User Reviews

This film is typical of Hollywood low budget films which were made during those halcyon days of the cold war after the Korean war and before we all got embittered by Viet Nam. This is a typical "B" grade, feel-good flick about a chief (Neville Brand) in the Navy who drinks coffee out of a soup bowl and is rough, tough but lovable, lonely and sensitive. He meets the hardened but having heart of gold waitress (Jan Sterling) who sees through the protective veneer of the chief and after a trials and tribs, they retire to an apple farm in Southern California. As a former Naval officer who was active during that time, the Navy scenes, particularly a landing operation carried out from a destroyer, are quite unreal, but this is not a war movie. The theme is peace time and reconciling the lovers with good vibes shared all around. It's not a mind bender-- wasn't meant to be. But, in the context of the time, it was nice to see Jan Sterling and Neville Brand, two very competent character actors, sharing a chance to work and make us feel good. No video listed, so catch it on the late show.

A naval ship returns home to San Diego after a secret mission in Korea. CPO Chuck 'Soup Bowl' MacLish (Neville Brand) has trouble adjusting to being off the ship. Waitress Frieda (Jan Sterling) falls for him. She dreams of a small farm house. Back on the ship, they come under aerial attack.

This war movie is a mix of home front and war battles. There is some real footage of war damaged ships and real fighting. Those are the compelling scenes. The characters are not the most compelling. I do like Soup Bowl and Frieda. I like the nickname scene. It's a simple sappy relationship story, but I like it.

Plot-- A veteran navy CPO begins to feel loneliness on shore-leave in San Diego. Luckily he meets a lonely barroom waitress, and together they plan on a modest farming future as husband and wife. But first he has to survive combat duty off the Korean coast during the war there.

Well-done flag waver. Good to see that sensitive little b&w's were still being made at a time when the big screen was saturated with Technicolor spectacles and bosomy sex goddesses. Brand and Sterling are perfectly cast as ordinary non-glamorous Americans of the kind that put real mettle in the nation's fabric. Surprising to see Brand demonstrate a range of sensitive emotions unlike his usual thuggish roles. Then too, it's just a year after his scary convict part in Riot in Cell Block 11 (1953). Sterling, of course, specialized in working class roles with plenty of soul. Watch, too for a number of familiar faces from that time—Doucette, Langton, Haggerty, Corrigan, among others.

Also, pay special attention to the destroyer Brand serves on. That's the USS Maddox of Gulf of Tonkin fame. It was the supposed shelling of the Maddox and the C. Turner Joy that triggered our mass intervention into South Vietnam in 1965. Thus, the ship has real historical significance. Then too, it's ironic that we would view scenes of Pearl Harbor from the deck of a ship that figured in another triggering wartime event. Anyway the movie's very competently done, never drags, and even manages to put over it's feel-good message in a way that didn't offend this professional cynic. It's also a telling contrast to such swollen big-budget similars as Battle Cry (1955) and In Love and War (1958). In my book, this little indie is one of those forgotten gems that old movie fans love to find.