The Gallant Hours

The Gallant Hours (1960)

They Called Him the Bull of the Pacific...His Name Was Halsey..But the Enemy Spelled it Hell!

A semi-documentary dramatization of five weeks in the life of Vice Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey, Jr., from his assignment to command the U.S. naval operations in the South Pacific to the Allied victory at Guadalcanal.

Date of release
1960-06-13
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (19)
Runtime
1h 55m
Genres
Drama, War
Director
Robert Montgomery

Casting

Interesting facts

The Gallant Hours is a 1960 American docudrama about William F. Halsey, Jr. and his efforts in fighting against Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Guadalcanal campaign of World War II.

Production

Director Robert Montgomery had served under Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., as a Commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and he came up with the idea of making a film about Halsey when he attended the 75th birthday celebration honoring the Admiral in 1957.

Under his contract agreement with Cagney-Montgomery Productions, Admiral Halsey would receive 10 percent of the profits from the motion picture. During a visit with his son, William F. Halsey III, in La Jolla, California, Admiral Halsey went to Camp Pendleton where The Gallant Hours was being filmed (pictured). William F. Halsey III later remarked that he was startled at how much James Cagney looked like his father did during World War II.

The voiceover narration technique Montgomery used was similar to what he had done in Lady in the Lake, although in that case the narration was in the first person. What is striking about the narrative in The Gallant Hours is the degree of detail provided to introduce both main and minor characters to the audience, even sometimes indicating the manner of their death in the near future.

For James Cagney, The Gallant Hours was "a labor of love, a tribute to that wonderful man Admiral William F. 'Bull' Halsey" for himself and his friend Robert Montgomery. Cagney praised Montgomery because he "steered away from big battle scenes and roaring guns. We concentrated on Halsey himself, trying to convey some of the tension of high command" in the film.

The Gallant Hours was filmed in black & white at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in the spring of 1959, with some exterior scenes shot in San Diego. The film employed a new construction technique to make the interior battleship shots easier to move and light: the walls of sets were hung from overhead grids to enable them to swing in and out as needed. Working titles for the film were "Bull Halsey" and "The Admiral Halsey Story".

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