Guadalcanal Diary (1943)

Guadalcanal Diary
Directed by Lewis Seiler
Written by Lamar Trotti and Jerome Cady from a book by Richard Tregakis
1943/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Cpl. Aloysius T. ‘Taxi’ Potts: They’re throwing everything at us but the kitchen stove.

Gunnery Sgt. Hook Malone: [after an even louder explosion] That’s the stove now![/box]

If you are looking for a classic combat movie of the period, complete with every single cliche, look no further.

This story about Marine combat to take the Japanese-held island of Guadalcanal was released only 10 months after the campaign ended.  It is narrated by a man representing a journalist who was embedded with the Marines and wrote a bestseller about their experiences.  The narration, unfortunately, is very rah-rah and was a bit off-putting to me.

We meet a unit headed by Sgt. ‘Hook’ Malone (Lloyd Nolan) and comprising the usual collection of lovable GIs from every walk of life including William Bendix as the obligatory Brooklynite; Anthony Quinn as a stereotypical Mexican (Ah, Jesus!); Richard Jaeckel (in his debut) as a raw recruit still trying to grow his first whisker; Richard Conte (second outing and first under this name); etc.

These men joke around talking baseball and girls between battles.  They naturally have no use for the enemy and spend a lot of time ‘Jap’-bashing.  We get the “no athiests in foxholes” scene, heroic rescues, and deaths of particularly family-oriented Marines.

The men grow from green soldiers brimming with braggadocio to tough and seasoned combat veterans.  They fight on, taking their hits but giving it back to the enemy ten-fold, until the army finally arrives to mop up stragglers and convert the island to an American base.

The combat scenes are fairly effective and the performances were good.  The screenplay was just not for me.

Trailer