Wayne shoulders the responsibility of sending pilots to their deaths fighting the Japanese over Guadalcanal; a fact of wartime life which chokes his softer second-in-command Robert Ryan. Director Nicholas Ray is best known for intense male melodramas like Rebel Without A Cause and In A Lonely Place, but he was working well within his powers here. Wayne and Ryan have some strong scenes together, none more so than when Wayne informs his officer he is to be passed over for promotion.

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