Okinawa (1952)

OKINAWA 1952This lower end budget war film was put out by the B unit at Columbia Pictures. The film is about a gun crew on a U.S. Navy Destroyer Escort at the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945. The invasion was the first of the Japanese home islands. Needless to say the Japanese were not going to go softly. They launched masses of Kamikaze suicide aircraft at the invasion fleet.The film follows the crew of one of the 5inch gun turrets on the U.S.S. Blake. The men are, Cameron Mitchell, Richard Benedict, James Dobson and Rhys Williams. The officers in charge of the ship are played by, Pat O'Brien as the Captain and Richard Denning as the XO.The ship starts as part of the fleet bombarding the shore as the landing takes place. Then they are transferred out to be part of the radar picket line. The picket line is to give early warning of any Japanese aircraft. The carriers can then direct fighters to intercept the enemy before they reach the transports etc.The Japanese however do not always play according to plan. They sometimes decide to take out the radar pickets. The ships are alone without the fire support of other ships. (36 ships including 12 destroyers were lost with 120 ships damaged) The kamikazes piled on and the action became heated.The gun crews become exhausted with barely any time off alert. Gunner Mitchell is the gambler of the group, and has been spending his time winning everyone's beer ration. Also in the crew is Benedict the ladies man, Dobson the smart one and the old man of the group, Rhys Willaims. Any free time is spent sleeping or taking about what to do after the war.The Japanese keep coming and the ship is damaged after a hit by a kamikaze. The ship is lucky that the aircraft's bomb did not explode. The Captain, O'Brien manhandles the unwanted gift to the side and pushes it over into the drink. The list of dead and injured grows as the ship fights off repeated attacks. Gunner Dobson badly burns his hands during one of the raids and is replaced by galley hand, Rudy Robles. The attacks finally end but not before Rhys Williams is killed.There is a running gag through the film about what gunner Mitchell plans to do with all the beer rations he has won. Unfortunately for him the entire lot is destroyed during one of the kamikaze attacks.Taken as the low budget film that it is, it makes for a decent time-waster. The film uses quite a lot of stock battle footage which for the most part is edited into the narrative rather well. (The British pom-poms shown being a minor glitch) The film has a runtime of only 67 minutes and fills the time at a nice pace.The director here was long time B-Film helmsman, Leigh Jason.

My Father, LCDR Frank Bernard Quady, USN, was killed aboard the USS Bunker Hill by a double kamikaze attack. For my Father, I say this movie was so bad I quit about half an hour into it.The guy who played the sailor with the cap pulled down ridiculously was absolutely disgusting. No sailor would wear his cap on like that except possibly at home cleaning out the gutters.Note: This guy was the "star" of the film – the part that I watched. I couldn't force myself to watch any more.I grew up in the '50s in Coronado, CA and this movie never played there, as far as I know. I never heard of this flick.I'll have to rent it sometime and watch only the official U.S. Navy footage, fast forwarding past the stupid sailor, whoever he is or was.I didn't see any U.S. Naval personnel listed as advisers. They surely would have nixed it.One more thing about the stupid sailor. He was a disgrace to all sailors. Sailors are the heart of the Navy.

Tonight I tried watching "Okinawa" and wow was I disappointed. While the film should have been an inspiring epic with a cast of thousands, it's a crappy, cheap little film with a cast of dozens! In other words, although the invasion of Okinawa took thousands and thousands of soldiers, the filmmakers thought they'd cleverly avoid this expense. So, they used LOTS of stock footage of the invasion and has a group of bad actors (or at least actors with really bad dialog) ham it up and pretend that a war is on....though they really do NOTHING! Scene after scene literally consist of folks talking about the war and describing what's happening!! They really do very little and the film looks almost like what a war film by Ed Wood would look like! Just terrible in every way and not worth your time or effort.

First, I would like to say that it was a great surprise for me to see the director's name: Leigh Jason himself. This guy made only comedies during the 40's. And his last feature is a war movie. Incredible, isn't it? Of course, there is lots of talk, but it gives a pretty good study of characters. For this kind of production, I mean. Pat O'Brien is as fine as usual, Cameron Mitchell gives here one of his first appearances on a screen. Well, I guess so...I'll check on IMDb. But I would say that this feature is a little too long, even if the running time is only 67 minutes. I know, it seems incredible. Perhaps is it too much talkative?Action scenes, only at the end and focusing on Japanese kamikazes, are taken from stock shots, essentially.Produced by Wallace Mac Donald. Good feature, and rare.