Jungle Patrol

War drama in the B-movie standard of a little more than one hour runtime, written from the unproduced play by William Bowers (Sing your way home) and directed by Joseph M. Newman (Northwest Rangers), who served as a US major in WW II, and featuring actors mainly from film noir background.

The action, "not a story of war but of men" in their cantonment, takes place during the fall of 1942 in a small US airstrip near Port Moresby, the capital of the Australian Territory of Papua. Here the major Skipper (Ross Ford, The Sign of the Ram) leads a squadron of 7 Air Force lieutenants: the leg-injured Mace (Arthur Franz in his first role, Sands of Iwo Jima), Louie (Mickey Knox, I Walk Alone), Ham (Tom Noonan, Riffraff), Dick (Richard Jaeckel, Guadalcanal Diary), Minor (Gene Reynolds, Eagle Squadron), Derby (Harry Lauter, Incident) and Johnny (William Murphy, The Story of G. I. Joe). They are taken care of by the sergeant Hanley (George Pat Collins, The Naked City).

So far, all being decorated aces, they have had a perfect hit, with more than one hundred Japanese planes shot down and no loss. But could their luck longs forever? Could death "takes a holiday" as in the former 1934 movie? A young war widow, Jean (Kristine Miller, Sorry Wrong Number), comes to entertain them, making them think of their faraway families or girlfriends. A romance begins to spring between Jean and Skipper, but as the Japanese fighters and bombers planes become more threatening in this "screwiest war", will the good luck of their squadron remains intact?

As the director worked in the communication corps, the fights are not directly shown but broadcast on the field radio tinkered by Louie. Between a little taunt against pacifism during this beginnings of the Cold War and a course of "flyingese" slang, the film pays tribute to the spirit of solidarity and sacrifice, "the spirit that has led to victory".

Another reviewer said that this was a film for the radio generation, a generation that did serve in World War II that got its entertainment from the radio, a generation that got the words and used its imagination. That is partially the case, but Jungle Patrol if you look at the credits is from a play and the sets do not betray the stage origins of the product. It bears a strong resemblance to Ceiling Zero from before the war and Command Decision which is post war.

When I wrote my review for Ceiling Zero I felt it was too stagy, that is not the same for Command Decision. But both of those films were A products from Warner Brothers and MGM respectively. 20th Century Fox did not invest too much in Jungle Patrol and it shows.

It's one of the weirdest war films I've ever seen. A squadron of Army Air Corps planes and their pilots and support have had an incredible run of luck. Like a whole squadron of Memphis Belles, no one has been killed and they've run up quite a score of downed Japanese.

They also get a surprise visit from a USO performer Kristine Miller who obliges with an impromptu show. More impromptu than normally as the rest of her troupe is delayed and grounded. The men are appreciative, but are somber bunch. This run of luck has to give out sometimes, the odds have to catch up.

Such people as Arthur Franz and Richard Jaeckel went on to some solid careers as did others in the cast. The lack of star names gives the film a grounding in reality. Had it a few more production values I might rate it higher. Still it is a strange and haunting film worth a look.

A squadron of 8 air fighters patrol New Guinea to prevent the Japanese from attacking Australia during WW2. They are based on the island and have seen many attacks. They have been phenomenally lucky with zero loss of life so far. Into this set-up arrives entertainer Kristine Miller (Jean) as part of a morale-boosting show. However, the rest of her entourage are grounded and never make it to the island, so she performs on her own. She gets close to the soldiers and is due to leave when another attack strikes.

The film is a drama where we follow the camaraderie of the small unit as they stress out each day with the situation that they are in. The arrival of Miller provides relief but she is also drawn into the circumstances. I enjoyed this short film - it stays with you. The fighting action is relayed over the radio as the planes are in the air and it is done effectively. We also get a broadcast from Tokyo Rose. Is death on holiday?

This starts out with a degree of promise. A group of war-weary soldiers are facing overwhelming odds as they try to defend a remote island airstrip from the invading Japanese. "Mace" (Arthur Franz) commands this group of brave men but sadly, for the plot, he soon becomes romantically embroiled with a visiting forces entertainer "Jean" (Kristine Miller) and at this point the score turns all violin-led and the plot deteriorates into a rather soppy melodrama that rather negates the courageous story that we started with. It was obviously made for domestic consumption to bolster post-war audiences, but somehow the lightweight cast and rather wordy dialogue drown out what action scenes there actually are, leaving us with some interesting audio descriptions of the dogfighting overhead - and they sound authentic enough - but with little else. It's decently enough produced, but is little better than a standard afternoon B-feature that passes the time all too slowly.

If you're looking for an action-packed, aerial-combat war movie, then "Jungle Patrol" won't fit your bill. But if you enjoy war flicks that delve into the characters so you can get to know the men in combat, this is a perfect fit. While this movie is bereft of any scenes of combat, it does give the feel of action in wartime. Two other reviewers have noted how it does this through radio relays between the pilots and the base. So, sans any props or scenes of a runway, planes, ground support, or actual combat, "Jungle Patrol" quite effectively gives the viewer a sense of the reality of being at war.

It is in that absence of all the usual settings and action in war films, that this movie excels. It has the time to do what most other films don't do. It gives us a good look at the individual characters. And it does that with ease – banter between the pilots, and talks between them and the USO entertainer who dropped in for a stay.

The acting is very good by the entire cast. Others have commented on the high scores of Japanese planes shot down by the group without a single American pilot loss. Some seem to think their somberness over boasting about that was due to superstition. But, we have seen such serious moments in any number of other films regarding celebration of victories over losses. Those were most often due to realization of the losses that already occurred as well as those that may happen in the future. That, and a sense of respect for the enemy in not celebrating the deaths of enemy pilots. It seems to me that the somberness in "Jungle Patrol" was along those lines – especially the realization that the next time out one or more of them may not be coming back. Anyway, that's another little plus about this film.

I obtained this film on a double feature DVD. The other movie is "The Silent Raiders." See my comments on it as well. But I want to note the Bonus feature that came with those two movies. "Combat Bulletin" was an 88-minute collage of actual combat footage filmed by the Army Pictorial Unit. It has narration and short film segments on 20 different battles of WW II in Europe and the Pacific. I had not seen this material in any of my historical documentary films before, so this is a real plus.