Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Destination Tokyo (1944)

"Pull the cork!" Captain Cassidy

One of the best wartime movies I've seen stars screen idol Cary Grant in the unlikely role as the heroic skipper of a submarine tasked to sneak into Tokyo harbor to recon for the upcoming Doolittle air raid. Cary Grant usually plays the part of a dapper, impeccably dressed man about town; but here he is absolutely on target in his portrait of a man who has what it takes to helm a crew in the dark days of early WWII.

Destination Tokyo, produced in 1944, is a product of its times. As such, it depicts wartime attitudes towards the enemy that ring truer than later submarine movies like The Enemy Below which show the conflict as more of an intercollegiate rivalry rather than the deadly contest that it was. Revisionist historians will not like the snubs directed toward the enemy but others will be delighted, as I was. Of course, there is a good bit of American propaganda, but that should be expected in a wartime film.

The producers had no way of knowing if the USA would prevail but released the film showing how a US submarine had snuck into Tokyo harbor and radioed back intel to guide in the bombers from the US carriers Enterprise and Hornet in retaliation for the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor only a few months before. Due to the accurate portrayal of submarine operations, the US Navy used Destination Tokyo as a training film for budding submariners. That is high praise indeed for a film produced under wartime pressures and director Delmer Daves' (3:10 to Yuma) directorial debut.

There are a few historical errors, such as the crew having been on five patrols which would mean a couple of years at least, while the Doolittle raid happened in April, 1942, only four months after Pearl Harbor. Dramatic license excepted, Destination Tokyo is the film that established all the cliches we have seen so often in later undersea films such as Run Silent, Run Deep and Das Boot. Viewers today may find it a bit hackneyed and predictable but they should also remember that this was the first. The depth charging scenes are also among the best ever filmed.

Besides the star power of Cary Grant (Gunga Din) Destination Tokyo benefits from a first class supporting cast, including crewmembersJohn Garfield (Pride of the Marines), Errol Flynn's longtime sidekick Alan Hale (The Adventures of Robin Hood), Dane Clark (God is my Copilot), Tom Tully (The Caine Mutiny), and many more familiar faces, including Whit Bissell (Seven Days in May).

The action takes place almost entirely aboard the submarine, where it leaves San Francisco on Christmas Eve (another historical error) and travels to the Aleutians, and thence to Japan. All along the way there are tense situations, including attacks by Japanese zeroes that leave an unexploded bomb in the superstructure. The bomb needs to be defused and when it is, they find the fuse is made in the USA; kind of ironic, and a smack in the mouth for pacifists like industrialists who were against the war but not against doing business with the enemy. The same guy who defused the bomb has to have an emergency appendectomy while the sub lies quiet on the bottom of Tokyo Bay, with only a pharmacist's mate for a surgeon. This episode was also based on a true event taken from the annals of the Silent Service. I will leave the rest of the details to your viewing pleasure.

There are many scenes indicating the bonding that takes place among men under pressure, and most of them are well done and mercifully short. Dialog sparkles with Cary Grant doing a couple of soliloquys that move the plot along but do not derail it. Despite the epic 135 minute length, Destination Tokyo never plods. There is plenty of comic relief to ease the tension before it smacks you in the gut again. Franz Waxman's score is predictably excellent, as they always are.

The Warner Bros. DVD alas has not been restored, which is a pity with such a fine film as Destination Tokyo. There are numerous places where the film turns dark and other visual defects. A full blown restoration would probably be out of the question with such a little known film, but I hope by reading this some of you will seek this out as it is one of the top two or three submarine films I've seen, and I've seen as many as I can.

Another WWII era film, made during the war I highly recommend is the 1943 film Crash Dive with Tyrone Power

Further submarine movies I enjoyed include:

Run Silent, Run Deep

The Enemy Below

Das Boot

The Bedford Incident

K19: The Widowmaker

Thanks for reading!

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening