In Harm's Way

In Harm's Way (DVD) In Harm's Way, based on James Bassett's novel Harm's Way, has enough plo t in it for four movies or a good miniseries (when it was sh own on netw ork television in prime time, it was broken into two very full nights). On the morning of December 7, 1941, a heavy cruis er, commanded by Capta in Rockwell Torrey (John Wayne), and the destroyer Cassidy, under acting commander Lieutenant (jg) William McC onnell (Thomas Tryon), are two of a handful of ships that escape the destruction of the Japanese attack o n Pearl Harbor. Under Torre y's command, the tiny fleet of a dozen ships carries out its orders to seek out and engage the enemy fleet. But lack of fuel and a d aring maneuver (but tragic miscalculation) by Torrey ca uses his ship to be seriously damaged. He's relieved of command and assi gned to a desk job routing convoys in the shakeup following the attack, and his exec and oldest friend, Commander Paul Eddington (Kirk Do uglas) , is reassigned after a brawl, the result of his anger after identifying the body of his wife (Barbara Bouchet) who was killed during the attac k while cavorting with an Marine Corps officer. Torrey's shore assignmen t leads him to reestablish contact on a ver y hostile level with his est ranged son, Ensign Jere Torrey (Brandon de Wilde), his estranged son fro m a long-ended marriage, who is also serving at Pearl Harbor; he also es tablishes a romantic relationship with Lt. Maggie Haines (Patricia Neal) , a navy nurse; he a lso befriends Commander Egan Powell (Burgess Meredi th), a special-intelligence officer. Through his son's boasting during t heir bitt er first meeting, Torrey learns of a top-secret offensive call ed Sky Hook — he figures out enough of it to impress Powell, and when Sk y Hook gets bogged down by the indecisiveness of its commander, Vice Adm iral Broderick (Dana Andrews), Powell convinces the comman der of the Pa cific Fleet (Adm. Chester Nimitz, unnamed here but played by Henry Fonda ) that Torrey is the man to salvage the operati on. Promoted to rear adm iral, with Eddington — who'd been rotting away on a shore assignment, dr unk most of the time — assigned as h is chief of staff, Torrey gets Sky Hook rolling and finally finds his purpose in this war, gaining the bela ted admiration of his son in the process. Eddington is similarly motiva ted but is still haunted by the violent, ultimately self-destructive dem ons that bligh ted his marriage and his life — he is particularly attrac ted to a young nurse, Annalee Dohrn (Jill Haworth), not knowing that she is already involved romantically with Jere Torrey. Meanwhile, McConnel l survives the sinking of his ship and is ordered to join Torrey 's staf f. Matters all come to a head when the Japanese begin a counter-offensiv e to Torrey's planned troop landing. And just at the time Torrey needs h is men at their best, Eddington's violence and rage boil to the surface in a way that will destroy him and blight both men's lives. In a final attempt at redemption, Eddington provides Torrey with the information he needs to set up a battle that he has at least a chance of winning, pit ting his small task group of destroyers and cruisers against the Japanes e task force led by the Yamato, the largest battleship ever built. ]]>

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