Released today back in 1944, Destination Tokyo was Cary Grant's 44th full length feature film.
Summary:
The submarine's secret mission is to enter the bay without being detected. They must then place a landing party ashore to obtain vital information for the upcoming Doolittle air raid on Tokyo.
The Copperfin submarine was an exact scale model of a real US Navy submarine. However, for reasons of military security, equipment and operating mechanisms were of varying kinds and varieties not found on US submarines so the enemy could not get an accurate picture of what the interior of a Navy submarine looked like.
Cast:
Cary Grant...Capt. Cassidy
John Garfield...Wolf
Alan Hale...'Cookie' Wainwright
John Ridgely...Reserve Officer Raymond
Dane Clark...Tin Can
Warner Anderson...Andy
William Prince...Pills
Robert Hutton...Tommy Adams
Tom Tully...Mike Conners
Faye Emerson...Mrs. Cassidy
Peter Whitney...Dakota
Warren Douglas...Larry
John Forsythe...Sparks
John Alvin...Sound Man
Bill Kennedy...Torpedo Gunnery Officer
Trailer:
Did You Know?
Two members of the real-life US Navy submarine Wahoo were consultants and technical advisers on this film, according to a story in the "New York Herald Tribune". They were crew member Andy Lennox and Lt. Cmdr. Dudley Walker Morton. As a way of saying "thank you" the chili and canned pumpkin used by "Cookie" is labeled as being made by "Lennox".
Tony Curtis, in an interview aired on TCM, recounted the day when he went into a theater and watched this film and saw Cary Grant peer through a periscope at Tokyo Bay. That moment "took his breath away" and inspired him to become an actor. Other reports state that Grant inspired Curtis to join the navy. Grant and Curtis would later star together in the World War II submarine comedy Operation Petticoat (1959).
In the scene where the planes get ready for takeoff from the aircraft carrier to attack Tokyo, the music incorporates the first four notes from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (dah-dah-dah-daaaa). During WWII the notes were a sign for victory because they translate into the letter V in Morse Code (three dots and a dash).
Quotes:
Worker on Golden Gate Bridge: [as the USS Copperfin, returning from its perilous mission, transits beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, inbound for San Francisco] Hey Eddie, ya' think that sub saw any action?
Other worker on Golden Gate Bridge: [Dismissively] Nah... Probably just out for a couple of practice dives.
Reserve Officer Raymond: How'd you happen to volunteer for the submarine service, Captain?
Capt. Cassidy: [Coyly] Well, when I was a kid, I used to get a kick outta' swimming underwater.
Wolf: [During a particularly fierce depth-charging of the 'Copperfin'] I wonder how the invasion of Europe is getting along?
Lobby Cards:
Directed by Delmer Daves.
Produced and Distributed by Warner Brothers.
Running time: 135 minutes.
Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.
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