30 Dec Wake Island
(1942) Although apparently not totally accurate in details, this was an emotional depiction of what happened at Wake Island right after Pearl Harbor. William Bendix stole the show.
Wake Island, WWII Movie starring Brian Donlevy and William Bendix
I find it very interesting to look up the New York Times review that was written at the time each movie originally aired. The movie Wake Island was released just eight months after the island was first attacked by the Japanese. When the NYT reviewer first saw the film, he was with two thousand Marines at Quantico who “cheered it with thunderous applause.”
Certainly everyone who watched the movie was close to someone who was in the thick of the war somewhere, or who soon would be.
I wonder if the Moms and Dads and wives cheered too. It would have been tough to watch, so soon afterward.
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