Gung Ho!

1943

1h 28m

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

YOUR RATING

Rate

POPULARITY

Play trailer

0 Videos

10 Images

Action

Adventure

Drama

War

A true-life epic that revolves around an exclusive bataillon of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, "Carlson's Raiders," whose assignment is to take control of a South Pacific island once possessed by the United States but now under Japanese command.

Directors

Ray Enright

Writers

W.S. LeFrançois(story by)

Lucien Hubbard(screenplay by)

Stars

Randolph Scott

Alan Curtis

Noah Beery Jr.

See production, box office & company info

Photos10

Top cast

Colonel Thorwald

John Harbison

Cpl. Kurt Richter

Lieutenant C.J. Cristoforos

Sam Levene

Leo 'Transport' Andreof

'Pig iron' Matthews

Lt Roland Browning

Larry O'Ryan

Capt. Dunphy

McBride

Rube Tedrow

Kathleen Corrigan

Cmdr. Blake

Kozzarowski

Frankie Montana

Directors

Ray Enright

Writers

W.S. LeFrançois(story by)

Lucien Hubbard(screenplay by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

6/10

With the USA still reeling from the bombing of Pearl Harbour, their military decides to set up a squad of highly trained soldiers to head deep into Japanese occupied territory to engage in some perilous sabotage activities. Led by the determined and experienced “Thorwald” (Randolph Scott), a squadron is formed - many of whom are civilians - from scratch and trained in all of the arts of jungle warfare before embarking to face an enemy whom they know will outnumber and outgun them, entrenched on a pacific island. The dramatic elements here aren’t really anything special, not was Scott ever especially potent on screen, I think. What does make this a little more interesting is the provenance of the story - a variation of this platoon really did exist, and the battle photography towards the end really does illustrate how downright dangerous their task was and at how merciless their foe was in attempting to repel their attack. There are maybe just a few too many rousing battle cry speeches that are intended more for the auditorium than anyone on set, but there is also quite a degree of authenticity to the assembly of familiar faces representing so many of the men whose reasons for volunteering for this mission are as varied as their characters. Sure, it’s borderline wartime propaganda, but Ray Enright has managed to marry the patriotic message with an action adventure that’s busy, reasonably well put together and quite exciting without being overly jingoistic.

Geronimo196727 Mar, 2025