rightwingisevil sorry, i just couldn't finish it. this film sucks big time. the screenplay was so bad, the dialog so pretentious and boring, the sound track that tried so hard to make this film look patriotic, only turned it into a formulaic farce. the directing was just as terrible as there was nobody even gave a darn. why most of such movies involved American nurses would always cast beautiful nurses? did the casting agencies ever realize that these stupid arrangements only made them look more phony? this badly scripted film was a loosely knitted structure as a broken fish net that gave almost every one who played a role some crappy uninteresting dialog. i was bored and became so impatient to sit tight to let this film run its course. so many unnecessary dialog, unnecessary roles, unnecessary dialog, lousy scene after scene. this film was like directed by an old granny who just jabbered and blabbered uncontrollably. what a tiresome WWII film. yes, this film is so rare that only the couch potatoes would find it interesting and great.

Alex da Silva This film is based on the true story of Dr Wassell (Gary Cooper) who stood by his stretchered patients who could not walk and guided them to safety from Java in the face of certain Japanese capture.The film isn't exciting enough. There is never any tension and the story just phuts along and never moves up a gear. It is too long and we have a rather lame love story told in flashback that adds nothing to the proceedings. The reason for the five stars is the performance of Gary Cooper who keeps you watching. Other cast members are irritating, eg, Dennis O'Keefe who plays "Hoppy" and is plain horrible to the nurse that takes a shine to him, who in turn is completely stupid and an obsessive psycho. However, the most disturbing case of idol worship comes from Philip Ahn who plays "Ping" and has a very gay thing going on with his admiration for Cooper - he even helps to dress Cooper - what a homo! Overall, it's a disappointing film with some laughably bad scenes and Cooper has a catchphrase - "Good gravy!" - like most comedians.

vitaleralphlouis I never heard of this movie until I spotted the title via a CECIL B de MILLE search on this site yesterday. DeMILLE made few movies in the 1940's and 1950's and this was the only one I hadn't seen.Two years in production, this dreadfully-dull-titled movie is a big screen epic Technicolor production depicts a seemingly small act of heroism --- a Navy doctor from Arkansas rescues 12 survivors of the USS Marblehead who are trapped on Java with the Japanese closing in on all sides, during the early part of World War II when America was still losing badly. DeMille brings the story together with a first rate mix of spectacular action, human drama, romance, and typical GI humor.This is a REAL World War II movie, made during an era when Hollywood had neither Sean Penn, nor George Clooney, nor Steven Spielberg; and all of Hollywood was solidly behind America (not Japan)--- this era produced numerous real life war heroes who were also screen actors, directors, writers. More recently we have the revisionist history guys, such as Jerry Bruckheimer's PEARL HARBOR which "justified" the attack by the Japanese for the clearly stated reason of grabbing up bigger Japanese box office. Like most Americans (I think) I'd never have seen that movie if I'd known they'd stick a knife in the back of America and re-write the war against us.Warning to girlie-man liberals: Dr Wassell is loaded with 2007-style Political Incorrectness. The GI's flirt with nurses, smoke cigarettes like mad, call their cigarettes "fags," call the Japanese enemy Japs; worse still they reflect patriotic attitudes and carry religion so far as to pray. Ohmygawd! This movie is difficult but not impossible to find. It was released by MCA/Universal in VHS many years ago. Specialty video shops like Video Vault in Alexandria, VA have it for rent. No listings on eBay right now, but it's worth a shot. Seek and you shall find!

Neil Doyle GARY COOPER is a dedicated Naval doctor during World War II tending to the wounded in Java where a shipload of men are wounded and expecting an attack by the Japanese. LARAINE DAY is the lovely woman he loves and who stands by him when the going gets rough.The Technicolor photography is a big asset in making the war scenes more realistic and the men really look like damaged goods in their bandages and splints--two of whom are played by PAUL KELLY and DENNIS O'KEEFE. O'Keefe shares a wobbly, artificial sub-plot romance with a nurse (CAROL THURSTON) who looks after him. Ditto for SIGNE HASSO and ELLIOT REID. However, all of the scenes in the infirmary have an authentic look, thanks to DeMille's eye for detail.The wounded men are full of high spirits and hi-jinks but Cooper is told that 60,000 Japs have landed in Java nearby and none of the wounded would have a chance to escape. It's up to him to devise a plan where he can help some of the wounded escape.The action scenes are fine but there's too many lulls in between with clumsy use of flashbacks involving Wassell's romance with Laraine Day and some tediously repetitious scenes of wounded men suffering further wounds when the men try to make an escape with the aid of British troops.Certainly not a typical Cecil B. DeMille vehicle, but Cooper gives a decent performance. The running time is too long because the flabby screenplay is sidetracked by poorly handled flashback segments. The sub-plot with Dennis O'Keefe's character just doesn't work and the whole story takes too long to tell.