The Fighting Seabees

Infobox Film
name = The Fighting Seabees


caption = theatrical poster
director = Edward Ludwig
producer = Albert J. Cohen
writer = Borden Chase
Aeneas MacKenzie
starring = John Wayne
Susan Hayward
Dennis O'Keefe
William Frawley
music = Walter Scharf
Roy Webb
cinematography = William Bradford
editing = Richard Van Enger
distributor = Republic Pictures
released = March 10, fy|1944
runtime = 100 minutes
country = FilmUS
language = English
budget =
gross =
imdb_id = 0036824

"The Fighting Seabees" is a fy|1944 war film starring John Wayne, Dennis O'Keefe and Susan Hayward. It portrays a heavily fictionalized account of the dilemma that led to the creation of the U.S. Navy's "Seabees" in World War II.

Plot

Wedge Donovan (John Wayne) is a tough construction boss, building airstrips in the Pacific for the US Navy during World War II. He clashes with his liaison officer, Lieutenant Commander Robert Yarrow (Dennis O'Keefe), over the fact that his men are not allowed to arm themselves against the Japanese. When the enemy lands in force on the island, he finally takes matters into his own hands, leading his men into the fray. Unfortunately, this prevents Yarrow from springing a carefully-devised trap that would have wiped out the invaders in a murderous machinegun crossfire, with minimal American losses. Instead, many of Donovan's men are killed unnecessarily.

As a result of this tragedy, Yarrow finally convinces the US Navy to form Construction Battalions (CBs, or the more familiar "Seabees") with Donovan's assistance, despite their mutual romantic interest in war correspondent Constance Chesley (Susan Hayward). Donovan and many of his men enlist and receive formal military training.

The two men are teamed together on yet another island. The Japanese launch a major attack, which the Seabees barely manage to hold off, sometimes using heavy construction machinery such as bulldozers and a clamshell bucket. When word reaches Donovan of another approaching enemy column, there are no soldiers left to oppose this new threat. In desperation, he rigs a bulldozer with explosives on its blade, intending to ram it into a petroleum storage tank. The plan works, sending a cascade of burning liquid into the path of the Japanese, who retreat in panic, right into the sights of waiting machine guns, but Donovan is killed by a sniper before he can jump off the bulldozer.

Cast

* John Wayne as Lt. Cmdr. Wedge Donovan
* Susan Hayward as Constance Chesley
* Dennis O'Keefe as Lt. Cmdr. Robert Yarrow
* William Frawley as Eddie Powers
* Leonid Kinskey as Johnny Novasky
* J.M. Kerrigan as Sawyer Collins
* Grant Withers as Whanger Spreckles
* Paul Fix as Ding Jacobs
* Ben Welden as Yump Lumkin
* William Forrest as Lt. Tom Kerrick
* Addison Richards as Capt. Joyce
* Jay Norris as Joe Brick
* Duncan Renaldo as Construction worker at party
* Wally Wales as Lt. Commander. Hood

ee also

* John Wayne filmography (1941-1960)

External links

*imdb title| id=0036824 | title=The Fighting Seabees
*amg title | id=1:17216 | title=The Fighting Seabees
*tcmdb title | id=74853 | title=The Fighting Seabees