Task Force *** (1949, Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Jane Wyatt, Wayne Morris, Julie London, Bruce Bennett) – Classic Movie Review 7160

Writer-director Delmer Daves’s respectful and involving but surprisingly routine and rather ordinary 1949 World War Two drama stars Gary Cooper as US Navy chief Jonathan L Scott, who tries to persuade his bosses to back aircraft carriers for the war effort. On the day of retiring, he reflects on his long Navy career and his role in the development of aircraft carriers since World War One.

I’m sorry to have to disagree with both aspects of the advertising: ‘Nothing ever like it’ and ‘Nothing you ever liked more’. It is familiar material and it has been done better elsewhere.

Director Daves injects a measure of reality because Warner Bros for once does not insist on filming it all in the studio tank and he has access to good newsreel footage too. But the realism is partly scuppered by some dull and over-plentiful dialogue in Daves’s own, admittedly literate and civilised, screenplay, as well as an unhelpful sentimental streak when a bit more toughness would have helped, giving a hard nut a soft, gooey centre.

However there are reliable turns from Cooper, expert in a good role for him, Walter Brennan, co-starring with Cooper for the umpteenth time as Pete Richard, Bruce Bennett, John Ridgely, Stanley Ridges, Moroni Olsen and Wayne Morris. Jane Wyatt has the thankless task of playing Cooper’s wife, Mary Morgan, waiting and watching at the sidelines.

It is shot in black and white but there are some Technicolor scenes.

Also in the cast are Julie London, Jack Holt, Richard Rober, Art Baker, Harlan Warde, John Gallaudet, Warren Douglas, Charles Waldron Jr, Robert Rockwell, William Gould, Sally Corner, Kenneth Tobey, Basil Ruysdael, Charles Williams and Alex Gerry.

Task Force is directed by Delmer Daves, runs 116 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Delmer Daves, is shot in black and white and Technicolor by Robert Burks and Wilfrid M Cline, is produced by Jerry Wald, and scored by Franz Waxman.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7160

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