Company sea eagles
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Company sea eagles |
| Original title | Operation Pacific |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1951 |
| length | 111 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | George Waggner |
| script | George Waggner |
| production | Louis Edelman |
| music | Max Steiner |
| camera | Bert Glennon |
| cut | Alan Crossland Jr. |
| occupation | |
| |
Company Seeadler is a WWII American submarine drama from 1951 starring John Wayne , Patricia Neal , Ward Bond and Philip Carey . This black and white film was directed by George Waggner . The former Commander in Chief of the US Submarines (COMSUBPAC) in the Pacific during World War II, Admiral Charles A. Lockwood , acted as technical advisor .
action
During the Second World War, Commander John T. "Pop" Perry transported a group of nuns and children, including a newborn baby nicknamed "Butch", to Pearl Harbor in his submarine "Thunderfish" . On the way, the submarine spots a Japanese aircraft carrier and attacks it. However, the torpedoes fail and explode too early. Nevertheless, the "Thunderfish" can escape the destroyer accompanying them .
At Pearl Habor, the boat's first officer, Lieutenant Commander Duke E. Gifford, visits Butch at the Naval Hospital. There he happens to meet his ex-wife Lieutenant Mary Stuart, who is employed there as a naval nurse. Although Mary is now in a relationship with Commander Perry's younger brother, the naval pilot Lieutenant Bob Perry, they kiss passionately. In the near future, Gifford is constantly looking for contact with Mary Stuart, but has to sail again with his submarine. During the patrol, the "Thunderfish" sees a Japanese freighter and tries to sink it. Their torpedoes fail again. Nevertheless, the freighter hoists the white flag and wants to surrender. When the “Thunderfish” appears and approaches, the freighter turns out to be a so-called Q-ship , a submarine trap that immediately opens fire. Commander Perry is fatally wounded, but orders to dive even though he can no longer get inside the boat himself. Gifford, who is now in command, orders the Q-ship to ram. The Q-ship sinks as a result, but the “Thunderfish” is also badly damaged at the bow and is dragging itself back to Pearl Harbor.
Gifford and Bob Perry meet at Pearl Harbor, and Perry accuses Gifford of killing his brother. He does not accept Gifford's explanations. Mary Stuart tries to comfort him, but he insists that he has only done his duty and has no regrets.
Together with the naval base's torpedo specialist, Gifford and his crew try to find out why the torpedoes don't explode. Eventually they find the cause and Gifford wants to celebrate with Mary Stuart on the occasion. But she rejects him because he didn't want to know anything about her when he was feeling bad. She doesn't see a future for their relationship. Her supervisor, Commander Steele, overhears the argument and criticizes Stuart for missing the chance to be happy with Gifford.
The “Thunderfish” runs out again with the task of finding a Japanese fleet that is on its way to Leyte . Although the submarine reveals its position, it reports the location of the fleet by radio when they find it. As soon as Pearl Harbor confirmed the report, Gifford began firing all of his torpedoes on the Japanese ships. This causes chaos on the enemy. Despite being damaged by Japanese depth charges, the “Thunderfish” manages to sink a damaged Japanese aircraft carrier.
After the arrival of the American aircraft carriers, the Japanese fleet is attacked and the submarine is given the task of rescuing American pilots who have been shot down. This turns out to be difficult as they are being attacked by Japanese planes themselves. They also rescue Lieutenant Bob Perry, but two sailors are killed by Japanese planes and Gifford is wounded.
When the "Thunderfish" returns to Pearl Harbor, Mary Stuart is already waiting for Gifford there. They make up again and go to the hospital where they want to adopt Butch.
production
John Wayne and Patricia Neal didn't get along very well during the filming. Fourteen years later, while filming First Victory , things had relaxed noticeably, possibly because Wayne was seriously ill with lung cancer. The constant problems with the Mark VI torpedoes really existed. The impact fuse often failed due to poor construction and a lack of testing. It took almost 20 months for the bug to be fixed. The submarine crews were involved in troubleshooting, but not to the extent shown in the film.
The incident that Commander Perry is killed in a skirmish on the surface of the sea sums up two actual war events. Commander Howard W. Gilmore, captain of the USS Growler , was fatally wounded on the bridge . He gave the command "dive" and sacrificed himself for his boat and his crew. For this he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery . The ramming and sinking of the armed Japanese freighter occurred in the same battle, shortly before Gilmore's death.
The composer of the film music, Max Steiner , used parts of his film music for the film King Kong and the white woman for battle scenes in company Seeadler .
The scenes when “Thunderfish” discovered the Japanese fleet of aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers in the Strait of Surigao were inspired by the incident at the beginning of the sea and air battle in the Gulf of Leyte , when the two US submarines “ USS Darter ”and“ USS Dace ”discovered the Japanese fleet.
Although Ward Bond plays an older character here compared to John Wayne, he was only four years older than Wayne. They were close friends and by then had made twelve films together.
Others
The production company Warner Brothers made $ 2,563,000 in the US and another $ 1,300,000 outside of it.
Web links
- Company Seeadler in theInternet Movie Database(English)