Pride of the Marines
| Pride of the Marines | |
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Original film poster
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| Directed by | Delmer Daves |
| Produced by | Jerry Wald |
| Written by | Roger Butterfield (book) Albert Maltz Marvin Borowsky (adaptation) Delmer Daves (uncredited) |
| Starring |
John Garfield Eleanor Parker |
| Music by | Franz Waxman |
| Cinematography | J. Peverell Marley |
| Edited by | Owen Marks |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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119 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Pride of the Marines is a 1945 American biographical war film starring John Garfield and Eleanor Parker. It tells the story of U.S. Marine Al Schmid in World War II, his heroic stand against a Japanese attack during the Battle of Guadalcanal, in which he was blinded by a grenade, and his subsequent rehabilitation. The film was based on the Roger Butterfield book Al Schmid, Marine.
Albert Maltz was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay.
The film is divided in three parts. The first takes place prior to the war where cocky Philadelphia steel worker and "Man's man" Al Schmid (John Garfield) despises the idea of marriage and losing his independence until he meets his match in Ruth Hartley (Eleanor Parker). Ruth takes no nonsense from him and impresses Schmid by enjoying a hunting trip he takes her on.
In part two, at the Battle of the Tenaru River on Guadalcanal, Schmid is in the crew of a M1917 Browning machine gun with his buddies Lee Diamond (Dane Clark) and Johnny Rivers (Anthony Caruso) of "H" Company 2nd Battalion First Marines. While the three wait for an enemy attack, they practice gun emplacement procedures– establishing fields of fire, practicing with the range card to estimate firing distances, and determining the optimal traversal and elevation settings for each anticipated line of attack. The subsequent onslaught by the enemy is particularly heavy. Rivers is killed by a bullet through the head, Diamond wounded by three machine gun bullets in his right arm, and Schmid is blinded by a Japanese soldier dropping a hand grenade at the front of the gun pit. In spite of the heavy attack, Schmid is able to fire his weapon by following Diamond's instructions. Together, they kill 200 of the enemy.
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Wikipedia