THE SATAN BUG (1965)

THE SATAN BUG?!! That's a awesome title.  Too bad the rest of the movie wasn't as attention grabbing as that name.

When a top secret biological warfare laboratory in Southern California is burgled of some deadly bioweapons, the people in charge are understandably worried.  Especially when it's revealed that one of the weapons, The Satan Bug, is capable of wiping out every living creature on Earth.  Yikes!  George Maharis is called in to head up the search for the missing vials.  That sounds exciting, but in reality it's pretty tame.  The majority of the events happens in the lab or the surrounding desert and involve a lot of talking and very few moments of actual jumping around doing physical stuff.

Medium pace, average acting by an interesting cast, lots of talking, not a lot of urgency expressed by the people searching for the most dangerous weapon on Earth(!), lame ending, zero tension.  Overall, the premise for the film is great but the execution comes off more like a long episode of a 60's TV show than a full-fledged movie.  Skip it.

IN HARM'S WAY (1965)

Reminiscent, at least to me, of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, IN HARM'S WAY also tells the story of various military personnel and their wives, husbands and lovers in Hawaii during 1941/1942.  And at 165 minutes it packs in a lot of story.

U. S. Navy Captain John Wayne is on duty during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Kirk Douglas is his executive officer.  They manage to get their ship safely away, but other problems arise when Wayne disobeys orders while trying to track down an enemy vessel.  He's stripped of command and sentenced to desk duty.  Kirk has it even worse when he finds out that his wife was off screwing some dude on the beach during the attack and killed!  Other characters include John Wayne's estranged son who is also in the Navy and has thrown in with a seedy officer; the seedy officer himself; a nurse who's wanting to knock boots with The Duke; Burgess Meredith as Wayne's roommate; Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews and Franchot Tone as officers and the ridiculously sexy Jill Haworth as a nurse involved with both Wayne's son and Douglas.  There's also a side story about officer Tom Tyron and his wife Paula Prentiss, but it could have been cut completely.

IN HARM'S WAY is a good watch.  Most of the dramatic scenes were excellent, but unfortunately the action scenes towards the end are terribly dated and kinda boring.  The film had my total attention when Kirk and Jill were on the beach or when Wayne was making googly-eyes at Patricia Neal, but then the model boats come out with water splashing around and I felt my attention fading.  Also, IN HARM'S WAY just lacks the sheer acting power and emotional charge of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.  That movie was dynamite!  (Yes, I wrote that in Graham Chapman's voice.)

Entertaining watch with a impressive supporting cast, but dated.  Recommended for classic movie fans.