Basically an unofficial sequel to the Pre-Bruckheimerish 'Bataan' from '43(Lloyd Nolan/Rod Taylor/Desi Arnez), this time showing John Wayne and Anthony Quinn leading an insurgency against the occupying Japanese forces 'til MacArthur could, indeed, return in '45. You have familiar faces ala Paul Fix, Lawrence Tierney and Buelah Bondy along for the ride, real POW's shown marching in front of the camera, and (of course) the usual studio gimmickry, bushes and oddly stagey handling of the combat scenes.
In short, a typical WWII era lower-budgeted war-movie. Wayne, Quinn, Bondi and co. are all fine, it's routinely handled but involving. You can certainly put 'They were expendable' w/ Duke and Robert Montgomery as a bookend for this, also in '45-set in the same time/place but bigger budgeted and frankly more believable.
You'll also see Phillip Ahn here, from 'Kung Fu' and whatever else, I should add.
*** outta ****, pretty decent.
In short, a typical WWII era lower-budgeted war-movie. Wayne, Quinn, Bondi and co. are all fine, it's routinely handled but involving. You can certainly put 'They were expendable' w/ Duke and Robert Montgomery as a bookend for this, also in '45-set in the same time/place but bigger budgeted and frankly more believable.
You'll also see Phillip Ahn here, from 'Kung Fu' and whatever else, I should add.
*** outta ****, pretty decent.