Destination Tokyo | |
---|---|
Directed by | Delmer Daves |
Screenplay by | Delmer Daves Albert Maltz |
Story by | Steve Fisher |
Produced by | Jerry Wald Jack L. Warner |
Starring | Cary Grant John Garfield |
Cinematography | Bert Glennon |
Edited by | Christian Nyby Vladimir Barjansky |
Music by | Franz Waxman William Lava |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 131 or 135 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,516,000 [2] |
Box office | $4,544,000 [2] |
Destination Tokyo is a 1943 black and white American submarine war film. [3] The film was directed by Delmer Daves in his directorial debut, [4] and the screenplay was written by Daves and Albert Maltz, based on an original story by former submariner Steve Fisher. [5] The film stars Cary Grant and John Garfield and features Dane Clark, Robert Hutton, and Warner Anderson, along with John Ridgely, Alan Hale Sr. and William Prince.
Destination Tokyo has been called "the granddaddy of submarine films like Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), Das Boot (1981), and U-571 (2000)". [4]
Produced during the height of World War II, the film was used as propaganda to boost morale back home and to entice young men to join the Submarine Service of the U.S. Navy.
On Christmas Eve, the submarine USS Copperfin, under the command of Captain Cassidy, departs Mare Island Naval Shipyard on a secret mission. At sea, Cassidy opens his sealed orders, which direct him to proceed first to the Aleutian Islands to rendezvous with a PBY Catalina and take meteorologist Lt. Raymond aboard. He is then to proceed to Tokyo Bay to obtain vital weather intelligence for the upcoming Doolittle Raid.
After picking up Raymond, the Copperfin is attacked by two Japanese floatplanes. Both are shot down, but one pilot manages to parachute into the water. When Mike, a Copperfin crewman, goes down the hull to pull the Japanese aboard, he is stabbed to death by the downed pilot. New recruit Tommy Adams shoots the Japanese, but because he was slow to react Tommy blames himself for Mike's death. At least partly to expiate his mistake, Tommy volunteers to defuse an unexploded bomb stuck under the deck under the direction of Captain Cassidy.
When Mike is buried at sea, Greek-American "Tin Can" does not attend the service. This angers the other men until he explains that every Allied death causes him great pain. Meanwhile, Raymond, who lived in Japan, discusses how the Japanese people were led into the war by the military faction.
As the submarine nears Tokyo Bay, the Copperfin has to negotiate defensive minefields and anti-torpedo nets. When a Japanese ship enters the bay, Cassidy seizes the opportunity and follows in its wake. That night, a three-man party, including resourceful womanizer "Wolf", goes ashore to make weather observations.
Meanwhile, Tommy is diagnosed with appendicitis. "Pills", the pharmacist's mate, has to operate following instructions from a book, using improvised instruments and without sufficient ether to last throughout the procedure. The operation is successful, and "Cookie" Wainwright begins to prepare the pumpkin pie he had promised to bake for Tommy.
Raymond broadcasts the information the shore party has collected in Japanese in an attempt to avoid detection, but the Japanese are not fooled and search the bay. The Copperfin remains undetected, allowing the men to watch part of the Doolittle Raid through the periscope. After recovering Raymond and his team, the submarine then slips out of the bay, following an exiting ship when the anti-submarine nets are opened to let it through.
Later, the Copperfin sinks a Japanese aircraft carrier and is badly damaged by its escorts. In desperation, after long hours and barrages of depth charges, Cassidy attacks, sending a destroyer to the bottom and enabling the crew to return safely home.
Production on Destination Tokyo began on June 21, 1943 and continued through September 4 of that year. Members of the cast spent time at the U.S. Navy's Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, to familiarize themselves with submarine procedures and operations. Technical advisors to the film included the captain of the USS Wahoo, Dudley Walker Morton, and crewmember Andy Lennox. [6] The Wahoo was reported as missing in action after production on Destination Tokyo completed, sunk by Japanese aircraft in October 1943 while returning home from a patrol in the Sea of Japan. Commander Morton and all aboard were lost. Thanks to the efforts of the Wahoo Project Group, the wreckage was identified in 2006.[ citation needed ]
The existence of a submarine in Tokyo Bay relaying information to the Doolittle Raid is mentioned in the film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), based on pilot Ted Lawson's memoir. There is a scene on the USS Hornet where Lawson (Van Johnson), fresh from a briefing on the latest positions of the barrage balloons over Tokyo, tells his friend Bob Gray (Robert Mitchum): "You know, the changes in those balloons threw me. Just think, a bunch of guys sweating all day in a sub down in Tokyo Bay, guys just like us, sneaking up at night to radio balloon positions..." The existence of such a submarine is not part of the participants' or historians' accounts of the raid. The Doolittle Raiders [7] detailed description of the raid states that the barrage balloons seen on the raid were a negligible threat. There were many other possible intelligence sources for information given out at the briefings.
The model of the Copperfin used for filming was based on actual American submarines, except that, to confuse the Japanese, it was given equipment and apparatus that were used on numerous different types of subs. [8] The film was accurate enough to be used by the Navy as a training tool for submariners. [4]
The incident in Destination Tokyo in which the pharmacist's mate performs an appendectomy was based on an actual event which took place on the submarine USS Seadragon. [8]
Some filming of Destination Tokyo took place at Portuguese Bend on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. [8]
For Destination Tokyo, Warner Bros. borrowed Cary Grant from Columbia Pictures in a swap which sent Humphrey Bogart to Columbia to make Sahara . [9] Grant had turned down the role that Bogart eventually played, and Gary Cooper had turned down the role of the captain of the Copperfin that Grant played. [4]
Destination Tokyo premiered in Pittsburgh on December 15, 1943 as a benefit for crippled children. [8] According to Warner Bros. records, it earned $3,237,000 domestically and $1,307,000 internationally. [2]
The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther wrote:
It has a lot of exciting incident in it; some slick, manly performances are turned in by Cary Grant (as the commander), John Garfield, Alan Hale and Dane Clark. But an essential rule of visual drama, which is to put within a frame only so much explicit action as can be realistically accepted in a space of time, is here completely violated. The Warners have a big but too extravagant action film. [10]
In contrast, the review in Variety magazine, was effusive in its praise:
'Destination Tokyo' runs two hours and 15 minutes, and that's a lot of film. But none of it is wasted. In its unspooling is crammed enough excitement for possibly a couple of pictures. Here is a film whose hero is the Stars and Stripes; the performers are merely symbols of that heroism. Here is a film of superbly pooled talents. [11]
Screenwriter Steve Fisher received an Academy Award nomination for his original story for Destination Tokyo. [8]
Inspired by Grant's role, a 17-year-old Tony Curtis forged his mother's signature to enlist in the United States Navy in 1943. [13] Requesting submarine duty, he instead served aboard a submarine tender, USS Proteus. Later, as a top Hollywood talent, he co-starred with Grant as submariners in the 1959 World War II comedy Operation Petticoat , with Grant commanding the fictional USS Sea Tiger.
When the crew of a World War II-submarine in the 1951 movie Operation Pacific is given the treat of watching a movie, Destination Tokyo is screened. Footage from this film was reused in the 1959 film Submarine Seahawk .
According to his autobiography, Destination Tokyo influenced Ronald Reagan in his decision to accept the lead role of a World War II submarine captain in the 1957 movie Hellcats of the Navy . [14] [N 1]
Pearl Harbor is a 2001 American romantic war drama film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Randall Wallace. Starring Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Colm Feore, and Alec Baldwin, the film features a heavily fictionalized version of the attack on Pearl Harbor, focusing on a love story set amidst the lead up to the attack, its aftermath, and the Doolittle Raid.
The Doolittle Raid, also known as Doolittle's Raid, as well as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japanese archipelago. Although the raid caused comparatively minor damage, it demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attacks. It served as an initial retaliation for the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was named after Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who planned and led the attack. It was one of six American carrier raids against Japan and Japanese-held territories conducted in the first half of 1942.
Hellcats of the Navy is a 1957 American black-and-white World War II submarine film drama from Columbia Pictures, produced by Charles H. Schneer and directed by Nathan Juran. The film stars Ronald Reagan and his wife, billed under her screen name Nancy Davis, and Arthur Franz. This was the only feature film in which the Reagans acted together, either before or after their 1952 marriage.
Richard Hetherington O'Kane was a United States Navy submarine commander in World War II, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for commanding USS Tang in the Pacific War against Japan to the most successful record of any United States submarine ever. He also received three Navy Crosses and three Silver Stars, for a total of seven awards of the United States military's three highest decorations for valor in combat. Before commanding Tang, O'Kane served in the highly successful USS Wahoo as executive officer and approach officer under noted Commander Dudley "Mush" Morton. In his ten combat patrols, five in Wahoo and five commanding Tang, O'Kane participated in more successful attacks on Japanese shipping than any other submarine officer during the war.
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The submarine film is a subgenre of war film in which most of the plot revolves around a submarine below the ocean's surface. Films of this subgenre typically focus on a small but determined crew of submariners battling against enemy submarines or submarine-hunter ships, or against other problems ranging from disputes amongst the crew, threats of mutiny, life-threatening mechanical breakdowns, or the daily difficulties of living on a submarine.
USS Razorback (SS-394), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named after the razorback, a species of whale found in the far southern reaches of the Pacific Ocean. She is arguably the longest-serving combat front-line submarine still existing in the world, having been commissioned by two different countries for 56 years of active duty. She was in Tokyo Bay during the surrender of Japan. In 2004, the state of Arkansas adopted the submarine and she is now a museum ship at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum.
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Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 American war film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo is based on the 1943 book of the same name by Captain Ted W. Lawson. Lawson was a pilot on the historic Doolittle Raid, America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan, four months after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid was planned, led by, and named after United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who was promoted two ranks, to Brigadier General, the day after the raid.
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