grendelkhan This was one of the early wartime films to come out of Hollywood. The battle for Wake Island was still relatively fresh in the minds of the public, and the film uses that to its advantage. Make no mistake, this is propaganda, not history. However, it does a very good job of illustrating the stakes involved for the defenders and a pretty fair assessment of what was in store for the duration.Brian Donlevy stars as the major who has been placed in command of the Marine detachment on Wake Island. When he arrives, he finds a rather blasé bunch, stuck on an island that seems to have no value, except as a waypoint for the Pan-Am Clippers. William Bendix is a Marine whose enlistment is nearly up and who dreams of going home. Robert Preston is his friend and frequent sparring partner. Albert Dekker is McCloskey, a civilian contractor who has a low opinion of the Marines. It is this group of disparate people who will face the Japanese assault.The film sets out from the beginning to set you up for heartbreak. We see Donlevy say goodbye to his family, as his daughter gives him a gift of a cigarette case. We also see a young pilot who also says goodbye to his wife. This being Hollywood, we know what will happen. Donlevy takes command and shapes up the base. These scenes are played for both comedy (those involving Bendix and Preston) and to foreshadow the need to work together (Donlevy and Dekker's sparring over authority over the civilians).The film spends about a third to half of its length establishing the characters, while giving you the overwhelming sense of impending doom, as we see the command welcome the Japanese envoy to Washington. Donlevy has a look of distrust through the entire scene, setting up the coming treachery. Then, the attack comes.The battle sequences are played for drama and action, but are filled with glaring errors, such as the appearance of biplanes corkscrewing downwards, after we see monoplane "Japanese" aircraft shot out of the sky. The ships are obvious model work, though they are never too glaring. The most ridiculous part is the advance of Japanese soldiers, who walk slowly, without firing their weapons, only to be mowed down by Marine machine gunners. Remember, this is propaganda and we have to show the heroic defenders getting their licks in. Slowly, but surely, the stakes become even more dire.All in all, this is a fine piece of drama, as long as you keep in mind that this is wartime propaganda, and remember that Hollywood didn't have access to film footage and equipment that later productions would. The actors do a fine job, even when the characters are somewhat clichéd. The story is fairly predictable, but exciting. Meanwhile, if you look closely, you will see many familiar faces in the film, including TV favorites Hugh Beaumont, Alan Hale Jr., and Chuck Connors. The movie is a decent look at the high stakes of the early stages of WW2.

MartinHafer Calling this movie a propaganda film is no insult--it was released very shortly after the actual fall of Wake Islan and was an effective way to put a face on these doomed defenders and energize the people at home in the war effort. Since it was completed so quickly, the exact details of the final doomed days of the soldiers was a bit murky so the studio filled in the gaps with fictionalized accounts of this struggle.The film begins just before December 7, 1941 and the island is in the process of being turned into a military base. Civilian engineers and soldiers cover the barren island and they are unaware that they were directly in harm's way. Soon, the troops on the island would face invasion and annihilation.As I said, the individual accounts of heroism were fictionalized through the creation of some characters such as those played by William Bendix and Robert Preston (who seem like an old married couple with their banter) as well Albert Dekker (who, as usual, plays a loudmouth patriot), Brian Donlevy and Macdonald Carey. The acting was very effective even though by today's standards some of the stories seem a bit clichéd--they were perfect for the time.While far from one of the very best war films made during WWII, it was better than average and is well worth a look. Excellent quality and a rousing script make for a very good film.A final note because I am an aviation nut. I hated one part of the film--the aerial scenes were often bad, as monoplanes (with a single wing) often magically became biplanes in mid-air (with two wings). While I could forgive them making Japanese planes that looked nothing like the real thing, having them change so radically in mid-flight was unforgivable. Did they think the audiences wouldn't notice?

ed-munley Have seen this excellent movie numerous times over the years but, as I recall, years ago there was a scene where the radio operator told the marine commander that Pearl Harbor wanted to know if they needed anything. The marine commander, Brian Donvely, said "yes, tell them to send more japs". That scene has been cut out of the movie for the last 25 years or so. I know that the scene was originally in the movie because I have read the book by Major James Devereaux (actual commander of the marine detachment published in 1947- I have the paperback. Devereaux said he had seen the movie after he came back from the Japanese prison camp where he spent the war and stated he had never made that statement, that they had all the japs they could handle. Comments from anyone?

verbusen OK I'm still going to give Wake Island a 7 of 10 which is it's average here on IMDb, but.... I just read what actually happened after the Marine garrison surrendered. Jay Hawk's review seems to have been as jaded as I am now watching this great propaganda war movie, reading about the 98 that were executed is a real downer. I also saw in the midst of the air battle scenes out of nowhere there are at least two clips of a 20's era biplane trailing smoke. What was up with that? Maybe a seaplane? but its got wheels so that won't fly. For a movie that looks like its trying to be somewhat realistic they sure did goof on that (but that may have been a Paramount thing like they always did in 3 stooges flicks, just throw together any stock airplane footage even if it's different planes!). Dunlevy I think is great, but he is pretty wooden I guess looking back on it as I've read about him in reviews of a lot of other movies. Also, these guys are just way too happy to be getting shelled, and pretty much surrounded right after Pearl Harbor and invasion of the Phillipnes, basically you are totally screwed and these guys aren't showing it. I guess thats why "Bataan" even though purely fiction is a superior film because they show a lot of stress under combat were as here we have Bendix and Preston smiling to their deaths. OK I'm changing my rating to a 5 because this is an entertaining flick the first 3 times I've seen it, it's just too happy for my tastes and Dunlevy is a stick (and I thought I liked that dude, lol). One things for sure, in real life, the defenders got screwed. They should have been evacuated by subs. Their tale in captivity is as sad as those that were captured on the Doolittle Raid, go look those brave guys tales up, I dare you.