No Man is an Island (1962)

              

                “No Man is an Island” is a biopic about George Ray Tweed.  Tweed was a Navy radioman who hid on Guam after the Japanese occupation.  It is based on Tweed’s autobiography entitled “Robinson Crusoe, USN” (what a great title!).  The movie was written, directed, and produced by the team of Richard Goldstone and John Monks, Jr.  Monks served in the Marines in the Bougainville campaign of WWII.  It stars Jeffrey Hunter.  He also appeared in “The Longest Day” that year.

                The movie opens on Guam on Dec. 7, 1941.  Recognize the date?  Tweed is civilian-bound, when Japanese fighters come dropping bombs they don’t have.  This must be a war movie.  Tweed and five others escape into the jungle. Since this is a war movie, one of them is a coward who wants to surrender.  He argues that the Japanese will treat them well.  In his defense, he has not seen any 1940s war movies depicting the Japanese.  The early part of the movie is a your classic “who will survive?” scenario.  In case you are wondering, check out the title.  Tweed spends a lot of time avoiding Japanese patrols with help of Guamians.  I counted six times that the film yelled “Japs!”  Eventually, Tweed hunkers down in his own hillside fort where he woos his benefactor’s daughter Josephina.  Since this is an early sixties war movie, a romance is required.  Well, at least the poster will be accurate.

                “No Man is an Island” is exactly what you would expect – 1962 drivel.  The screenplay and directing are ham-fisted.  There is surprisingly little suspense in spite of the consistent appearance of snoopy Japs.  Although made well past the time when the Japanese were demonized, the movie is something of a throw-back with its beheadings and torture (off camera, of course).  Some of the deaths are interesting and unpredictable, other than the fact you know they are going to die sooner of later.  The acting is acceptable.  Hunter was underrated and was always appealing.  However, he plays Tweed as too upbeat.  This is probably because Jeff did not have much range as a actor.  Women overlooked that because of the blue eyes.  The romance is chaste and blah.  Joe is played by Barbara Perez, who was brought to Hollywood as the Filipina Audrey Hepburn.  That did not quite work out the way the suits hoped.  In some ways, the movie is more of a family film than a war movie.  This is emphasized by the schmaltzy music and the saccharine ending.  The biggest problem is the movie portrays Tweed not as a hero, but as a survivor.  He does little to help the war effort and is seemingly put through scrapes to end up romancing a local girl on a hilltop.     

                So how close is the movie to the true story?  Spoiler alert.  Tweed had been in the Navy since 1922.  He was transferred to Guam in 1939.  He was a Radioman First Class at the time.  His family was evacuated with war clouds brewing in October, 1941.  I take this reference to mean he was married, which implies that the romance with Josephina was cinematic license.  He did escape with five others.  The Japanese put a 100 yen bounty on any Americans captured, but promised a 1,000 yen reward for the capture of Tweed because they knew he was a radio expert.  The other five were killed in two separate incidents where they were betrayed and then surrounded by Japanese forces.  I found no evidence that one of the five was a sniveling coward.  Tweed did use radios to catch broadcasts from the States and he did publish a newspaper called the “Guam Eagle” for a few months.  He moved to several locations before settling down at a hideout arranged by Antonio Artero.  It was from there that he signaled two destroyers using a mirror and semaphore in 1944.  He was promoted to Chief Petty Officer and later retired in 1948 as a Lieutenant.  He was awarded the Legion of Merit and Silver Star.  Tweed returned to Guam to visit the people who had aided him.  Later he fulfilled his promise to get Artero a new car, with the help of General Motors.  As a side note, in 1972 the last Japanese holdout came out of the jungle on Guam.

                Will “No Man is an Island” make it onto my 100 Best War Movies list?  Definitely not.

  GRADE  =  C-