JohnHowardReid Producer: Jerry Wald. Copyright 1 January 1944 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 31 December 1943. U.S. release: 21 December 1943. Australian release: 8 March 1945. U.S. running time: 135 minutes. Australian length: 9,332 feet. 103½ minutes.SYNOPSIS: One U.S. submarine takes on the entire Japanese Navy in Tokyo Bay.NOTES: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Story, Steve Fisher lost to William Saroyan's The Human Comedy. Bosley Crowther included Destination Tokyo in his New York Times Ten Best Films of the Year.COMMENT: Disappointingly dated war heroics - over-talkative, embarrassingly clichéd, juvenilely characterized, tediously familiar hokum.Mind you, I thought it excellent when I first saw it on TV 25 years ago. In fact, I found it exciting enough to justify every minute of its length - and this of course was the full 135 minutes, being shown for the first time in my beck of the woods.I commended the incident-packed script, enacted by a capable cast under Daves' proficient direction. My only criticism concerned the obvious over-use of models in the studio tank. More money could have been spent on special effects.Alas, the screenplay that seemed fresh and exciting in my early youth, well before my army career, no longer interests me to-day. These service types with their cheery horseplay, their lowbrow minds and their one-dimensional loquacity are just so many tediously talking cut-outs with as much resemblance to real servicemen as a dog kennel to a Nissan hut. The materials may be the same and the resultant building may satisfy a dog (or a child) but an adult finds it lacking size, comfort and breadth.True, solid acting can often transform unintentional caricature into a believable dimension - but that doesn't happen in Destination Tokyo. Cary and his comrades are all eagerly heroic, but fail the test of life. As for John Garfield, he is dismayingly wasted in a role far below his charisma and ability.Daves' first film as a director - but the direction does not impress me now either. It's as dull and flat-footed as his script. The other credits are likewise lacking in luster.All I can say in the film's praise is that some of the incidents are still moderately exciting, there are a few snatches of believable dialogue (principally from Tom Tully) and the movie does have curiosity and nostalgia value.Just how much entertainment Destination Tokyo offers depends on how lenient or unsophisticated you're prepared to be. At least we are spared the two heroes fighting for the same girl story - or the one about the new commander the crew resents. But negatives do not necessarily make for positive excitement. So far as submarine pictures go, I much prefer John Ford's Submarine Patrol (1938) or John Farrow's Submarine Command (1951).

jacobs-greenwood Heretofore screenwriter Delmer Daves directed his first film, and assisted Albert Maltz with the screenplay of this Steve Fisher story about a submarine crew charged with infiltrating Tokyo bay in order to provide valuable information to the first Allied bombing mission of that city.There's an interesting reference to this real mission in a movie about that James Doolittle-led bombing mission, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), which was made by a different studio (MGM). Fisher's Original Story was Oscar nominated. Unusual casting and the human aspects of its personnel mark this above average (not P.C.) World War II (Warner Bros.) film.Cary Grant plays the decorated Captain of the sub, John Garfield plays its heroic gunner, Alan Hale its sentimental cook, Dane Clark a crewman with an ax to grind, and Robert Hutton its newest member "The Kid". William Prince plays the sub's "medical" staff, who's called upon to perform a miraculous operation when Hutton's character comes down with an appendicitis (based on a true story!).John Ridgely plays a Naval Officer who was raised in Japan, that's needed for the mission, and is picked up en-route. John Forsythe (who with Hutton was making his credited film debut) plays the radio operator who, along with Garfield and Ridgely, goes ashore in Japan under cover of darkness to fulfill the task at hand.

grantss Decent WW2 submarine drama. Decent plot, not based on a true story itself but based around an actual historic event, the Doolittle Raid. The structure, commands and regimens of a submarine crew seem quite authentic and sometimes give it a documentary feel.Can be a bit far-fetched at times though. Some episodes seem included just for glamour purposes, and, considering the movie was released in 1943, propaganda purposes.Decent action sequences.In keeping with the above point regarding propaganda, dialogue can also be overly bellicose and speech-like at times. Anything for a few war bonds...Solid performance by Cary Grant in the lead role. Good support all round.

John T. Ryan By the time of its release of Warner Brothers DESTINATION TOKYO (1943), it was coming across crystal clear; The Allies were in for a long, drawn out war. False notion of a an early end to War, simply because the United States was now involved were certainly cast into the figurative "circular file" of life.The underlying circumstances, although basically the same is in the First World War, were complicated by both the political and geographical situations of World War II. The combatants in the First Conflict were made up of nations that were ruled by a group of cousins, better known as the Royal Families of Europe. The Theatre of War were limited to The Western Front in Europe (France, 1914-1918), the Italian & Austro-Hungarian Front (1914-18) and the Middle East Consisting of the fighting against the Ottoman Turkish Empire by the British and the Arab Militias in Arabia and Palestine (the Holy Land, Israel). By contrast, World War II had military engagement of a truly Global Magnitude. Hence we had major Fronts in Europe (Both Eastern and Western), North Africa, the whole Atlantic via combat from the U Boats, Iran, the China-Burma-India Theatre of War, Southeast Asia in Viet-Nam and Burma, Indonesia and the Australian-New Zealand Theatre, The Island Warfare in Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian Island Groups; as well as the whole Pacific.With such an overwhelmingly immense a job to be done (literally do or die, no ifs ands or butts about it), the full and whole hearted support was needed from the entire Nation; and it's obvious that everyone did. From the Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen on the fronts to the industrial sector with its hard working corps of men and women; all pitched in and in going the extra mile, won the war.Hollywood sure did its part, as no one can deny. And with that, we are brought down to our subject at hand today.OUR STORY………In DESTINATION TOKYO we have a feature film which is at once a fine example of top Movie Entertainment, a concise statement of U.S. Policy, a stirring statement of the underlying, unique reasons of our being involved in European and Asian conflicts and an inspirational fictional version of events that have transpired previously. In short, it was at least in part, a propaganda piece par excellence.The ship has a super secret mission, which proves difficult to the veteran submarine crew. Being experienced fighting men, they fail to understand. Passing up the opportunity to sink some of the enemy Japanese shipping is an unthinkable deed to the crew, both officers and enlisted men. The thought surely though silently, must pass through their collective minds; could this Captain Cassidy (Cary Grant) be afraid of combat? Is he filled with cowardice or could it be those unknown orders that are behind his reserved behaviour.Finally the big moment comes and the cat gets let out of the bag. The crew finds out the news that they are on a special mission of reconnaissance; rather than combat. They were to get in close to the Japanese coastline, within Tokyo's port city of Yokohama harbor itself. From there, a landing party of two would go in to the beach property in order to check local topography of the land, weather conditions, tides, local conditions of all types.This seemingly insignificant mission, it turns out, is a necessary step in carrying out the later air raids over the Japanese home islands. This is the very same raid that we have come to know as "the Doolittle Raid." Once the mission has been completed with and the landing party has successfully returned to the sub, they begin their tedious, nerve wracking business of sneaking back out of the chain-link fence protected Tokyo harbor, the Captain proclaims; "The Job's done! Nothing says we can't fight now!" (Or some such) They did and must have sunk half of the Imperial Fleet, in a sort of reverse Pearl Harbor. We can just see the moviegoers rising to their feet and cheering at this scene.The ship returns safely to San Francisco, from which it had come. Cary's wife (Miss Faye Emerson) and family stand waiting on the pier! THE END.The journey across the wide Pacific gave the crew to interact and tell us all about themselves. As was the usual practice, Warner Brothers made sure that the crew was a mixture, sort of like a pound assortment of chocolates. Hence, we have guys from all over: New York, the South, Texas, the Dakotas and California. The excellent work of cast members like John Garfield, Alan Hale, Dane Clark, John Forsythe and Bill Kennedy sparkled.WE must concentrate on Tom Tully's work as the career man Petty Officer, Joe. Through his dialogues with others, as contrasted with the way he eventually pays the ultimate price, makes for an excellent back-drop for expressing what was the difference between our way of life in the U.S.A. and the life of those brought up under a Militarist Totalitarian System. At times, the speeches delivered by the Captain and others may seem to be have been a little much in the post World War II era.But once that one considers the events of 9/11, well………………..