movie "Gung Ho"

[Radcollector]

another from my 50 movie box set,this one stars Randolph Scott,Alan Curtis,Noah Beery Jr.Its a B&W film (87 mins) made in 1943.here are the comments from the back of the box-

"Responsible for organizing a battalion to raid the Japanese held Makim island,Colonel Thorwald (Randolf Scott) recruits his volunteers from the less desireable prospects such as barroom brawlers,misfits and borderline psychos.under his training and leadership.the battalion is forged into a tough fighting unit ready for the fierce battle"



it is a typical wartime anti-japanese propaganda film,it is well done and entertaining.its about the formation of the marine raider battalion in the pacific.out of the 3 movies that ive watched so far from my box set this one is the best,lots of battle scenes,the equipment on the US side is great,not a suprise since it is filmed during the war.the japanese stuff looks good as well except for the japanese flying wildcat fighters !

[stonemint]

Yancy, I vaguely recall watching that one when I was a kid in the 70's--wasn't there a scene where 3 japanese surrendered, and then one of them bent over, and had a machine-gun strapped to his back and shot some of the Americans?

[Kurt Barickman]

One of my favorites

This is a great movie for me for a variety of reason. For one, the technical advisor was Evan Carlson himself who was the founder of the 2nd Raider Battalion of whom Randolph Scott portrays. For anothe rreason, many real Marine Raiders were used in the movie. For example, I attended the Marine Raider Reunion this last weekend in Minneapolis and met one of the Raiders who was in the movie. In the part where the rubber boats are in training, this Raider was in that scene. He told me that Carlson himself was yelling at them to make sure the boats stayed in the correct order. Also at the reunion was the daughter in law of Evan Carlson who happened to also be the widow of his son, Evans Carlson. I had the unique historical opportunity to speak with her for over a 1/2 hour.

Kurt Barickman

[Radcollector]

"Yancy, I vaguely recall watching that one when I was a kid in the 70's--wasn't there a scene where 3 japanese surrendered, and then one of them bent over, and had a machine-gun strapped to his back and shot some of the Americans"


yup thats the one,thats funny you say that because i remember watching when i was a kid and that is the scene i remember most as well...


Kurt thats very interesting,i would have thought they would have used hollywood actors not real marines,i guess it adds to the authenticity,i like even better now just knowing that!


BTW for anyone who is interested,last week i bought a box set of 50 classic war movies on DVD at Best Buy for $19.99!!!