(2 of 2)
With a few exceptions (notably Richard Jaeckel), a film which is supposed to reflect historic life & death is handicapped by too familiar faces.* The picture never makes clear how desperately expendable the Marines felt on Guadalcanal. Nearly all the really deep dread and panic which developed there, and which so enhanced and complicated the bravery, is played either as simple fear or comedy. There is hardly a moment when kill-or-be-killed becomes an electrocuting fact rather than an energetic re-enactment at second hand. U.S. audiences, though they are bound to respect and like Guadalcanal Diary, want and need more than that, if they are to live in the same world with the men who fought on Guadalcanal.
* Origin of Youth in Crisis: MOT's distributors (20th Century-Fox), needled by distressed exhibitors, asked whether anything might be done on the screen to discourage juvenile vandalism in movie theaters Of some 150 social agencies consulted, only three doubted the advisability of making the film.
* Richard Jaeckel, 17-year-old son of the late New York furrier, will become no familiar cinemug: he has turned down a screen contract in favor of the armed forces.