William Manchester was an award winning novelist, reporter, historian, biographer, and friend of John F. Kennedy. His account of his experiences in combat on Okinawa are among the most vivid ever published. And this is the movie that prompted him to enlist in the Marine Corps during World War II.
Manchester was impressed, he says, by the same elements of the movie that I say will impress the ordinary viewer of today. Marine Corps boot camp is a lot of fun with plenty of jocular fellows to play grabass with. Your Drill Instructor looks like Randolph Scott. He's stern and crusty on the outside, but underneath that he's a concerned and devoted friend. (Underneath THAT he's a real mean son of a gun.) You get to wear snappy uniforms and after boot camp, why it's nothing but dress blues. Your training takes place in the impeccably kempt Camp Pendleton under the blazing blue skies of San Diego. Once you finish boot camp you go to Sea School and get to take a sea-going vacation aboard a battleship. Oh, there's always Randolph Scott around to say things like, "Step to it, men," but the tone is always avuncular.
On top of that, you -- a mere enlisted man -- get to make out with the stunning Maureen O'Hara, who was about twenty years old at the time. She's a lieutenant and you're supposed to do no more than salute her but nobody pays attention to these silly rules. It's all photographed in gorgeous Technicolor and you know what? Maureen O'Hara is a drop-dead hottie even without flaming red hair.
Man, is John Payne lucky. Well, maybe not THAT lucky. He was supposed to wind up happily married to O'Hara, both devoted to a peaceful military routine, but half-way through the shoot, the plot was interrupted by some uncommonly rude Japanese who attacked us at Pearl Harbor. Poor Zanuck, the producer, had to stick on a brief prologue about "the current conflict" and change the ending so that Payne, Scott, O'Hara, and all the boys climb aboard a troop transport for the Pacific, enthusiastically singing the Marine Corps hymn accompanied by a marching band. What a fantasy.
Want to see what happened to William Manchester? Read his awesome memoir: "Good-bye, Darkness."
Manchester was impressed, he says, by the same elements of the movie that I say will impress the ordinary viewer of today. Marine Corps boot camp is a lot of fun with plenty of jocular fellows to play grabass with. Your Drill Instructor looks like Randolph Scott. He's stern and crusty on the outside, but underneath that he's a concerned and devoted friend. (Underneath THAT he's a real mean son of a gun.) You get to wear snappy uniforms and after boot camp, why it's nothing but dress blues. Your training takes place in the impeccably kempt Camp Pendleton under the blazing blue skies of San Diego. Once you finish boot camp you go to Sea School and get to take a sea-going vacation aboard a battleship. Oh, there's always Randolph Scott around to say things like, "Step to it, men," but the tone is always avuncular.
On top of that, you -- a mere enlisted man -- get to make out with the stunning Maureen O'Hara, who was about twenty years old at the time. She's a lieutenant and you're supposed to do no more than salute her but nobody pays attention to these silly rules. It's all photographed in gorgeous Technicolor and you know what? Maureen O'Hara is a drop-dead hottie even without flaming red hair.
Man, is John Payne lucky. Well, maybe not THAT lucky. He was supposed to wind up happily married to O'Hara, both devoted to a peaceful military routine, but half-way through the shoot, the plot was interrupted by some uncommonly rude Japanese who attacked us at Pearl Harbor. Poor Zanuck, the producer, had to stick on a brief prologue about "the current conflict" and change the ending so that Payne, Scott, O'Hara, and all the boys climb aboard a troop transport for the Pacific, enthusiastically singing the Marine Corps hymn accompanied by a marching band. What a fantasy.
Want to see what happened to William Manchester? Read his awesome memoir: "Good-bye, Darkness."