It's late in World War II, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The aircraft carrier USS Princeton is bombed. There is a secondary explosion that sinks the ship and costs Captain John M. Hoskins, Sterling Hayden, a leg. He's pretty bitter about it too because he was just about to take command of the Princeton. The Navy plans to retire him but Hoskins refuses. This troubles the Navy. It also troubles Hoskins' wife, Alexis Smith. She wants her sailor husband home. All Navy wives want their sailor husbands to stop thirsting for sea water, at least in John Wayne movies. However, she passes on some information to him that will save his career, sacrificing her own satisfaction for his sake. Not only that, but the Navy gives him command of the NEW USS Princeton and, in the years after World War II ends, it becomes his job to prepare the aircraft carrier to launch and receive Grumman jets.
Hayden had a curious career. He was always half hearted about it. He was more interested in doing his own sailing than in acting, and most of his early films, like this one, were done by the numbers. He never made the Mount Rushmore of manliness like John Wayne or Robert Mitchum. His politics didn't help, even though he "named names", as the saying went. As an OSS operative during the war, he'd been inserted into Yugoslavia to help Tito organize the partisans against Hitler's troops, and in doing so picked up some ideas considered anathema at the time. In 1964 he managed to give a startling performance as a crazed Air Force general in "Dr. Strangelove," turning the maniac into an object of pathos.
His wife, Alexis Smith, had fluorescent red hair and aquamarine eyes to die for. She looked regal. Canadian actresses look regal. They could all play queens -- except for Ruby Keeler who would have to be the naif from Nova Scotia whose royal heritage has only recently been discovered.
You don't get to see the color of Smith's eyes in this movie because it's in black and white. It came from Republic Studios run by the notoriously cheap bonehead Herbert J. Yates, a man of little taste, whose idea of "art" had a dollar sign in front of it. Yates also shoehorned in his main squeeze, Vera Hruba Ralston, as a leading figure whenever possible. And he cheated John Ford out of some money connected with "The Quiet Man," and Ford never forgave John Wayne for getting him mixed up with Yates.
However, mean though Yates may have been, this movie isn't shabby. It's not limited to one or two indoor sets. Nothing like that. It's a respectable production, though an inexpensive one. None of the combat scenes are staged. They're all taken from newsreel footage, which was still relatively new to audiences at the time. That is, we see Hayden and some other officer staring at something off screen and then the film cuts to a shot of an airplane landing or taking off. The Navy's Grumman Panthers were cool-looking aircraft as far as that goes. They no longer looked like rudimentary jets. They looked ready to fly at speed, though in fact they were no match for Soviet jets. I watched them practicing touch and go landings from a carrier in Monterey Bay, a thrilling experience.
The writing and direction are strictly instrumental. There's not a jot of originality in either. Nor does a viewer learn any of the technical details about converting aircraft carriers to jets. And unless you know the differences between commanding a carrier and commanding a carrier division or a fleet, you may miss some of the steps upward taken by "the peg leg admiral." Hoskins was a real historical figure and quite a guy according to this movie -- flawless in fact. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his action in Korea. He also was awarded the following medals: Purple Heart, Legion of Merit, China Service Medal, Order of Military Merit, from the Philippine Government, the Philippine Liberation Medal, Atlantic Fleet Clasp, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, plus others. He was still alive when the movie was made.
