ANNIVERSARY: The Battle of the Coral Sea (1959)

                    This review is to honor the anniversary of the Battle of Coral Sea.  “The Battle of the Coral Sea” is a black and white war film directed by Paul Wendkos (“Tarawa Beachhead”, “Attack on the Iron Coast”).  It had technical advisers from both the Japanese navy and the American navy.   It got cooperation from the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense.  Officers and men from several submarines participated in the production.

                    The movie begins on March 14, 1942, three days after the fall of Corregidor.  Capt. Conway (Cliff Robertson) surfaces the USS Dragonfish to pick up some men on rafts.  The sub barely survives an attack by Japanese planes.  Back at Sydney, the Dragonfish is equipped with a special camera that can take pictures through the periscope.  Conway remarks:  “Before the war, the Navy had all the time and no money.  Now it has all the money and no time.”  The camera is the key to Operation Fancy Free which involves reconnaissance of Japanese held islands and taking pictures of them.  The mission part of the movie includes a trek through a minefield, with the requisite scrapings along the hull.  We also get the required depth charging with rivets popping and leaks springing.  When the sub sits on the bottom of the very shallow ocean, the Japanese send divers using scuba gear (not yet invented) to put microphones on the hull to demand surrender!  I shit you not.  They are forced to surrender and end up in a prison camp.  The camp has a roundeye, blond nurse Peg (Patricia Cutts) and an interpreter named Karen (Gia Scala).  Two women for the poster!  The commandant is a Americanophile who is suave and cultured and who tries to convince Conway that the war is lost.  The torturing is lame and the work is not on a River Kwai level.  When a prisoner throws food on a guard, the punishment is to wrestle him.  The good Jap is replaced by a bad Jap, so escape becomes essential.  Plus they have information crucial to winning the war, so there’s that too.  The movie finally earns its title with a finale relying on a shaky blend of footage and models.  And lots of explosions.

                    Although the movie has pretensions of being a pseudo documentary, it is actually a fairly standard submarine/prison camp hybrid.  Although the plot is ridiculous, it does deserve some credit for originality.  For instance, although it has two hot females, there is no romance.  The two ladies are not just for window dressing.  They play key roles in the plot.  You also get the oddly benevolent commandant who appears to have wandered in from a European Theater war movie.  Even though he is replaced with a more standard villain, the movie is unrealistically lenient toward the Japanese captors.  The acting is above average with Robertson a good choice for the captain.  The dialogue is not muteworthy.  It’s the scenario that is laughable.  The only thing you will learn from the movie is there was a Battle of the Coral Sea and we won.  (That of course is debatable as most historians classify it as a tactical draw.)  The implication that a submarine played a crucial role in the victory is pure fantasy.  There are lots of “why?” moments in it.  Like, why did they fire the photos out in a torpedo when they were planning on blowing up the sub.  Why does one of the submariners get pneumonia when malaria would have been the obvious choice?  There are also some hilarious moments, like when they make arrows out of knives for their escape.

                    It’s a nice time waster if you don’t treat it as a true story or even based on a true story or even inspired by a true story.  It’s unclear what the technical advisers were paid for and how much cooperation from the Navy was worth since there is very little of sub interior in the film.  It is pretty much a forgotten film and that is no surprise as it is basically forgettable.

GRADE  =  C-