I have the six volume set of Crusade In The Pacific and it’s already playing on the TV and most likely will stay on into the night.
Okay, I’m going to mention a few good Memorial Day movies that no one has mentioned yet.
So Proudly We Hail
Destination Tokyo
Operation Pacific
Battle Hymn
Never So Few
Darby’s Rangers
Wings Of Eagles
Von Ryan’s Express
In the same vein, “Victory at Sea” is one of the greatest documentary series every produced about World War II. First aired on NBC on Sunday afternoons beginning in the late fall of 1952 and continuing into the spring of 1953. It was both a critical and financial success; critics hailed the series as an example of television reaching its potential, and subsequent airings on local stations, foreign networks and cable channels generated a surprising amount of revenue for NBC.
“Victory” was the product of having the right people in the right place at the right time. Producer Henry Salomon was a Naval officer in World War II and was assigned to the staff of Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morrison, who wrote the history of American navy operations during the conflict. Salomon was aware of the vast amount of operational footage that had been recorded by USN and Marine Corps photographers during the war and had viewed key sequences while working with Morrison. So, with millions of feet of film to review for the documentary, Salomon knew where to begin the search.
Additionally, Salomon had been a Harvard classmate of Robert Sarnoff, the NBC executive who ran the network’s filmed programming division. Sarnoff was the son of David Sarnoff, who had built NBC into a radio and TV powerhouse. The younger Sarnoff got his father to sign off on the documentary project and gave Salomon a huge budget by early 50s standards ($500,000).
“Victory” still holds up well, more than 60 years after its debut. Some of the combat footage is stunning; the score, by Richard Rogers and Robert Russell Bennett, is stirring and Leonard Graves’s narration is superb. Interestingly, when a theatrical version of “Victory at Sea” was released, Graves’s voice was replaced by Alexander Scourby. Mr. Scourby was probably the greatest voice artist of his era, but I still believe Graves did a better job on “Victory at Sea.”
Interestingly, actor Robert Montgomery (also a naval officer in World War II) was originally slated to narrate the documentary. But after viewing a scratchy rough cut, Montgomery ripped into Henry Salomon, calling him unfit to produce the series, and bowed out of the project. When the incident was relayed to Richard Rodgers, the composer suggested Leonard Graves, who was the understudy to Yul Brynner in the original Broadway production of “The King and I.” Graves got the job and his dramatic narration is perfect for the production.