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First To Fight

1967, Movie, NR, 97 mins

First To Fight: Review

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Action packed WW II film has Everett as a tough-as-nails Marine, "Shanghai Jack" Connell, whose position on Guadacanal is almost overrun by swarms of Japanese until Everett gets behind a machinegun. He mows down the phalanxes of Japanese for which he wins the Congressional Medal of Honor. Returned to the U.S. to promote the sale of war bonds, he meets, falls in love, and marries Devin. She at first resists him, frightened of committing herself to another serviceman after her fiance has been killed in the war. The couple settle down on a Marine base. She gets pregnant, and he trains recruits, but he is haunted by the thought that he is shirking his duties, that he should rejoin his buddies on the battlefield in the Pacific. Sent to a front-line company as an officer, he finds he cannot take command and suspects that he has lost his nerve. Hackman, a loud-mouth sergeant, goads him into taking command, and he again proves himself heroic. Everett is good in his stoic role, and Devin is believable as the reluctant wife. Jagger, as Everett's commander, is outstanding, as is the impressive cinematography by Wellman and Steiner's moving score which includes the "As Time Goes By" theme song from CASABLANCA (1942). Character actor Conrad produced this film at the height of the Vietnam War, no doubt thinking it would instill a patriotic fervor in recruits for that hopeless conflict. Shot largely at Camp Pendleton at Oceanside, California, some battle scenes were filmed in the San Fernando Valley. leave a comment
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