On
the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me – nine Seabees a
constructing
“The Fighting Seabees” was a WWII flag-waver that
fired up audiences in 1944. It was
directed by Edward Ludwig, but who cares since it stars John Wayne. The film is dedicated to the Civil Engineer
Corps and the Construction Battalions (CBs = Seabees) which “fired the
imagination of the world with their colorful exploits throughout the Seven
Seas.” If you are hoping for a history
lesson to go along with the lauding, forget it because the movie is highly
fictionalized.
Wayne plays Wedge (awesome
name!) Donovan who owns a construction company that has been doing airfield
building in the Pacific. He is very
upset with the fact that the Navy did not allow him to arm his men and they had
several killed recently. The Navy
liaison Lt. Commander Yarrow (Dennis O’Keefe) tries to explain the reason for
this sensible rule, but Donovan argues that if you can work construction you can
kill “Tojo and his bug-eyed monkeys”. He
also throws in this classic line: “If
you can drink, you can fight.” Love
triangle alert: Donovan takes an
interest in Yarrow’s girl Connie (Susan Hayward). She’s a journalist which gives the movie an
excuse to have her follow Donovan to tropic islands.
Donovan gets a new airstrip job on
Island X-14. They go without needing “no
stinking training.” When a Japanese
force invades the island (using apparently stolen Higgins boats), Donovan
mother-hens his men and Connie into a shelter but when strafing kills three
idiots standing around outside, the gloves are off and the guns are out. The Seabees come storming onto the
battlefield like a mob of pissed off hillbillies and foul up a planned kick-ass
ambush by Yarrow. To make matters worse,
the abandoned but curious Connie gets wounded.
The combination of dead men and wounded starlet leaves Wedge contrite
and willing to do it the Navy way. He is
made a Lt. Commander because he is John Wayne.
Recruitment and training montage
complete with the “Song of the Seabees”.
More romance as Yarrow gradually realizes it’s hopeless to compete with
a guy named Wedge (plus he’s John Wayne, for God’s sake). The love triangle heads off to island number
two. The Seabees encounter sniper
problems which culminate in the death of Eddie Powers (William Frawley of “Lucy”
fame) while singing an Irish song. It’s
on now! Donovan disobeys orders and
takes almost his entire battalion into the jungle to sniper-hunt. Wouldn’t you know the scheming little monkeys
choose this moment to attack the lightly defended airstrip. Yarrow is wounded in the defense, but Donovan
leads a counterattack that does not dissuade Yarrow from threatening him with
court-martial for disobeying orders.
Wedge doesn’t seem too concerned because he’s read the script. He knows there’s no court or courting in his
future. But there is a fiery bulldozer
ride.
I am a big John Wayne fan (men
of my generation are required by law), but I had never seen this movie partly because
I figured constructing airfields would be boring to watch. I was wrong about that as this movie has more
action than most war movies. It’s Old
School with touchdown signaling deaths and no blood, but still fun to watch. You get to see a Japanese sniper in a tree
killed by a grenade and another grabbed by a clamshell bucket (previously only
seen in the play-rooms of toddlers).
Just suspend reality. The movie
keeps the fourteen year old boys happy and the construction scenes with all the
heavy machinery keep the four year old boys happy as well. Some of the kudos for action are cancelled by
the romance, unfortunately. Too much
mushy. However, it is a bit
unconventional as O’Keefe does not put up much of a fight and Donovan does not
want to poach so you wonder who will be saddled with this vivacious, sexy,
intelligent dame. The movie solves the
dilemma in a predictable way.
The acting is fine. Wayne plays Wayne, of course. We do get to see him do the jitterbug, so he
does stretch a bit. Susan Hayward is one
of his better leading ladies and holds her own in a sassy way. O’Keefe is a bit stiff, but it’s a thankless
role. The ensemble of hard-hats is fine
with some recognizable character actors like Frawley and Paul Fix (the Marshall
in “Rifleman”). The dialogue of the crew
is pretty witty. Unfortunately, other
than the big three, there is little character development other than they are
all alcoholics and brawlers. The music
alternates between rousing and sappy romance.
This is the kind of movie where the men sing a song. When is the last time a war movie had that?
The biggest problem with the
film is it is laughable historically speaking.
The Construction Battalions were created in WWII and recruited from
civilian construction workers (the average age was 37), but they went through
extensive training from the beginning and there was no controversy about arming
the men. In fact, the slogan of the
Seabees was “We build, we fight.” They
were often under fire and had to fight on Pacific Islands. They deserved the movie and probably did not
complain too much about the implausibilities.
Christmas gift? Gifts – a toy gun and a Tonka truck.
Grade = C
