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.

THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936)

Way up in the mountains of Kentucky, the Falins and the Tollivers have been feudin' for so long nobody even remembers what for.  They just know they hate the hell out of each other and will shoot to kill on sight.  Jesus!  In the middle of this madness walks Fred MacMurray.  He works for the coal company and he wants to buy land from both the Tollivers and the Falins.  And while he's at it, he might just take a fancy to Henry Fonda's main squeeze...his own cousin!  Double Jesus!!

For 1936 I was really impressed by the colour photography.  Supposedly this was the first movie to use Technicolor for the outdoor sequences and they look great.  The story on the other hand...ehh, it was just alright.  The tension between the hillbilly Fonda and the city slicker MacMurray is pretty predictable and outside of just a few minor skirmishes, we never get to see the Falins and the Tollivers feudin' for really.  I wanted to see some straight up badass gunfights, but it never happened.  Also Fonda, even this early in his career, deserved better than playing some backwoods hick who hates sophisticated outsiders and their highfalutin book learning so much that he throws his young cousin's colouring book in the fireplace.  Even with such a one-dimensional character he still turns in a good performance.

One aspect that wasn't captured, would have been instead of Fonda wanting to marry his own cousin, is to have Fonda (before MacMurray shows up) having a secret courtship going with a Falin girl, but then when Fred shows up, he throws a monkey wrench in the works and stirring up the feud even more.  Just a thought.  Over an hundred years too late (the novel was written in 1908), but I think it would have liven things up a bit.  As it is though it's an alright classic Hollywood timewaster that's interesting thanks to early performances by MacMurray and Fonda.