For Conservative Movie Lovers: John Ford, John Wayne, and ‘They Were Expendable’ Part 6

The casting of Robert Montgomery (1904–1981) in They Were Expendable was uncommonly appropriate. The suave, handsome actor made his name in debonair romantic comedies throughout the 1930s, but like John Ford he didn’t wait until America was dragged into war before enlisting. In 1940, fired up by the life-and-death struggles raging in Europe, he abandoned his M-G-M contract, went to France, and volunteered as an ambulance driver. Only a few weeks went by before he had it shot out from under him — one film magazine of the era reported (or perhaps exaggerated) that he narrowly avoided capture with the help of a French priest, and escaped the country mere hours before it fell to the Germans.

Back in the states he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and over the next three years served in many capacities before finding his way to the Pacific theater, where he met John Bulkeley and became his executive officer. Montgomery commanded a PT boat in many battles, and eventually headed up to Normandy as an operations officer for a destroyer squadron. While preparing for D-Day, he remembered later, “I saw Bulkeley on his PT Boat and waved to him. There was another man on the bridge with him. I had no idea then it was Jack Ford.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Banana Wars, Bewitched (TV Show), blake edwards, Bosley Crowther, Bronze Star
Posted Nov 21st 2009 at 10:54 am in Classic Hollywood, Featured Story | 26542223 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/11/21/for-conservative-movie-lovers-john-ford-john-wayne-and-they-were-expendable-part-6/For+Conservative+Movie+Lovers%3A+John+Ford%2C+John+Wayne%2C+and+%27They+Were+Expendable%27+Part+62009-11-21+18%3A54%3A15Leo+Grin

For Conservative Movie Lovers: John Ford, John Wayne, and ‘They Were Expendable’ Part 3

“That bold buckaroo with the cold green eyes.”

– General Douglas MacArthur, describing his savior John Bulkeley –

In March 1942, facing imminent capture by the Japanese, America’s commander in the Far East was ordered to slip away to safety in Australia. The Empire of the Sun controlled both air and sea, and only a precious few Allied planes and ships remained in-theater, skulking through the night fog like pirates to avoid capture and running on little more than spit and baling wire. “Overhauling those motors without any replacement parts was a terrible job,” one of the few to escape that nightmare later remembered. “For instance. Any tank-town garage which overhauls a flivver back in the States always replaces the gaskets with new ones. Only we didn’t have any. Or any sealing compound. So those old gaskets had to be carefully removed, handled as gently as though they were precious lace, and laid back in place when the motors were reassembled.”

When MacArthur arrived at the dock with his family and key commanders, he found waiting for him a trio of tiny, dilapidated motor torpedo boats crewed by dirty, emaciated men with long, unkempt beards and wild eyes. Their skipper was a thirty-year-old U.S. Navy Lieutenant named John Bulkeley, who for months had held his disintegrating squadron together by scrounging like a rat among the islands for gasoline, torpedoes, and other basic supplies. His boats were little more than plywood matchboxes, but Bulkeley had kept them active long after the rest of America’s Navy and Air Force had been destroyed or driven off. He made sneak assaults against transports, cruisers, destroyers, airplanes, landing parties — anything to frustrate the pace of the overwhelming Japanese invasion. Every time he attacked it was a fearsome David-versus-Goliath mismatch, but Bulkeley had done so time and again, sinking many enemy vessels. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Air Mail (1932), Bataan, Beulah Greenwalt, Caroline Islands, D-Day
Posted Oct 31st 2009 at 11:01 am in Classic Hollywood, Military | 24727830 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/10/31/for-conservative-movie-lovers-john-ford-john-wayne-and-they-were-expendable-part-3/For+Conservative+Movie+Lovers%3A+John+Ford%2C+John+Wayne%2C+and+%27They+Were+Expendable%27+Part+32009-10-31+18%3A01%3A22Leo+Grin

For Conservative Movie Lovers: John Ford, John Wayne, and ‘They Were Expendable’ Part 1

YouTube -- click here to watch in full-screen HD

“[John Ford] was the only one of the Hollywood directors who fought who did not forget his men.”

– Captain Mark Armistead, USN –

Thus quotes Joseph McBride in his masterful biography Searching for John Ford, at the head of the chapter dealing with the director’s wartime activities. It is usually seen as lamentable when a genius is pulled from the practice of his art for any extended period, but here we must make a special allowance. As filmmaker Lindsay Anderson (1923-1994) explains in his essential critical volume About John Ford (which, like the McBride book, should be sitting proudly and dog-eared on the bookshelf of every conservative film fan): “War service took Ford away from the making of films for some three years when his powers were at their height. One would regret this interruption more had it not led directly to the making of a masterpiece.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "John Ford's Navy", About John Ford (book), Bette Davis, bob hope, Charles Trowbridge
Posted Oct 17th 2009 at 11:09 am in Classic Hollywood | 24699460 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/10/17/for-conservative-movie-lovers-john-ford-john-wayne-and-they-were-expendable-part-1/For+Conservative+Movie+Lovers%3A+John+Ford%2C+John+Wayne%2C+and+%27They+Were+Expendable%27+Part+12009-10-17+18%3A09%3A04Leo+Grin

The G.I. Film Festival and Gary Sinise: Supporting Our Troops

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the GI Film Festival at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. The Festival took place in one day and showed films that portray American enlisted men and women in a favorable light as opposed to the usual Hollywood fare. This festival was an offshoot of the main GI Film Festival which takes place in May every year in Washington D.C. The main event lasts seven days and includes showings of approximately 50 films. This was a one day shortened version in which the crème of the crop were exhibited. You can find out more details about the festival at: http://www.gifilmfestival.com. I also recommend that if you are so inclined, you make a donation to this worthy cause.

Among the screened films was a documentary entitled “About Face,” which was directed by Steve Karras. To me, the film is a masterpiece. It depicts a group of Jewish Refugees from both Germany and Austria that joined the American and British Armed Forces in WWII to fight against their native lands. The film was both moving and educational. In fact, I must state I was not even aware there was so many of these refugees. Apparently, they numbered approximately 10,000. And, because of their knowledge of the native languages of the enemy, many of them were placed in positions that put them directly into contact with the same Germans who were persecuting their family and relatives. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: armed forces, Bedford Virginia, D-Day, gary sinise, germany
Posted Oct 4th 2009 at 5:54 pm in Featured Story, Film, Military | 24059419 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/fdemartini/2009/10/04/the-g-i-film-festival-and-gary-sinise-supporting-our-troops/The+G.I.+Film+Festival+and+Gary+Sinise%3A+Supporting+Our+Troops+2009-10-05+00%3A54%3A44Frank+DeMartini

Seeing the Duke in a Whole New Light

For navel-gazing Republicans, in the throes of a full-blown identity crisis, the 30th anniversary of John “Duke” Wayne’s passing this June 11th, couldn’t come sooner, reminding us of what it was like when giants were in our midst.

The Duke, still ranked Americans’ all-time favorite film star, whose popularity only increases with time, was an “extremely close friend” of Ronald Reagan, said their close mutual friend, longtime Paramount Executive, A.C. Lyles.

Both “Duke” and “Ronnie” shared a clear moral vision concerning America’s greatness-only using force to liberate not conquer, as President Reagan characterized it five years, almost to the day, after Duke’s death, in his poignant tribute to the “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” on June 6, 1984, commemorating D-Day, in which, Lyles said, “he just spoke from the heart.”

“Here, in Normandy,” said Reagan, “… the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.”  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 30th Anniversary, D-Day, john wayne, Longest Day, ronald reagan
Posted Jun 11th 2009 at 11:53 am in Entertainment, Politics | 1577102 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mckendall/2009/06/11/seeing-the-duke-in-a-whole-new-light/Seeing+the+Duke+in+a+Whole+New+Light2009-06-11+18%3A53%3A55Mary+Claire+Kendall