William Manchester was an award winning novelist, reporter, historian, biographer, and friend of John F. Kennedy. His account of his experiences in combat on Okinawa are among the most vivid ever published. And this is the movie that prompted him to enlist in the Marine Corps during World War II.Manchester was impressed, he says, by the same elements of the movie that I say will impress the ordinary viewer of today. Marine Corps boot camp is a lot of fun with plenty of jocular fellows to play grabass with. Your Drill Instructor looks like Randolph Scott. He's stern and crusty on the outside, but underneath that he's a concerned and devoted friend. (Underneath THAT he's a real mean son of a gun.) You get to wear snappy uniforms and after boot camp, why it's nothing but dress blues. Your training takes place in the impeccably kempt Camp Pendleton under the blazing blue skies of San Diego. Once you finish boot camp you go to Sea School and get to take a sea-going vacation aboard a battleship. Oh, there's always Randolph Scott around to say things like, "Step to it, men," but the tone is always avuncular.On top of that, you -- a mere enlisted man -- get to make out with the stunning Maureen O'Hara, who was about twenty years old at the time. She's a lieutenant and you're supposed to do no more than salute her but nobody pays attention to these silly rules. It's all photographed in gorgeous Technicolor and you know what? Maureen O'Hara is a drop-dead hottie even without flaming red hair.Man, is John Payne lucky. Well, maybe not THAT lucky. He was supposed to wind up happily married to O'Hara, both devoted to a peaceful military routine, but half-way through the shoot, the plot was interrupted by some uncommonly rude Japanese who attacked us at Pearl Harbor. Poor Zanuck, the producer, had to stick on a brief prologue about "the current conflict" and change the ending so that Payne, Scott, O'Hara, and all the boys climb aboard a troop transport for the Pacific, enthusiastically singing the Marine Corps hymn accompanied by a marching band. What a fantasy.Want to see what happened to William Manchester? Read his awesome memoir: "Good-bye, Darkness."

The plot of "To the Shores of Tripoli" is very, very similar to the very popular "Buck Privates" starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. But, unlike this film from the year before, "To the Shores of Tripoli" is not meant to be a comedy. Like the earlier film, this one starts with an obnoxious and self-assured brat of a man (John Payne) walking into the Marine base--assuming because of his connections that he will be accorded special privileges. But, like the other film, his father goes behind his back and insists that his son needs character building and NO exceptions or special favors should be granted to him. And, like "Buck Privates", the brat manages to make a nuisance of himself until, ultimately, he finds redemption. In the interim, he relentlessly chases a pretty nurse (Maureen O'Hara), tangles repeatedly with his Sergeant and makes a few friends--then alienates them with his boorish attitude.Overall, the film looks great. It's filmed in full color--the sort of intense 1940s color that doesn't quite look real, but is better in some ways than real life! The acting is excellent (with Payne, O'Hara and Randolph Scott) and there is a nice group of actors who play the recruits such as Harry Morgan (in his first film), "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom and William Tracy (famous for his Sergeant Doubleday films with Hal Roach). As for the story, it's very predictable and formulaic throughout, but it's well-made formula! Mindless but very enjoyable wartime propaganda that must have done a lot to bolster the public behind the war effort.

To the Shores of Tripoli is the kind of movie that I generally don't care for. The title may conjure images of Marines fighting and dying on some foreign shore, but you won't find that here. Instead you'll find a flag-waving recruitment film that makes Marine basic training look like a trip to summer camp. The movie makes it seem that the entire eight week training is made up of little more than marching and doing drills in a parking lot. And when these guys aren't in the parking lot, they're pulling pranks and wooing nurses they've been told to leave alone. Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates has more in the way of military realism than To the Shores of Tripoli.Yet despite all its shortcomings, forced patriotism, and light as air plot, I enjoyed To the Shores of Tripoli. I was somehow able to put my brain on hold and go along for the ride. It's harmless, good-natured fun. Most of my enjoyment probably comes from the three main leads. John Payne, Maureen O'Hara, and Randolph Scott do a solid job with what they're given to work with. Much of the comedy works, particularly the hospital scene where Payne fakes an injury to be near O'Hara. And, To the Shores of Tripoli has an innocence to it that you don't find in movies anymore that I find appealing.

PEARL HARBOR seems to have borrowed elements of its plotline from TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI--only this time the cocky hero with plenty of attitude is JOHN PAYNE and the Navy nurse he falls in love with is MAUREEN O'HARA. The scene where she gets even with him in the dispensary is reminiscent of the much more graphic event in PEARL HARBOR's early courtship scene.Anyway, as patriotic flag-waving recruitment films go, this one is typical of what the public clamored for during World War II. I'm sure the stirring drill scenes and dress parade moments, combined with stirring soundtrack music, were geared to get marine enlistments into high gear. And maybe they succeeded.Having put in some military years at the San Diego Naval base, much of the background looks achingly familiar to me. All of the location scenes at the military base have the requisite real flavor while the story itself is the timeless cliche about the spoiled rich boy who is given the rough treatment by a sergeant who wants to turn him into a tough marine. Naturally the over confident military brat becomes a hero in time to rescue his sergeant during a mine sweeping operation--and in time to ensure a happy ending for his romance with nurse O'Hara.JOHN PAYNE is at his best as the cocky young marine, his left eyebrow getting its usual workout as he seeks to outmanouver everyone in his path. He also gets to show off his splendid physique in the scene where hot-tempered O'Hara plays a dirty trick on him. RANDOLPH SCOTT is excellent as the drill sergeant and others in the cast are up to par--including NANCY KELLY in a rather thankless assignment as "the other woman".MAUREEN O'HARA is stunning in technicolor but, as usual, has virtually little to do aside from looking gorgeous in a number of close-ups. Her role is typical of the many innocuous cardboard heroines she had to play in the '40s.Summing up: Nice marine recruitment film, if a bit obvious in its patriotism.