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Hellcats of the

Hellcats of the Navy on DVD

Ex-president Ronald Reagan stars as a real leader, a US Navy submarine captain, in this tale of WWII. His female co-star is Nancy Davis, who would become Nancy Reagan and, eventually, first lady of the United States.

It’s an interesting tale of submarine strategy and military intelligence gathering, with a healthy does of leadership issues sprinkled through it.

Reagan is Commander Casey Adams, captain of the U.S.S. Starfish. His ship is sent to bring back samples of Japanese mines so the navy can study them and learn how to beat them. Though the mission is successful, Adams is forced to abandon one of his men - who coincidentally (or is it?) is also the man who has taken up with his ex-girl Helen Blair (Davis). Since Japanese forces were bearing down on his ship, Adams was forced to make the decision based on “greater good” than the life of a single crewman.

This command decision to abandon a man sticks in the craw of Adam’s executive officer Lt. Commander Don Landon (Arthur Franz), who second guesses the decision partially based on his captain’s personal, non-professional “conflict of interest”. He’s even more upset when he learns that Adams had made a report that, while it gave him high marks for being a good officer, said he was unfit emotionally for command.

This sets the scene for most of the intra-character conflict in the movie.

On another mission, Adams sees an opportunity to score a major coup for his side and orders his ship to go beyond their mission in an attempt to find a passage through a minefield. They do, but the ship and most of its crew is lost.

Adams is exonerated by an enquiry board and given a new sub - and his same old second in command. This time, the ship gets snagged in wire and Adams is forced to go diving to fix it. But a Japanese ship is on their tail and, now in temporary command, Landon is forced to choose between the ship and the life of his captain.

Hellcats of the Navy is a pretty good flick, entertaining and with enough meat to keep your intellect ticking along at the same time. It’s a Charles H. Schneer production directed by Nathan Juran, both of whom also collaborated with the great Ray Harryhausen. The script is intelligent and, while the film will undoubtedly go down in history more because it’s the only teaming of Reagan and Davis, it’s worth seeing mostly for what it says about character, leadership, and the morality of command, qualities Mr. Reagan would again display in his later political life.

Speaking of Davis, she’s practically wasted here, only showing up briefly when the action heads to shore, but what can you do?

The DVD is pretty good. Columbia Tristar, as usual, has released it in a digitally mastered anamorphic widescreen edition, which is the way it should be. The 16x9 TV compatible black and white picture is pretty sharp and clean, with good contrast.

Audio is Dolby Digital mono.

Extras are limited to a selection of trailers.

Hellcats of the Navy, from Columbia Tristar Home Video
81 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital mono
Starring Ronald Reagan, Nancy Davis, Arthur Franz
Produced by Charles H. Schneer
Written by David Lang and Hans Christian Adamson, Colonel, USAF, Ret., directed by Nathan Juran

 

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