspenseful for me. The sea battles looked real to me, but I'm not military. I was most moved by Paula Prentiss' character as Bev McConnell, especially when, in the middle of her military work, receives from "Rock" (John Wayne) the news that her husband, Mac, is MIA. The story was based on a book of the same name by James Bassett; the movie realistically depicts the losses and courage of the men and women, at all levels, of our armed forces.
Rating:
Summary: War in the Pacific
Review:
Director Otto Preminger made a good war movie, here. John Wayne plays the part of a captain who initially loses his ship, but comes back eventually as a commodore (1 star admiral). Kirk Douglas is his Exec, Cdr. Ettinger (eventually a captain), who has a bottled up violence in his character (well played). Patricia O'Neal plays a navy nurse (Lt.), Dana Andrews plays an egotisitcal admiral, and Henry Fonda plays CincPac.
The picture is well cast. Even a young Carroll O'Conner has a part, and Burgess Meredith plays an intelligence officer very well. Brandon De Wilde (a new name to me) plays Wayne's son, a spoiled college brat brought up by his mother, also well-played. I was impressed by the details in the movie, including the plane's designations (except for a reference to an AT6 "Texan," which they should have called by its navy designation, an SNJ, instead of the air corps desgnation), and the Japanese ship designations. The battleship Yamato, for example, was identified as having 18-inch guns, as indeed it did have--larger than the 16-inch rifles on America's battle-wagons. All together, it was a well-told story which held pretty much to reality, except for the fictional islands' names and the presence of so many females that close to the action. I enjoyed it, as I do most old Wayne movies. And Otto Preminger knew how to put them together. Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret.)
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Rating:
Summary: War in the Pacific
Review:
Director Otto Preminger made a good war movie, here. John Wayne plays the part of a captain who initially loses his ship, but comes back eventually as a commodore (1 star admiral). Kirk Douglas is his Exec, Cdr. Ettinger (eventually a captain), who has a bottled up violence in his character (well played). Patricia O'Neal plays a navy nurse (Lt.), Dana Andrews plays an egotisitcal admiral, and Henry Fonda plays CincPac.
The picture is well cast. Even a young Carroll O'Conner has a part, and Burgess Meredith plays an intelligence officer very well. Brandon De Wilde (a new name to me) plays Wayne's son, a spoiled college brat brought up by his mother, also well-played. I was impressed by the details in the movie, including the plane's designations (except for a reference to an AT6 "Texan," which they should have called by its navy designation, an SNJ, instead of the air corps desgnation), and the Japanese ship designations. The battleship Yamato, for example, was identified as having 18-inch guns, as indeed it did have--larger than the 16-inch rifles on America's battle-wagons. All together, it was a well-told story which held pretty much to reality, except for the fictional islands' names and the presence of so many females that close to the action. I enjoyed it, as I do most old Wayne movies. And Otto Preminger knew how to put them together. Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret.)
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Rating:
Summary: A must have for any serious collector of John Wayne movies.
Review: A fantastic story told around the attack on Pearl Harbor and the early war in the pacific. John Wayne gives his usual excellent performance and then some. Kirk Douglas plays his character like none other could. Look for all the famous faces. P.S. See if you can spot a famous movie actors son.
Rating: 
Summary: World War II Melodrama with 1960's hairstyles.
Review: A long and tedious WW2 soap opera that strives to be an epic love story and gripping War drama ala "From here to Eternity." Where it succeeds it is also let down by implausible plotting and some phony heroics near the end when Kirk Douglas seeks to redeem himself following the suicide of a girl whom he raped and throws his fate to the wind in an against all odds mission in the service of his country. The movie simply loses credibility on that scene alone. Some decent acting by all involved doesnt elevate this film any higher than a bloated attempt at oscar nominations.
Rating:
Summary: In harm's way -- Classic WWII genre, and John Wayne too!
Review: A top-notch WWII movie -- one of my favorites. I actually prefer the black and white format.
This movie focuses on the effects of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the career of one naval officer, played by John Wayne, and people close to him. JW is caught initially by the backlash effects of the debacle at Pearl Harbor and a nation's need to place blame. As a result JW finds himself ashore, rather than at sea where he longs to be. But as a career naval officer he does his duty. His potential is eventually realized, and he is given a field assignment where he excels. The character development is great, and relationships between the principles is excellent, especially between Wayne and his on-screen son. This movie has heroism and love, loss and tragedy. To me the defining point in the movie occurs when JW's on-screen son realizes what's important to his father, and, consequently, to him. 5 stars all the way
Rating:
Summary: Flatly and indifferently made WWII epic
Review: After the triumph that was THE CARDINAL (available on a highly recommended WB disc) Otto Preminger made a big war film based on a bestseller novel. While many find this film wonderful, I find it to be talky, groundbased, and exceedingly unmemorable film. Nearly everything in the film is at a level of artifice that, coupled with the black and white photography and really inexcusable SFX, makes the film look cheap and indifferent. The plotting is cliched when not unbelievable. For example, Jill Haworth kills herself when she fears Kirk Douglas' rape has left her pregnant. WHY did she not consult her fiancee (also John Wayne's estranged son) or press criminal charges? And why did Douglas not seek a divorce from his nymphomanianc wife (Barbara Bouchet)? It doesn't help that the whole picture takes on a buddy-buddy atmosphere totally inappropriate for 167 minute epic. Rumors, by the way, are around that state the film was once even longer and had an intermission (curious fans of the film should pop in their DVD and go to about th 85 minute mark). If the flick was once longer, I will make every attempt never to see the longer version.
Rating: 
Summary: The Last Blast of the Big Gun Navy
Review: As an avid reader of history, I classify this movie as a guilty pleasure. It grabs your emotions and takes them for a heck of a ride. It has a strong cast, a great multi-layered soap opera plot, exciting action scenes and fabulous black and white cinematography. It is also a total joke as history. Watching this movie you would never realize that the U.S. and Japanese navies fought their major battles with carrier based airplanes. So if you like battleships and bombast, this movie is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: A Pacific Odyssey
Review: Despite some rather inane special effects, Otto Preminger's "In Harm's Way" quite effectively, convincingly captures the feverish urgency and utter uncertainty of military life in wartime: Laid bare before the viewer, are fleeting, furtive, forbidden, incandescent romance; misguided, chaotic mass troop movement; catastrophic command indecision and ineptitude--and the omnipresent backbiting and naked ambition of officers' and men as they greedily, unabashedly jockey for power in the turbulent wake of bitter disaster and career-ending disgrace. If the viewer will look past the film's admitted flaws--toy battleships slugging it out in a bathtub, for instance, or Coates and Lawrence's, "Sleepy Lagoon" playing to partying officers' and wives at a pre-war social gathering a full two months before the hit song was recorded by Harry James, in February '42--he will discover far more than first meets the eye. More than just a war film, "In Harm's Way" is a lusty, sprawling paean to the exquisite beauty which lies in wait just beyond the International Date Line and beneath the Southern Cross. For those who have sailed southwest--that is, to Viti Levu, Espiritu Santo, to San Cristobal or Malaita--they will taste the Mai Tai in their cheek when viewing this film, will recall the heady scent of frangipani, the velveteen caress of tropical zephyrs at twilight--or hear, as William Manchester wrote, "the rhythm of surf on distant snow-white beaches." Indeed, every character, every scene, every sub-plot is an adventure of it's own. And, of course, John Wayne, as always, stands tall, expansive--all powerful--seemingly every bit as vast and all-encompassing as was the Pacific war itself. And somehow, as he has so often accomplished in his war films, Wayne makes us think again of our giant fathers and of their lofty perch in history--of their collective sacrifice and heroism in an unparalleled epoch that once was, and will never be again.
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