Wake Island (1942)

Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Barbara Britton ... see more  , William Bendix , Mikhail Rasumny , Walter Abel , Damian O'Flynn , Bill Goodwin , Phillip Terry , Don Castle , Rod Cameron , Frank Albertson , Holly Bane , Hugh Beaumont , Hillary Brooke , Jack Chapin , Dane Clark , Ángel de la Cruz , Edward Earle , Frank Faylen , William Forrest , Richard Loo , Patti McCarty , Ivan Miller , Jack Mulhall , Anthony Nace , George Nielson , Willard Robertson , Rudy Robles , John Sheehan , Mary Thomas , Charles Trowbridge , Philip Van Zandt , James Brown , Mary Field , Alan Hale Jr. , Marvin Jones Darrin Smith , Keith Richards (II) , Keith Richards (I) , James Brown (II)

The winner of four Oscar nominations, Wake Island was one of the first major Hollywood films to deal with America's forced participation in World War II. The first two reels takes place in the weeks p... read more rior to Pearl Harbor, as Wake Island military commander Brian Donlevy carries on a friendly rivalry with Seabee supervisor Albert Dekker. Once the US is in the shooting war, all previous differences are forgotten and the Wake Island personnel begin pulling together. Despite being heavily outnumbered during the subsequent Japanese attack on Wake, the Americans put up a valiant fight, at great cost to the Imperial Forces. In a scene calculated to evoke long, loud cheers from the audience, Donlevy, weary and battle-stained, relays to the American mainland the legendary (if offensive) challenge "Send us more Japs!" As in the like-vintage Bataan, the military defeat of the Americans is treated-and justifiably so--as a moral victory. Utilizing some of the top male talents in Paramount's contract pool-Donlevy, Dekker Robert Preston, MacDonald Carey, William Bendix--Wake Island remains an excellent example of propaganda-as-entertainment ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi