Battle of the Coral Sea

Overview

The preparation for the Battle of the Coral Sea is the basis of this wartime drama. A submarine captained by Jeff Conway (Cliff Robertson) successfully scouts the location of enemy installations, ships, and subs and then starts to head back to friendly waters. Before chugging very far in that direction, the submarine is spotted and captured by the Japanese. The crew members are taken prisoner by an even-handed Commander Mori (Teru Shimada) and held on the Japanese forces' island base. While chaffing under a ticking clock as the day of the final confrontation draws near, an island woman is secretly enlisted to help smuggle out three of the prisoners. If they can make it off the island to their own base, then the all-important information on the Japanese positions will tip the scales in favor of the U.S. Navy.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/16/2010
UPC:	0043396355491
Original Release:	1959
Rating:	NR
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Sales rank:	38,310

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Cliff Robertson	Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Conway
Gia Scala	Karen Philips
Teru Shimada	Comm. Mori
Patricia Cutts	Lt. Peg Whitcomb
Rian Garrick	Al Schechter
Gene Blakely	Lt. Len Ross
L.Q. Jones	Yeoman Halliday,Torpedoman Bates
Robin Hughes	Maj. Jammy Harris
Tom Laughlin	Ens. Franklin
Eiji Yamashiro	Oshikawa
James T. Goto	Capt. Yamazaki
K.L. Smith	CPO Connors
Carlyle Mitchell	Adm. McCabe
Larry Thor	Army Major
Patrick Westwood	Simes
Phillip Adams	Crewman
Tom Anthony	Helmsman
Barry Cahill	Bomber Pilot
James T. Callahan	Australian Prisoner
Pat Colby	Sailor
James Forrest	Australian Prisoner
Dale Ishimoto	Japanese Guard
Paul Mantee	Bomber Co-Pilot
Robert Kino	Lt. Nagano
Rollin Moriyama	Japanese Guard
Bob Okazaki	Japanese Guard
Robin Riley	Seaman Willies
Dan Riss	Naval Officer
Roy Taguchi	Japanese Officer
George Takei	Japanese Radio Officer
Russell Thorson	Adm. Gibney
James Yagi	Japanese Officer
John Zaremba	Air Admiral
Jon-Mikl Thor	Army Major
Ernest Gold	Composer

Technical Credits

Daniel B. Ullman

Stephen Kandel

Paul Wendkos	Director
Daniel B. Ullman	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Charles H. Schneer	Producer
Stephen Kandel	Screenwriter
Harry Mills	Sound Effects
John P. Livadary	Sound Effects
William Hamilton	Sound Effects
Andy Payne	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

The combination of content and title in Battle of the Coral Sea might just have (and perhaps should have) provoked riots, or at least angry complaints to theater managements back in 1959 -- mostly because the event known to history as the Battle of the Coral Sea is barely mentioned anywhere, except at the beginning and end of the film, and hardly more than glimpsed, and even the two minutes of footage that purports to be action from that event is, at least, in part, drawn from other events and also from other (better) Hollywood movies. Otherwise, we get lots of talk and small-scale action in this picture, involving submarine commander Cliff Robertson and a mission to scout enemy forces in the area where the battle of the title was to take place. He gets the information, but is also captured along with a handful of his surviving crew and put into one of the most comparatively humane Japanese POW camps ever seen in a US film. And though one very likable supporting character is brutally murdered against the orders of the commandant, it all still looks like a very nasty summer camp compared to what we saw in, say, Bridge On The River Kwai etc. Discussing plot details, or even any virtues in the acting or much else about the picture is pointless in so patently ridiculous a story, which only gets worse as it progresses, with the prisoners -- including a female Australian nurse interned with male prisoners . . . -- making a daring escape, to a kind of cliffhanger denouement that stretches credibility to the breaking point one last time. Director Edward L. Cahn was an expert at making minor classics out of very little and even something out of nothing, but here the script gave him less than that to work with -- just one or two good actors and a bunch of others trying to earn a paycheck and a chance at something better -- and the end result is a movie that must have been an embarrassment to all concerned at the time. It's difficult to imagine that even drive-in audiences wouldn't have felt cheated by the promise of the title against what was delivered, and any actual navy veterans might even have been offended. What's left today can only elicit unappreciative laughter of the worst kind, and a grotesque example of bad studio product near its nadir.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder