There is no on-screen action and the shots of vintage (and occasionally anachronistic) ships and planes are edited for clarity, not excitement. The Gallant Hours doesn’t satisfy some fans of war movies. To stop an armada of Japanese ships en route to reinforce the Phillipines, Halsey sends two inferior battle groups into action. This battle of wits, with Halsey having to make his decisions based on iffy Navy intelligence, leads to his most crucial decision. Goto, also the film’s Japanese advisor) is doing the same thing. Back in Japan, Admiral Yamamoto (James T. Halsey out-thinks the opposition by gambling on the fact that the Japanese have so far failed to follow through after initial successful attacks.
Halsey has to explain to a frustrated flight commander (Richard Jaeckel) why he needs to stay on the job despite feeling he’s a failure because he loses pilots. Touring battle zones, Halsey wins respect by staying out of local commanders’ hair, dropping formalities and getting on with the job.
Rather than dismiss the former commander’s top officer, a good organizer (Ward Costello), Halsey breaks the man of the habit of following rules rather than doing whatever’s necessary to win.
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He brings along several experts and aides (Vaughn Taylor, Les Tremaine, Karl Swenson) plus his personal pilot (Dennis Weaver) and his doctor (Walter Sande). (Cagney) is sent in to take over the command of the entire battle plan. When things get tough on Guadalcanal, William F. Much like Cagney’s Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Gallant Hours begins in the ‘present’ and flashes back to cover a five-week period that turned the course of the war in the Pacific. He and James Cagney formed a company to make the movie. He starred in and directed small parts of John Ford’s They Were Expendable, fifteen years before. Robert Montgomery had served under Halsey during the war. It’s a study of leadership and decision-making that could apply to anyone burdened with great responsibility.
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Instead, a perfectly cast James Cagney spends a full two hours in a narrow-focus drama about the war hero Admiral Bull Halsey. 1960’s The Gallant Hours is practically a minimalist work, as if Robert Bresson had decided to film Midway without on-screen battles.
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His final feature, a modestly budgeted war movie from United Artists, is also unusual, but in a different way. But he also directed a half-dozen movies starting with the eccentric films noirs Lady in the Lake and Ride the Pink Horse. Produced and Directed by Robert MontgomeryĪctor Robert Montgomery branched out after his wartime Naval service, eventually finding satisfaction as a TV producer. Goto, Carl Benton Reid, Selmer Jackson, Frank Latimore, Nelson Leigh, Herbert Lytton, Stuart Randall, William Schallert, Arthur Tovey, John Zaremba. Starring James Cagney, Dennis Weaver, Ward Costello, Vaughn Taylor, Richard Jaeckel, Les Tremayne, Walter Sande, Karl Swenson, Leon Lontoc, Robert Burton, Carleton Young, Raymond Bailey, Harry Landers, Richard Carlyle, James Yagi, James T. Street Date Ap/ available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 And that music! You’ll think the whole show is the memory of a soul in heaven.ġ960 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 115 min. James Cagney uses none of his standard personality mannerisms the result is something very affecting. Director Robert Montgomery’s last feature is a war movie like no other, a study in leadership and command with no combat scenes.
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