Film Review: Destination Tokyo (1943)

Delmer Daves, the director best known for his classic westerns, made an early and significant contribution to the war film genre with his directorial debut, Destination Tokyo, in 1943. This submarine film is often considered the "great-grandaddy" of its kind.

e plot begins in San Francisco, around Christmas 1941, when Captain Cassidy (played by Cary Grant) of the US Navy, commanding the submarine USS Copperfin, receives orders to take his vessel to the Pacific and subsequently unseals top-secret instructions for a perilous mission. His first order is to sail to the Aleutians to pick up Lt. Raymond (played by John Ridgely), a meteorologist, and later, to navigate to Tokyo Bay, where he will attempt to disembark Raymond and a group of volunteers onshore. Their objective is to collect crucial weather data and intelligence necessary for the daring US military operation known as the Doolittle Raid, which would later go down in history.

The Doolittle Raid in April 1942 was primarily a symbolic action with little direct military impact, but it set the stage for the more decisive Battle of Midway a few months later. Its propaganda importance was much greater, especially for Americans who desperately needed some success to cling to during the humiliating months following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hollywood recognized this importance and dedicated four films to the event during the war, with Destination Tokyo being the first.

While these four films sacrificed historical accuracy for the sake of propaganda and entertainment, Destination Tokyo is not exempt from this criticism. In the narrow context of the raid, the film takes liberties with the facts. No US submarine was directly involved in the operation by penetrating the Japanese naval base in Tokyo Bay, and no aircraft carrier was sunk by it, as depicted in the film.

However, in many other aspects, Destination Tokyo is rather authentic and, to a degree, even realistic in depicting submarine warfare for its time. The story was written by Steve Fisher, a prolific pulp writer who had previously served as a submariner in the US Navy. The US Navy enthusiastically collaborated with the production, with the cast and crew familiarizing themselves with the USS Wahoo, whose commander, submarine ace Dudley Walker Morton, served as a technical advisor. Although many details were left out for security reasons, the result is a depiction of life and procedures in submarines so authentic that the Navy later used Destination Tokyo for training prospective submariners.

This level of authenticity goes hand in hand with a relatively high budget and special effects that were more than adequate for 1940s standards. Delmer Daves, in his directorial debut, has shown excellent understanding of what makes a good action film work. Destination Tokyo is a relatively long film, and its slow opening allows for the establishment of diverse characters and the audience to care about their ultimate fate.

Destination Tokyo is an ensemble piece, despite the stellar presence of Cary Grant, who, although adequate, doesn't provide one of his most memorable performances. John Garfield, who plays the women-obsessed crewman Wolfie, tries a little too hard as comic relief. The rest of the cast is much better, even when the script forces their characters to express propaganda points, such as Dane Clark as the Greek crewman who mourns every Allied victim of the war and John Ridgely, whose character explains the Japanese mindset to the crew and hopes that a new generation of Japanese would be as peaceful as Americans.

This segment of the script, which tries to transcend raw racial stereotypes typical of WW2 Hollywood, later got co-writer Albert Maltz into trouble during the McCarthy era, being taken as an example of Communist propaganda.

Destination Tokyo is, despite its clear propaganda purpose, well-made, well-directed, and well-acted. Its lofty place in the history of submarine subgenre of war and action films is well-deserved.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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