In Harm's Way (1965)

Otto Preminger's sprawling World War II drama packs a lot into its 165 minutes, beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor (which Preminger re-creates in amazing detail) and ending a couple of years later with America's return to the South Pacific in force. John Wayne and Kirk Douglas star as a career naval captain and his self-pitying commander in the peacetime navy who are thrust into battle when Pearl Harbor is bombed while they are on maneuvers. Minutes into WWII, they are already scapegoated and demoted by the embarrassed military brass. Wayne romances a WAVE nurse (Patricia Neal) and attempts a reconciliation with his estranged, spoiled son (Brandon de Wilde) while Douglas sinks into the bottle after the death of his cheating wife until the American fleet rebuilds and calls upon Wayne to lead one of the initial invasion forces. Henry Fonda makes a brief but commanding appearance as the fleet admiral. Burgess Meredith is a former writer turned witty commander, Dana Andrews a showy but indecisive admiral, and Stanley Holloway a genial Australian scout working with the American invasion forces. Tom Tryon and Paula Prentiss play newlyweds torn apart by the war, and also appearing are Franchot Tone, Carroll O'Conner, Slim Pickens, George Kennedy, Bruce Cabot, and Larry Hagman, among many, many more. Loyal Griggs's handsome black-and-white photography is topped only by Saul Bass's impressive closing credits sequence, a rising cascade of crashing waves and rough surf reportedly paced to mirror the dramatic rhythm of the film. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com essential video

 "Barbara Bouchet, a new face and a new body" Otto Preminger
Right off you know it is a John Wayne movie. It is bound to have some John Wayne formula and actors that he works with in other movies. Add to this a cast not just of names, but actors that have a following in their won right. Now you have some great material to work with.

Throw in Director Otto Preminger, who directed "Laura" (1944) (see my review) and many other fine films.

Add an intriguing story. It almost seems like two films. The first film depicts lifer just before the war before the war with relationships surrounding navy life and the Eddingtons (Kirk Douglas, and Barbara Bouchet). The second film is after the war gets going with too many subplots to name. However I appreciated the relationship as Captain Rockwell Torrey (John Wayne) rediscovers and builds a relationship with his son, Ensign Jeremiah 'Jere' Torrey (Brandon De Wilde).


I do not want to leave you with some idea that this is some sort of artsy movie. It really is a war movie with "fast ships going in harm's way."

On DVD versions you get the entire DVD goodie list that make DVD's work while. This includes (Original making-of In Harm's Way)

However with the latest download craze we will see if you get the extras.



Harm's Way by James Bassett
February 10, 2008

 In Harm/s Way
If you like all John Wayne's films, here is one for you. I didn't think it was one his better ones however. January 18, 2008

 Typically overblown, overlong, self important Preminger film...
This is an OK film. I have to admit I'm not a huge Otto Preminger fan, as I find many of his films boring and very long. I love epic films, but many of his works seem padded. This is one such film. It is not completely bad. It has some very good scenes, well stage battle scenes, great cinematography, but it also has a very episodic feel to it. It doesn't flow like the greatest of epics. That episodic, sloppy feel is also evident in Preminger's Exodus as well. It's almost like Preminger said "I must be taken seriously. I have to make a long film".

Another complaint. The film opens up on a very drunk blonde dancing very provocatively (a strange way of starting a WWII film). It turns out she's the wife of a Navy man, and she gets killed in the next scene. She was also featured in the trailer, which makes me think that Otto is exploiting this young woman (who pretty much disappeared after this film). Preminger was a master at marketing his films as "important", but more often than not, the hype didn't match the quality of the film. The 2 films of his I liked were Anatomy of a Murder and The Man with the Golden Arm. They were both important films (especially the latter one), and they are both excellent. In Harm's Way isn't like that. The film is watchable, but I remember pausing it quite a bit while watching it and checking the running time on the DVD. There are many better WWII films out there, so you can skip this one. It's not particularly bad, but it ain't good. January 11, 2008

 war movies
Standard for Wayne...heroic military man. Some surprises from Douglas' character. Very good telling of story related to WW II in the Pacific. Worth watching over and over. December 1, 2007

 Less than the sum of its parts
In Harm's Way is something of an oddity. Boasting a top director and an impressive all-star cast yet nearly completely forgotten, this 1965 roadshow would-be epic plays in many ways like a misfired follow-up to From Here To Eternity, following several navy men and their ladies from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the first American victories against the Japanese. But it's more soap opera than action movie, with John Wayne's legendary officer `The Rock' trying to work his way through the social circuit to get a new command after his ship takes a torpedo while pal Kirk Douglas goes off the rails after his unfaithful wife is killed, raping a nurse and eventually doing the decent thing. Throw in father-son reunions, hesitant affairs and the odd bit of infighting in the ranks and it's not too surprising that no-one has much screen time for the Japanese.

The casting is often curious - alongside top liners John Wayne (reunited with his Operation Pacific romantic interest Patricia Neal) and Kirk Douglas it's a mixture of the old guard - Henry Fonda, Burgess Meredith, Stanley Holloway, Dana Andrews, Franchot Tone, Bruce Cabot - and rising stars who never quite made it like Brandon DeWilde, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Barbara Bouchet and Jill Haworth. You can even glimpse the score's composer Jerry Goldsmith on piano in the opening scene of the movie as the leader of the band at a party.

The production values are extremely variable too. Preminger makes the most of the surprising amount of access he got from the US Navy to their ships and bases for some spectacular backgrounds, but the cast aside, there's often an air of cheapness to parts of the film; the cinematography often has a rough and ready available light look and the some of the interiors often look as if the filmmakers broke into people's houses while they were at work and stole a few shots without setting up the lights properly before they got back home. Widely ridiculed at the time for its bathtub battleship special effects (certainly not as bad as their reputation), the absence of any planes in the sky during the attack on Pearl is more of a problem, made all the more noticeable by the preponderance of low-angle shots that take in a clear sky in the sequence.

While there's no hiding that the film is in a disappointment considering all the talent involved, it does improve on a second viewing and with lowered expectations. It may never justify all the effort, but it fills a Sunday afternoon well enough.

One of the last widescreen epics shot in black and white, the DVD boasts a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with three enjoyably old-fashioned trailers introduced by Otto Preminger from the heart of a burning engine room or the deck of a P.T. boat, while the vintage making of featurette includes a quite charming outtake from one of Wayne and Neal's romantic scenes. November 30, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...