Wake Island

Wake Island (1942)

Leathernecks... writing another glorious chapter of purposeful courage in America's history!

In late 1941, with no hope of relief or re-supply, a small band of United States Marines tries to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island base.

Date of release
1942-08-11
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (29)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
War, Action, Drama
Director
John Farrow

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: California and San Diego
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 4. Including: National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Wake Island is a 1942 American action drama war film directed by John Farrow, written by W. R. Burnett and Frank Butler, and starring Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Barbara Britton, and William Bendix. The film tells the story of the United States military garrison on Wake Island and the onslaught by the Japanese following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Production

The film was based on official Marine records. A copy of the script by W. R. Burnett and Frank Butler was sent to the Marine Corps for approval prior to filming.

Director John Farrow had recently returned to Hollywood after being invalided out of the Canadian Navy. He was signed to make the film by Buddy DeSylva of Paramount, who liked Farrow's 1939 film Five Came Back. Farrow had visited Wake Island during his pre-Hollywood sailing days.

Filming started 23 March 1942. Most of the Japanese were played by Filipinos.

A special weapons detail of selected Marines from Camp Elliott, near San Diego, manned machine guns in land battle scenes. Marine crews were also used as extras and to operate equipment.

Three main locations were used. Most exteriors were shot in the Salton Sea in the California desert; filming took place here for three weeks at Sandy Beach which resembled Wake Island. The aerial battles were filmed at the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The big guns were fired at a coastal firing range near San Diego.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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