Minesweeper

Although this is an old in-theater movie, not television, this is the kind of thing Frank Loyd Wright had in mind when he said "television is chewing gum for the eyes."

If you're looking for a captivating war movie watch Twelve O'Clock High. This movie is exactly what it was intended to be: a short movie before the main feature back in the days when there were news reels, cartoons, and "warm-up movies" before the main feature showcased box office stars of the day.

I won't bother restating the plot, plenty of other people have summarized that. I'll simply say was a fine way to kill an hour on a lazy Sunday morning.

PS-Another entertainingly corny performance by well-known character-actor Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

"Minesweeper" is a somewhat melodramatic but interesting World War II drama that has a pretty good story and that also takes a look at one of the less familiar aspects of the war. There are also some moments of real suspense and tension. The print that aired recently was unfortunately not very good, so viewing it involves accepting some distractions, but it has a number of points of interest to compensate.

Richard Arlen stars as a naval officer who had deserted a few years before the war, but who finds himself drawn back to the Navy when the war breaks out. Helped by a friendly family, he assumes a new identity and re-enlists under his new name. Throughout the action that follows, he is faced with numerous dangerous missions, while also living in constant fear that his true identity will be discovered. He also finds himself involved in romantic complications. It all builds up to a climactic sequence of events that, while rather melodramatic, is action-packed and rather surprising.

Arlen's ship is a minesweeper, and the film incorporates some interesting details on the job that such ships had to do in keeping shipping lanes and harbors free of mines. The hazards involved also lead to some rather tense moments of drama.

The movie is not too long, and moves fairly quickly. It should hold some interest for most fans of old war movies.

Minesweeper is a product of the Paramount B picture unit where producers William Pine and William Thomas did things on an Assembly line basis to provide second features for Paramount's big budget items like the films Cecil B. DeMille did. They got the best training because William Pine served as an associate producer with DeMille for years before branching out on his own.

A cursory list of their credits show that their early films either starred Richard Arlen, Chester Morris or both. Minesweeper stars Arlen as a former Navy officer who deserted because of a gambling problem and who comes back to enlist under an alias as a seaman when World War II breaks out.

Arlen and Russell Hayden have a friendly rivalry for Jean Parker who is the niece of CPO Guinn Williams who lives with Parker and her mother/his sister Emma Dunn. Both Arlen and Hayden get assigned to, what else, duty on a Minesweeper.

Discovering this film was a bit of a revelation since the only well known film dealing with a minesweeper is The Caine Mutiny. But the action in that film takes place years into World War II when the USS Caine was sweeping mines away from landing areas. This minesweeper is dealing with them right outside San Diego harbor.

Arlen enlists in the navy to redeem himself and as this is a B film about a romantic triangle I think you can figure out how this will end.

Robert Mitchum has a tiny bit in this film and Mitchum completists might want to check this out. As it is Minesweeper is a curiosity flag waving film of the times.

Early B-movie WWII movies were foten hard to watch and not worth the time. Having said that, they do give our historical view of what everyone was thinking at the beginning of the WWII.

Notable as it was one of the only U. S. Naval movies about minesweepers, but it didn't go over much of the detail of daily naval duties. The diving was interesting but not much detail either.

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.