The Gallant Hours

Helped in fact by an astonishing physical resemblance to Admiral William F. Halsey that audiences today can't appreciate, James Cagney in his next to last film before retirement makes a very believable and strained Bull Halsey recollecting those harrowing weeks during the seesaw battle for Guadalcanal.

If one is looking for battle scenes and lots of blood and gore skip this film. If one however would like to see a study about the strain of command than this film is ideal. Cagney drops all of the mannerisms that we normally associate with him in playing Admiral Halsey. It's a restrained and mature performance.

The Gallant Hours is also a tribute to the men of our fighting forces in the Pacific who took and held on to the key island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons and halted the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations.

Director Robert Montgomery did the film in documentary style and at times you feel like you're in the brain of Admiral Halsey, weighing each decision he makes with him. The familiar voice you hear narrating is that of Montgomery who was no longer acting and now was mostly concerned with production and with political work for the Republican National Committee.

The Gallant Hours is a fine character study of one of America's greatest naval heroes and should not be missed.

Robert Montgomery directs this brief, but informative study of Adm. William F. 'Bull' Halsey Jr. in the Pacific during WWII. James Cagney is super as the highly decorated and revered Fleet Commander. Stoic, stern, confident and compassionate...Cagney in one of his best film performances.

Supporting cast is a mix of veteran actors and younger stars: Walter Sande, Les Tremayne, Dennis Weaver, Richard Jaeckel, James Yagi, Robert Burton and Ward Costello.

Straightforward black and white World War II battlefield biography about U.S. Navy Admiral William F. 'Bull' Halsey with zero combat scenes makes it a rough going 116 minutes despite an outstanding James Cagney as Halsey. Dennis "Chester" Weaver—minus his limp from "Gunsmoke"--played his aide. Warning: if you watch this respectable war film, prepare yourself for a male chorus cooing behind the scenes in reverence. After the first 10 minutes, that cooing gets pretty thick. Director Robert Montgomery, who fought in World War II in the European Theater of Operations, reenacts everything in a semi-documentary style and adds to the film's overall sense of credibility. Nevertheless, this Hollywood epic ought to be a regular film on the History Channel because it doesn't deviate from the facts.

This film is a leadership tutorial masterpiece. As a substitute high school math and science teacher, I have run this to conduct leadership laboratories. Additionally, the theme composition that opens the film is marvelous. I have tried to reconstruct the lyrics (had trouble understanding last verse lyrics) so that I could present the composition for adoption by the U. S. Naval Academy Mens' Chorus. Any help along these lines would be appreciated. I have attempted to locate survivors of Ward Costello, its composer, without success...for any necessary permission.

The most memorable scene is between Halsey (Cagney) and the candidate of air group commander (Richard Jaekel), when Jaekel says, "I thought I was alone." Cagney replies, "You were and you always will be."

This is a surprisingly engaging war film, considering there are no action scenes. The movie is well-acted, although Dennis Weaver's "Chester" accent is a bit over-the-top. Cagney is superb as Admiral Halsey, in my opinion his best role ever. His understated pain in ordering only a 'routine' search for his missing son is beautiful, and the heart-to-heart with Roy Webb over the day's combat losses is a textbook lesson in the responsibilities of command. The use of the off-screen narrator in lieu of subtitles to present the Japanese side of the issue is tremendously effective; one wishes it had been used in other films as well. Although there are no combat scenes in the movie, the suspense is palpable as the command staff lives the battle through the air-to-air and ship-to-ship transmissions of men fighting for their lives.

For the war movie or history buff, or the die-hard Cagney fan, this is a fine movie!