Minesweeper

Perhaps my score of 4 is a bit generous. All I know is that this isn't the sort of film I'd heartily recommend, as it's pretty dull and pretty cheap.

The film begins with Richard Arlen traveling the rails. He's a hobo with a secret--and a very patriotic hobo at that. It's just after Pearl Harbor and Arlen has a fight with his fellow 'bos about the war and volunteering. Soon, Arlen meets up with Guinn Williams (in one of his better roles) and the two go off to volunteer with the US Navy. Williams was a retired navy man and Arlen seems to have some knowledge of the navy BUT he also has a secret. What it is and why he's posing as someone else is something you'll have to see for yourself---if you care.

The film is only occasionally entertaining, but to me finding out Arlen's secret wasn't worth time I invested in this WWII propaganda film. Aside from Williams' nice part, the rest of the cast just seemed pretty dull and the story was, at best, lackluster--showing the earmarks of a B-movie produced by a third-rate studio.

This is the story of a man who tries to make amends for past misdeeds in the service by reenlisting under another name, and whose experience in the service gives him an edge in the disarming of water mines.

It is a well written story, with interesting characters all around, including the minor ones. Everything is very believable, not just by film standards, but by normal standards.

However, I gave this only a ranking of 6, which is still above average, because for me it was painful viewing. It is not because of a bad story, but because it shows the pain involved with gambling addiction in a true light, which means it will be difficult to watch. This is still quality work, and if you aren't afraid of the pain, this may be the film for you.

One might think a movie entitled "Minesweeper" would be a war film, but instead its billed as an action, adventure and comedy film. It does have those elements, to the extent that it is quite a mixed bag. But, of course it is a war movie, because it's all about Navy men who serve on a minesweeper at one of the California coastal port cities during World War II. It's most likely San Diego or Long Beach from which convoys sailed to the Pacific theater.

One reason it may not have been played up as a war film, right in the middle of war, was because it wasn't the type of war duty most people imagined or associated with war time. And, the film itself, with its milieu, doesn't seem to have the feel of a war film. Reflecting on this, it occurred to me that not many men or women in wartime service were able to stay at and go home to mom's house for home-cooked meals.

Most sailors were either at sea or based at a foreign port sailing on combat missions. Most Army and Marine GIs were either on the ground in combat units or in command and supply posts supporting them. Most Army Air Corps members were assigned at European or Pacific bases and commands that were flying combat or bombing missions. These countless numbers of military people were far from their homes.

Aside from that, this film is a modest look at a small service of the Navy that was important for keeping American ports open and protecting convoys and Navy ships from mines. But, this clearly is a B movie. It was one of just 80 films made by Pine-Thomas Productions between 1940 And 1957. It was filmed at Catalina Island and the Paramount studios. The film quality and production values are second-tier, and the screenplay and story are just so-so.

Richard Arlen stars as Richard Houston, under an alias of Jim Smith. Arlen was about midway in his career. After starting with some promise as a leading man in silent films, when sound came on and a crop of handsome and talented new actors began appearing in the early 1930s, Arlen was increasingly relegated to B films. I've seen a couple in which his is quite good, but in this film he seems flat and dull. Some of the cast are good and others seem wooden. The best performance is by Guinn Williams who plays 'Fixit' Smith. This is one of the meatier roles this long-time supporting player had in the more than 220 films he made.

Look for Robert Mitchum in an uncredited role. He plays Seaman Chuck Ryan who rows a boat out to a mine so that another seaman can cut it loose from being tangled in their minesweepers tow. The mine blows up and Mitchum's scene is a wrap.

Probably the only people who will like this film will be military veterans and those interested in all aspects of war in movies.

The version I saw on TV was very dark, even with exterior scenes or were they also shot in the studio? And with poor sound so either a poor copy, many around it seems, or the film has degraded over the many years.

Not as good as expected as we could have done with seeing more of the training and more mine sweeping work. There was no explanation as to how the sweeping was actually organised, a serrated cable between two boats? This film probably did the job at the time as a flag waver and it would have been an acceptable offering in 1943.

One of the poorer film made during the war as a morale booster.

From the man that would have brought you the Navy Way came a film that, towards the end of the second world war, seemed determined to get those young men in army or navy uniforms to fight for their countries.

So, the story of a deserting Navy captain with a gambling problem who decides to join the troops again, even as a lowly minesweeper and seaman, is perfectly politically correct for the blossoming of the US involvement in the world's biggest monetary conflict to date a.k.a. WWII.

It's obnoxious. The storyline is predictable. The characters are caricatured. People, including myself, are always ready to shoot on Micael Bay's awful Pearl Harbour, but that is nothing more than a film like Minesweeper with a much bigger budget. In the end, it's all about God, country, killing those Japs, and if you die, you die a hero, and everyone is proud of you, cos you were a good kid.

But what can you do? The film isn't laughable, and it's made in a straight forward way that means no harm. As a product of its times and indoctrinations, it can be forgiven, but as a poor film, it cannot.