Darryl Zanuck personally signed his name to this seminal, jaw-droppingly glamourous war movie full as leading lady Maureen O'Hara put it, of "unfurling flags, marching men, and martial music" and "credited with more new enlistments in the United States Marine Corps than any other promotional campaign that year". Shot at San Diego Marine Base, it also represents a key moment in film history as Miss O'Hara's first Technicolor production, for which she'd been becomingly transformed into a brunette.
While it was in production (SPOILER COMING:) Pearl Harbor was bombed (a moment when according to the movies every single American simultaneously had their radios on when the news first hit the airwaves); cue the outrageous super-patriotic climax when John Payne finally puts his love-life on hold the better to head for the Pacific.
Hirohito and Tojo probably never saw it; but Dr Goebbels probably needed oxygen after seeing this one!
While it was in production (SPOILER COMING:) Pearl Harbor was bombed (a moment when according to the movies every single American simultaneously had their radios on when the news first hit the airwaves); cue the outrageous super-patriotic climax when John Payne finally puts his love-life on hold the better to head for the Pacific.
Hirohito and Tojo probably never saw it; but Dr Goebbels probably needed oxygen after seeing this one!