Destroyer (1943 film)
| Destroyer | |
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Theatrical Film Poster
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| Directed by | William A. Seiter |
| Produced by | Louis F. Edelman |
| Written by | Frank Wead |
| Screenplay by |
Borden Chase Lewis Meltzer |
| Starring |
Edward G. Robinson Glenn Ford Marguerite Chapman Edgar Buchanan |
| Music by | Anthony Collins |
| Cinematography | Franz Planer |
| Edited by | Gene Havlick |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.3 million (US rentals) |
Destroyer is a 1943 Columbia Pictures war film starring Edward G. Robinson and Glenn Ford as U. S. Navy sailors in World War II.
Lt. Comm. Donald Smith, the film's technical advisor, served as Navigation Officer on the USS Arizona (BB-39) until one month before the ship was sunk at Pearl Harbor.
In 1943 retired Navy Chief Bosun's Mate Steve "Boley" Boleslavski (Edward G. Robinson) helps build the destroyer John Paul Jones, the namesake of the ship he served on in World War I, sunk a quarter century later while saving an aircraft carrier from being torpedoed. When he finds out that an old shipmate, Lieutenant Commander Clark (Regis Toomey), is the ship's new captain, he returns to the Navy and wrangles a berth as the ship's leading chief bosun's mate.
However, Boley soon alienates the rest of the destroyer's crew with his perfectionist attitude and ignorance of the ship's modern equipment, particularly Mickey Donohue (Glenn Ford), whom he replaced as leading chief. As a result, the ship's crew and equipment perform poorly on the Jones's shakedown cruise. Boley is demoted for striking Donohue when the latter goads him by insulting the Jones. Donahue becomes leading chief again. To further complicate matters, Donohue falls in love and secretly marries Boley's daughter Mary (Marguerite Chapman).
Mary talks Donahue into letting Boley remain aboard the Jones, and he is injured rescuing crewmen during a fire. Boley will recover but is barred from further sea duty and sent to collect his gear. Because of its poor showing, the Jones has been assigned to carry mail to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and its disgruntled crewmen applied for transfers to fighting ships. Boley returns just as they are packing their gear and talks them out of transferring with a stirring account of John Paul Jones' epic Revolutionary War battle with the HMS Serapis.
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Wikipedia