Quite good, unexpectedly grim Pine Thomas war flick which focuses, like many PT movies, on a job not really well covered in movies - here, minesweeping.
The story is quite strong - Richard Arlen is a hobo who was a naval officer but went AWOL because of his gambling. After Pearl Harbour he enlists under a pseudonym. I thought this would be a straight forward tale of redemption but it gets dark because Arlen's gambling causes him to stuff up again leading to the death of friend "Big Boy" Williams - Arlen then is guilt riddled and heroically sacrifices himself looking for mines.
Jean Parker is good as always as the girl Arlen loves (I've become a big admirer of Parker) although the script doesn't give her much to do. Maxwell Shane usually gave the female leads something decent to play but here she basically serves food.
Russell Hayden is a bit wet as Arlen's rival but it's a decent entry - there's some documentary style backgrounds which help.
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