The Navy Comes Through

It's 1940. Navy Lieutenant Tom Sands (George Murphy) resigns his commission after a gun turret accident. He also breaks up with girlfriend Myra Mallory (Jane Wyatt). Her brother Chief Gunner's Mate Mike Mallory (Pat O'Brien) never liked him anyways. After Pearl Harbor, Myra becomes a nurse and Tom rejoins the Navy as an enlisted man. By chance, he joins an international crew on an old freighter under the command of Mike Mallory.

First, the inciting incident needs to be shown before he's put on trial. It needs to show his goodness being unfairly attacked. The movie needs a better setup. After that, it's a lot of coincidences and melodramatic turns. At least, it's a heroic melodrama which was probably what the audience was looking for during those dark times. Otherwise, the movie isn't that good. It does fit its times.

Before the Village People popularized the United States Navy with their song "In The Navy" this aquatic based branch of the armed forces was featured in many a Hollywood film during World War Two. "The Navy Comes Through" is one of those films and it features Pat O'Brien and George Murphy who are at odds with each other as they head out to sea as part of a gunnery crew to sink Nazi vessels. The overall theme to the film is a common one to WW II era war movies. A group of men with disparate backgrounds (in this case an Austrian-American, Ricky Ricardo, the ubiquitous guy from Brooklyn, and the boy who will become a man once he has seen some action) are thrown together to stick it to the Nazis. The idea is that America, the land of the melting- pot, can prevail over totalitarianism as long as everyone is willing to pull together. During the movie O'Brien's acting style is consistently blunt. The interior of the German subs are enormous. The action is well paced, and in the end the Navy really does comes through.

A Bit Below Average as these Propaganda Pictures Go. Pat O'Brien is a Stiff Actor and He Plays a Stiff here with an Ultra-Sombre Display of Deadpan. George Murphy Fairs Better and Manages to Bring Along Some Gravitas as a Former Naval Officer Court Martialed Before the War.

After Pearl Harbor He Re-Enlists as an Enlisted Man and has More Trials Convincing O'Brien He is a Worthy Salt and Deserving of His Respect and His Sister. Betty White is the Love Interest and the Sister, and Manages to Show Up at Sea so Things can be Set Straight.

It's Rather a Mess of Flag Waving and Stereotypes with Cartoon Characters, like the Brooklyn Boy who "Loves Dem Bums", and Ricky Ricardo, Before Lucy, as a Cuban Come Aboard for the Melting Pot Plot.

The Movie's Redeemed in the Final Act with some Rah-Rah Action and is Exciting, but Highly Inaccurate. Accuracy doesn't Mean a Hill of Beans in this Type of Formulaic Patriotism. These Movies were Made to Boost Morale and Get the Boys to Enlist and the Homefront on Board. If this One Succeeded More Power to it. Not Much of a Movie Though.

This pretty good propaganda programmer has officer George Murphy fouling up, being busted out and reenlisting as a common sailor, where he runs into Pat O'Brien and Jane Wyatt, Murphy's ex-fiancée and O'Brien's sister.

It's interesting to watch the two stock Irishmen play off of each other, each in their usual registers: Murphy easy-going and O'Brien in his bulldog mode. The story also takes some interesting and unexpected turns that raise it above the usual level of flag waving propaganda. Somehow a Viennese violist and Desi Arnaz wind up in the crew for some comic relief *and* plot purposes.

RKO's technical department, the equal of any in the business, came up with a new machine to simulate the effects of horizon on the sea. Looks pretty good.

Pat O'Brien and George Murphy play a couple of Navy guys with some bad history between them. When Murphy was an officer, O'Brien testified against him and got him busted out of the service. After Pearl Harbor Murphy enlists as an ordinary seaman and as it is in these films, he's assigned to O'Brien's gunnery crew. The two also have Jane Wyatt who is O'Brien's sister and who Murphy was going out with also as part of their history.

Which is assigned to a merchant marine ship to defend it from enemy attack. If you remember in Action In The North Atlantic such a Navy gun crew was assigned to Humphrey Bogart's and Raymond Massey's vessel in that film.

So far it's the normal run of World War II flag wavers, but after they're at sea, the plot goes totally off the charts. Jane Wyatt is a Navy nurse now and she's on the ship tending to the wounded. And a German speaking member of their crew gets a vital piece of information and has captain Ray Collins and O'Brien diverting the merchant vessel from its course on a mission all its own.

Other members of the cast and part of O'Brien's gun crew are eager kid Jackie Cooper, career Navy man Max Baer, Desi Arnaz who came up from Cuba to fight, Carl Esmond who was the German speaking man and a former musician, and Frank Jenks the obligatory guy from Brooklyn whose main concern is getting a radio transmission of the Dodgers game.

I can't go into the incredible ridiculousness of the plot except to say it involves our guys attempting to sabotage Admiral Doenitz's fleet of U=Boats all by themselves. You have to see it to believe it.

The Navy Comes Through with some interesting and colorful performances which is the main reason to see the film as well as some nice special effects from RKO which got an Academy Award nomination has not held up well over the years. Did the American movie-going public really buy this stuff even then?