Gung Ho (1943)
Director: Ray Enright
Actors: Randolph Scott, Alan Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Noah Beery Jr., Rod Cameron, J. Carrol Nash
Runtime: 88 min.
Marine Colonel Thorwald is tasked with putting together an elite group of fighters for a raid on a Japanese held island during World War II. The movie follows this group of misfits and outcasts from training to their successful amphibious landing and invasion of the island.
Trivia: Gung Ho! was inspired by real events involving Lt. Col. Evans Carlson and the daring Makin Island raid carried out by his Marine Raiders, an elite unit that helped reshape the image of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. The term "gung ho", meaning "work together", was adopted from Chinese industrial cooperatives by Carlson and popularized across America thanks to this film. Randolph Scott, typically known for his roles in Westerns, took on a rare war part as Lt. Col. Thorwald to contribute to the wartime effort. Among the ensemble was a young, uncredited Robert Mitchum in one of his first screen appearances. He would later become a Hollywood icon and earn critical acclaim, including a Golden Globe win and an Emmy nomination for his leading role in the WWII television epic The Winds of War (1983).



