In Harm's Way (1965)

War and film noir occasionally do go together. Certainly such films as Bill Wellman's inexorably realistic The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) in which Burgess Meredith so memorably portrayed real-life war correspondent Ernie Pyle, Mark Robson's Home of the Brave (1949), and of course Fred Zinnemann's scorching, gritty From Here To Eternity (1953) would qualify; but most war pictures fall into the flag-waving, mindlessly silver-wrapped action bracket.Such a one is Otto Preminger's star-studded In Harm's Way (1965), which is only occasionally of interest when John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon and Brandon de Wilde are not on the screen and the more charismatic actors like Burgess Meredith, Stanley Holloway, Henry Fonda, Patrick O'Neal and Barbara Bouchet enjoy their brief innings. It's a pity Preminger was not able to cast himself in any role but a fleeting walk-through as a naval officer in the opening tracking shot at the dance. He actually dominates the movie's trailers which he both hosts and narrates.

It is difficult to imagine two more different Men then John Wayne, the ultimate male American movie star and Otto Preminger who loved to stir the pot of controversy with his films tackling subjects such as drug addiction in The Man With A Golden Arm ( with a splendid Kim Novak), or the Catholic Church in The Cardinal starring Tom Tryon, or Politics in Advise and Consent. Preminger was known as a screamer who yelled at people a lot but never his A List movie stars all of whom liked working with him. In particular Kim Novak, Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra, and Duke Wayne, Kirk Douglas. (Preminger must have had a soft spot because he regularly cast Burgess Meredith and others such as Dana Andrews who was at one time a big star but who suffered from bouts of alcoholism and returned the beautiful Gene Tierney to the screen after her bouts with depression in Advise and Conset)First billed John Wayne and Director Otto Preminger together these two Men created a rousing WW2 Film.Preminger cast John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Paula Prentiss, Patricia Neal, and a supporting cast of Preminger contractees such as Tom Tryon, and Jill Haworth and Brandon DeWilde. The scenes between Duke Wayne and Ms Neal are affecting. The entire cast does superior work.I recommend this film

Otto Preminger's opus of the Pearl Harbor disaster and its aftermath of the U.S. military's preparation for war with the Japanese is also a story of the lives of enlisted personnel, their families and relationships that parallel the Navy's operations in the western Pacific that kicks off World War II. John Wayne is the central figure in the story as Captain Rockwell Torrey, who is faulted for not pursuing and engaging the Japanese fleet, thereby reassigned to desk duty. Kirk Douglas, always edgy and intense, is embittered as a result of the death of his unfaithful wife, which has tragic consequences later in the film. Patricia Neal is Wayne's romantic interest and they are very appealing as middle-aged folk that have another chance at love after previous marital failures. Brandon De Wilde is Wayne's aloof Harvard-educated son who faults Wayne for abandoning him as a child. The film has many diverse emotional threads as the characters cope with the war and their own tenuous relationships, professional and personal. As with most Preminger films, this one has an excellent cast, although Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews have brief roles. Wayne redeems himself in a taught sea battle with Japanese destroyers, with very nice special effects. The film is a fine mix of military warfare, romance, tragedy, family estrangement and redemption.

Jery Goldsmith's score certainly deserves great credit for boosting this film's status in spite of its flaws primarily in such simple matters as editing, continuity, factual blunders, and shadows of filming equipment showing up in a number of places. Of particular note in the Goldsmith score is the very compelling "San Francisco" theme music (a name I give for the sake of this commentary) as Paula Prentiss is seen grabbing a trolley car to meet "Mac" two-thirds of the way into the film. The french horn passage incorporated into that as Tom Tryon disembarks from the hospital ship is a crowning glory - a great set piece of film music!