utgard14 Construction boss Wayne and Navy lieutenant Dennis O'Keefe try to convince the Navy that wartime construction workers need to be armed. Meanwhile the two men vie for Susan Hayward. Good WW2 John Wayne movie about the formation of the seabees (CBs = construction battalion). Wayne is heroic in this one but also kind of a bullheaded reckless sort of guy who endangers his men. I was kind of surprised to see O'Keefe get to be the white knight here. He even gets the girl. Hayward offers little except to look pretty and be torn between two men. The supporting cast is good. The action is exciting. The highlight of the film, though, is seeing John Wayne dance the jitterbug with a blonde.

robertguttman My father, who was a Seabee in the Pacific during World War II, always considered this film to be 99% absolute rubbish. He insisted that the only aspects of this movie that had any basis in fact were that the Seabees actually did recruit professional engineers and construction workers, that many of them were considerably older than other service men, that they were occasionally called upon to defend themselves, and that they really could build anything. In his day the Seabees did not yet have their own training facilities, so they did their basic military training not with the Navy but with the Marines. The way to tell the difference between a Marine base and a Seabase base was that the Marines were all 18 years old and lived in pup tents, while the Seabees were mostly in their forties and fifties and their encampments always had heat, hot and cold running water, washing machines, shower facilities, stills, and all the other comforts of home, all of which the Seabees manufactured themselves in their spare time.

Robert J. Maxwell Done by the numbers, no chances taken, this is the kind of Herbert J. Yates product that everyone went to see during the war years. John Wayne, looking youngish and handsome, is Wedge Donovan, head of a civilian construction company whose workers include such familiar faces as Paul Fix, J. M. Kerrigan, and Fred Mertz -- I mean William Frawley. The roustabouts all work hard, drink hard, and get into brawls.Wayne's labor force is working on a Pacific island occupied by the U.S. Navy, mainly in the person of LTCDR Yarrow, Dennis O'Keefe, when they are attacked by Japanese aircraft and three of the men are killed. This raises John Wayne's hackles, and that, as usual, turns out to be a bad idea, especially for Wayne. He and his men grab guns and rush into the middle of an ambush the Navy has set for a Japanese landing. Wayne's impetuosity breaks up the trap and results in further deaths for his men.O'Keefe persuades Wayne and his men to join the Navy and become part of a new type of unit -- construction battalions, or CBs, or SeaBees. Now they're trained in military protocol, tactics, and the handling of arms, though their principal job remains the construction of airfields and other facilities near the front lines. If the script didn't spell this out for us, we'd get it anyway because of the patriotic chorus on the sound track -- "We build to fight and fight for what we build; We're SeaBees of the Navy!" O'Keefe is promoted to Commander and Wayne receives a commission as Lieutenant Commander. The Worker SeaBees remain swabs.Well! The NEXT time the Japs pull a landing, things turn out differently, I can tell you, although the SeaBees are outnumbered. Heroism abounds. And this time our side wins.John Wayne makes the ultimate sacrifice but it's a splendid one. He's shot dead while driving a bull dozer towards a huge oil tank. The dozer's blade cuts into the tank, the oil blossoms into a colossal explosion, and the ocean of flame cascades down upon the screaming, stereotypical monkeys below.Oh, did I mention that Susan Hayward is in this as a reporter? Well, a love interest really. Both O'Keefe and Wayne are in love with her. It's easy to understand why. She's young, fresh faced, with a wide expanse of forehead and a cutely upturned nose. Keeps the distaff side of the audience entertained. She's in love with both men and can't make up her mind. In the end, she decides she loves the gallant O'Keefe, perhaps because he's survived the battle while Wayne did not.It's a modest and engaging movie, a twin narrative of Wayne's integration into the disciplined life of the Navy and of the love triangle involving O'Keefe, Wayne, and Hayward. There's nothing in the least original or poetic about it. But if you're looking for a fast, exciting movie about a seldom-noticed unit of the Navy, this gets the job done. A bonus is that you get to see the massive bulk of John Wayne jitterbugging with a supple little girl.

sol1218 ***SOME SPOILERS*** One of John Wayne's best WWII movies has him in charge of the first Seebee construction battalion in the Pacific building airfields and port facilities for the US Navy and Air Force as well as fighting off hundreds of wild eyed and charging Japanese soldiers. Things at first didn't go too well from the men of the Wayde Donovan, John Wayne, Corps. Construction Company. Searving the US military in the Pacific their easy marks for Japanese snipers who pick off the unarmed construction workers. while the US Army and Marine Corps. are busy fighting the main Japanese forces on the many islands contested by in that theater of war.Demanding to be armed and part of the US military, not contract workers, has Donovan's men incorporated into the Army. Donovan's Seebees are then sent fully armed to island X-214 to build a base for the US Navy to refuel it's war-ships. Right from the start Donovan doesn't have the discipline thats demanded of him and is men by engaging the enemy. When told by his superior Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow,Dennis O'Keefe, to stay in the barracks and, in what looks like an American version of a Bonzai charge, Donovan has almost his entire construction company wiped out by the invading Japanese forces! Donavon, now a Lt. Commander, also screws up an ambush that the US Army had set up to stop the Japanese. That resulted in his, and Yarrow's, girlfriend war corespondent Constence Chesley, Susan Hayward,to be gunned down but not killed by a wounded Japanese soldier. Back in the states Donovan tries to make amends with the US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow and Constance over his bullheadedness on the battlefield that cost scores of US military and Seebee's lives. His relationship with Constance is handicapped by her also being in love with Wayde's commander Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow who, unlike Wayde,is a handsome and refined spit and polish Annapolis Navy man. Given a second chance to show his, and his Seebees, worth on the field of battle Wayde Donovan's construction battalion is sent ashore on island X-371. Not only to build a fuel depot and airfield but to defend if against a possible Japanese invasion of the island. Rip roaring battle scenes, some of the best ever put on film without the benefit of computer enhancement, makes "The Fighting Seebees" stand out among the score of war movies released during WWII by the major Hollywood studios. In fact the film was released by Republic Pictures which only specialized in low budget B and C movies up until then. Taking heavy casualties from Japanese fire Donovan decides, against orders, to take it, the fight, to em' and organizes another Banzai-like charge on the Japanese forces, which seems like a full division, that are invading island X-371. The US forces, Army & Marines, deafening the island are badly chopped up with Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow seriously wounded in the fighting and Donovan's Seebees are on the verge of being overrun by the fanatical Japanese troops. Having nothing but earth-moving and construction equipment to fight off the hoards of highly motivated and heavily armed Japanese troops supported by tanks the Seebees still hold on to the fuel tanks that's desperately needed for the US Navy Task Force in the area. Donavan told by the wounded Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow that he'll see to it that's he's court-martial-ed if he survives this action takes matters into his own hands. With a steam shovel loaded with explosives Donovan drives it into one of the fuel tanks causing it to explode and smoke out and drive into the open the attacking Japanese troops, their then mowed down by the Seebees and US Army and Marines.Donovan for his bravery got a medal, posthumously, not a court-martial at the end of the film, Let. Cmdr Yarrow gets the girl that both he and Donovan left behind Constance Chesely.