December 8 - In Harm's Way

Today’s movie is a war drama with a scene that happens on December 8. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

IN HARMS WAY

On the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack Liz Eddington makes a spectacle of herself at a party and leaves with an air force captain for a midnight rendezvous. Meanwhile her husband Paul Eddington is at sea on a cruiser commanded by “Rock” Torrey. After the attack Torrey forms those ships that got out of the harbor, including the Cassidy commanded by an enterprising junior officer Lt. j.g. “Mack” McConnell, into an task force and they are ordered to find the Japanese. Racing back to base Mrs. Eddington and her lover are deservedly killed in an auto accident. The next day, December 8, 1941, Torrey orders the ships not to zig zag in order to save fuel. [21:01 to 29:12] As a result the cruiser is torpedoed. Torrey is court martialed due to this and given a desk assignment. . Three months later much has changed. Torrey’s roommate, Powell takes him to a party where he meets divorced Navy nurse Maggie Haines. We learn that Torrey was once married to a Boston socialite, who refused to follow him to his next posting and that he has not seen his son “Jer” Torrey in 18 years and who Torrey learns is now in the navy in PT boats and is dating Annalise Doran, Haines’ roommate.  Torrey meets his son, but the meeting doesn’t go well. We learn Jer is only in PT boats so he can wrangle a transfer to become assistant to Owens, a former congressman, who is public affairs officer for Admiral Broderick, who commands the sector where the wayward Eddington has been sent as piers and warehouse officer. Torrey is promoted to Admiral and sent to Broderick’s backwater area to get things moving. He devises a plan to complete the conquest of Gavabutu and it succeeds, while Broderick tries to take credit for it.  “Mack” McConnell who had been reported MIA is found and reunited with his wife. “Jer” and Annalise get engaged, but Eddington then rapes her. Torrey had been forming a plan to invade the next island, Levu Vana, but received intelligence that the Japanese fleet might be forming up at an island too far way for their recon flights to reach, except as a one way mission. Annalise commits suicide, but before Eddington is arrested he takes a bomber and flies the one way mission himself, discovering the Japanese fleet is there, dying in the process. The PT boats attack the enemy fleet at night, resulting in the death of Jer Torrey. The American squadron commanded by Torrey attacks the Japanese and while his ship is sunk and he is only saved by the efforts of “Mack” McConnell, who has been transferred to his command the battle is won. He is injured, but reunited with Maggie.

A gritty picture of the Navy. This is no glorified bipoc of larger than life heroic types, by a portrait of real people. They do things they shouldn’t but sometimes rise to do what they should.

Eyewitness Pacific Theater by John T. Kuehn and D.M. Grangreco (Sterling, New York, 2008) at page  20 give the date of the Pearl Harbor attack and this is the next day

Producer - Otto Preminger

Director - Otto Preminger

Screenplay - Wendell Mayes

Awards - ''In Harm's Way'' was nominated for the 1965 Academy Award for Cinematography (Black-and-White)

Runtime - 2 hours 45 minutes

Released - April 6, 1965

   

Starring - 

John Wayne as Captain Rockwell W. "Rock" Torrey

Kirk Douglas as Commander Paul Eddington

Patricia Neal as Lieutenant Maggie Haines

Tom Tryon as Lieutenant (jg) William "Mac" McConnell

Paula Prentiss as Beverly McConnell

Stanley Holloway as Clayton Canfil

Brandon De Wilde as Ensign Jeremiah Torrey

Jill Haworth as Ensign Annalee Dohrn

Dana Andrews as Vice Admiral B. T. "Blackjack" Broderick

Burgess Meredith as Commander Egan T. Powell

Franchot Tone as Admiral Husband Kimmel

Patrick O'Neal as Commander Neal Owynn

George Kennedy as Lieutenant Colonel Gregory

Carroll O'Connor as Commander Burke

Barbara Bouchet as Liz Eddington

Bruce Cabot as Chief Petty Officer Quoddy

Slim Pickens as Chief Petty Officer Culpeper

James Mitchum as Ensign Griggs

Larry Hagman as Lieutenant (jg) Cline

Henry Fonda as Admiral Chester Nimitz

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.