"Ensign Chuck Palmer" (Tyrone Power) is an American Navy officer who just happens to be stranded in the Philippines at the onset of World War II. With him are a few American Army soldiers who willingly accompany him on a small boat headed for Australia. Unfortunately, they encounter a typhoon and become stranded once again on the Filipino island of Leyte. It's at this time that they are encouraged to make a daring trek to another island in the Philippines to make contact with an American unit conducting guerrilla activities against the Japanese forces which are increasing at an alarming rate. However, rather than being given passage on a submarine back to Australia, Ensign Palmer is given the dangerous mission of setting up radio stations at certain key points to keep General MacArthur informed of enemy movements. And this is something that he has to do even though he knows nothing about radio communications and has very few supplies with which to carry out his assignment. Along with that he also has to contend with superior Japanese forces all around him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that had this movie been filmed during World War II I might have cut it a little slack as these type of grade-B patriotic films were the product of the times. But because this was clearly not the case I feel compelled to be slightly more critical. As a result I have to say that this was a movie which was long on patriotism but sometimes a bit short on entertainment. There just wasn't much here to get excited about. Now don't get wrong-it wasn't necessarily a bad movie at all. But if the viewer is expecting something other than a run-of-the-mill war movie then they are likely to be somewhat disappointed. In any case, I rate this movie as about average-and that's giving it the benefit of the doubt even then.
Review of American Guerrilla in the Philippines
