Americans don’t seem to celebrate defeats like Australians do – had Wake Island been Australian it would have been a national holiday. It’s kind of a shame because the saga of Wake Island is one of the most moving and inspirational of the war – a brave little garrison (and it was, even in a PC world) holding out against tremendous odds and giving the Japanese a bloody nose. The Yanks seemed to do far better in the first few months of the Pacific War than we (and the British) did – or maybe that’s just the history books I’ve read.
There was a period when American cinema rejoiced in glorious defeat, when Wake Island and Bataan where popular films. This is an adaptation of the former, with Robert Preston and Brian Donlevy reprising their film roles and Broderick Crawford stepping in for William Bendix. Conflict is provided by some squabbling sergeants and civilians having trouble mixing with soldiers. It is run of the mill stuff I guess but has extra resonance because its based on a true story – this would have been more effective as an original rather than an adaptation of a movie.
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