destination tokyo: yanks in wartime

(1943. dir: Delmer Daves) It's a top-secret, ridiculously dangerous submarine mission which will take our heroes right into the heart of Tokyo Bay, running reconnaissance for what we now call the Doolittle Raid. The sub itself seems strangely roomy, and the men on it are largely good-hearted rascals mixed in with sober, milk-fed Kansas boys still learning what they're capable of. Cary Grant is the well-loved, stalwart captain. He tells stories not about courage under fire but about taking his little boy in for his first haircut and how he met his beloved wife on a blind date. John Garfield carries around a dame-shaped doll and tells endless tall tales about his adventures picking up gorgeous gals while on furlough.

There's a prolonged depth-charge attack, a "Nip" carrier cut in two by torpedoes bearing cheeky Yank graffiti, an emergency appendectomy performed with kitchen utensils by a kid who's taken a few pharmacology classes, a beloved crew-member treacherously knifed in the back while rescuing the pilot of a fallen Zero. This last affords Cary Grant with an opportunity to hold forth on how while good Americans give our five-year-olds roller-skates to play with, the Japanese give lethal weapons to boys of the same age, whole generations being raised for nothing but warfare and hatred. The speech is startling to hear today; substitute the word "Islamist" for "Jap" and history looks like a neverending circle.

Because it was made while the war was still on, there's no self-knowing slyness, no doubt about God or democracy that is not firmly and readily quashed. The jokes are corny and you're fair certain even in the worst darkness of explosions and spraying water that all will come out well in the end for our intrepid man-boys, but it's Delmer Daves' premier foray at the helm, he has something to prove, and, all in all, does so.

I love John Garfield best when his eyes are darkening with the realization of betrayal, his face relaxing into the "you got me again" sardonic smile, and there's none of that here. He is what he is: he knows he's been chosen for the most dangerous mission because he's got "a strong back, strong arms, and a weak head." He and Grant both take some borderline unbearable lines and make, if not real gemstones, then a fair facsimile of enthusiastic zircon out of them, and that makes this movie worthwhile. Just know what you're getting into: not only is it not for the post-modern, blase and jaded mindset, it is also absolutely incompatible with modern-day political correctness.