Hell to Eternity

Hell to Eternity
Original film poster
Directed by	Phil Karlson
Produced by	Irving H. Levin
Written by	Gil Doud (story) Walter Roeber Schmidt
Starring	Jeffrey Hunter David Janssen Vic Damone
Music by	Leith Stevens
Cinematography	Burnett Guffey
Edited by	Roy V. Livingston George White
Distributed by	Allied Artists
Release dates	September 30, 1960 (1960-09-30)
Running time	131 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$800,000
Box office	$2,800,000 (US/ Canada)[1]

Hell to Eternity is a 1960 American World War II film starring Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, Vic Damone and Patricia Owens, directed by Phil Karlson. This film biopic is about the true experiences of Marine hero Pfc. Guy Gabaldon (played by Hunter), a Los Angeles Hispanic boy raised in the 1930s by a Japanese American foster family, and his heroic actions during the Battle of Saipan. Sessue Hayakawa played the role of Japanese commander at Saipan.^[2]

Plot

In Depression-era Los Angeles, Guy Gabaldon gets into a fight at school when another boy snitches about his breaking into a grocery store. After Japanese-American Kaz Uni (the brother of Guy's friend George) finds out Guy's mother is in the hospital and his father is dead, he invites Guy to stay with his family. As Kaz's parents speak little English, Guy begins to learn Japanese. Then, when Guy's mother dies, the Unis adopt him. He becomes especially close to Kaz's mother.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into World War II, Gabaldon's foster family is sent to an internment camp: Camp Manzanar. Gabaldon is drafted, but fails his physical exam due to a perforated eardrum. When Gabaldon goes to visit the Unis, he learns that George has been allowed to join the Army and is fighting in Italy. After making sure that "mama-san" does not object, he manages to enlist in the Marines on the strength of his language skills.

Gabaldon does not make a good first impression on S/Sgt. Bill Hazen at Camp Pendleton, but wins him over. When they are shipped to Hawaii to join the 2nd Marine Division, he gets himself, Hazen and Cpl. Pete Lewis bottles of whiskey and dates with two Japanese-American women and standoffish reporter Sheila Lincoln. Sheila is disgusted by the behavior of the rowdy Marines, but eventually warms up to Gabaldon after a few drinks.

Going ashore on Saipan, he freezes at first when he comes under fire for the first time, but regains his composure. During a Banzai charge, Lewis is killed, and later during the bloody campaign for the island, Hazen is shot in the leg and then killed by a Japanese swordsman. Gabaldon then gets mad and starts killing Japanese soldiers ruthlessly, but after he sees two civilians kill themselves, he remembers George and "mama-san" and changes back to the way he was. During the final battle, he convinces the Japanese general to order approximately 1000 Japanese soldiers and 500 civilians to surrender.

Cast

• Jeffrey Hunter as Guy Gabaldon
• David Janssen as S/Sgt. Bill Hazen
• Vic Damone as Cpl. Pete 'Junior' Lewis
• Patricia Owens as Sheila Lincoln
• Richard Eyer as Guy, as a boy
• John Larch as Capt. Schwabe
• Bill Williams as Leonard
• Michi Kobi as Sono
• George Shibata as Kaz Une
• Reiko Sato as Famika
• Richard Gardner as Polaski
• Bob Okazaki as Papa Une
• George Matsui as George, as a boy
• Nicky Blair as Martini
• George Takei as George (as George Takai)
• Miiko Taka as Ester
• Tsuru Aoki as Mother Une (as Tsuru Aoki Hayakawa)
• Sessue Hayakawa as Gen. Matsui
• Frank Gerstle as Drunken officer (uncredited)
• Paul Togawa as Freddy (uncredited)

Production

Gramercy Pictures bought the screen rights of Gabaldon's story in June 1957. Previously, it had been featured on the TV show This Is Your Life.^[3]

DVD release

The DVD of the film was released on June 5, 2007 in the United States.

See also

• List of American films of 1960

References

Bibliography

• Niemi, Robert (1 January 2006). History in the Media: Film and Television. ABC-CLIO. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-57607-952-2. 
• Niemi, Robert James (17 October 2013). Inspired by True Events: An Illustrated Guide to More Than 500 History-Based Films: An Illustrated Guide to More Than 500 History-Based Films, Second Edition. ABC-CLIO. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-61069-198-7. 
• Dick, Bernard F. (13 January 2015). The Star-Spangled Screen: The American World War II Film. University Press of Kentucky. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-8131-4895-3. 
• Creef, Elena Tajima (1 January 2004). Imaging Japanese America: The Visual Construction of Citizenship, Nation, and the Body. NYU Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-8147-1622-9. 
• Rowan, Terry. WOrld War II Goes to the Movies & Television Guide. Lulu.com. p. 210. ISBN 978-1-105-58602-6. 
• Goldberg, Harold J. (2 May 2007). D-Day in the Pacific: The Battle of Saipan. Indiana University Press. p. 197. ISBN 0-253-11681-3. 
• Kluge, Paul Frederick (1991). The Edge of Paradise: America in Micronesia. University of Hawaii Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-8248-1567-7. 
• Rosenberg, Emily S. (25 August 2003). A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory. Duke University Press. p. 146. ISBN 0-8223-8745-X. 
• Hamamoto, Darrell Y.; Liu, Sandra (2000). Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism. Temple University Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-56639-776-6. 
• Miyao, Daisuke (7 March 2007). Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom. Duke University Press. p. 279. ISBN 0-8223-8982-7. 
• Green, Paul (29 April 2014). Jeffrey Hunter: The Film, Television, Radio and Stage Performances. McFarland. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-4766-1441-0. 
• Sharp, Jasper (13 October 2011). Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-8108-7541-8. 
• Lott, M. Ray (1 January 2004). The American Martial Arts Film. McFarland. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-7864-1836-7. 
• Freese, Gene Scott (10 April 2014). Hollywood Stunt Performers, 1910s-1970s: A Biographical Dictionary, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 1967. ISBN 978-1-4766-1470-0. 
• Fujitani, T. (2 October 2011). Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II. University of California Press. p. 380. ISBN 978-0-520-95036-8. 
• New York Media, LLC (18 November 1968). New York Magazine. p. 66. ISSN 0028-7369. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hell to Eternity.

• Hell to Eternity at the Internet Movie Database
• Hell to Eternity at AllMovie
• Hell to Eternity at the TCM Movie Database
• Hell to Eternity at the American Film Institute Catalog