146 GUADALCANAL DIARY
(Roy Roberts), Capt. Davis (Richard Conte), Sgt. Hook Malone (Lloyd Nolan),
Corp. Aloysius “Taxi” Potts (William Bendix), Pvt. Jesus “Soose” Alvarez (Anthony
Quinn), and Pvt. Johnny “Chicken” Anderson (Richard Jaeckel). Grayson discovers
that the men are being sent to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands (northwest of
Australia) and that other troops are being deployed to Tulagi. Cross and Davis
or ga nize the upcoming landings, and Donnelly bolsters the troops. While Cross
and Davis plan the landing of the first two companies, Donnelly goes below to
encourage the men. On 7 August 1942, the Marines land on Tulagi against stiff
enemy re sis tance but land on Guadalcanal uncontested. There they quickly secure
the airfield, make camp, and post lookouts for the enemy, but Japa nese snipers,
lurking in the jungle, soon pick off American soldiers one by one. Davis falls ill,
and Capt. Cross commands a group of soldiers to look into a native’s tip that a
unit of Japa nese soldiers is prepared to surrender. As the troops proceed, they are
assaulted in the water by a Japa nese submarine and the survivors are pinned down
by machine- gun fire once they land on the beach. The men dig in and form a defen-
sive perimeter but are soon decimated. Only Soose survives, after jumping into
the ocean and swimming back to the main camp. Seeking vengeance, Col. Gray-
son leads a successful attack on Matanikau in force. Thereafter, the soldiers are
engaged in a series of skirmishes and subjected to constant aerial attacks. Hender-
son airfield is rebuilt over the next few weeks, allowing supplies and reinforcements
in to the region. On 10 November 1942, several units of Marines under the com-
mand of Col. Grayson begin a major offensive with the aim of destabilizing Japa-
nese soldiers. Soose dies in battle, but Johnny Anderson is able to kill the men who
attack him, leaving the Marines victorious. On 10 December 1942 U.S. Army troops
relieve the Marines.Reception
Released on 17 November 1943, Guadalcanal Diary earned $3 million at the box
office: 20th Century Fox’s second highest- grossing movie ( after Sweet Rosie O’Grady)
of the 17 films the studio released in 1943. Most reviews commended the film as
an honest and entertaining paean to the soldiers who fought at Guadalcanal, but
film critic David Lardner castigated the movie as exhibiting “ every cliché known
to man” and for the Marines being depicted as having “altogether too soft a time”
as compared to what the Marines really experienced (Lardner, 1943).Reel History Versus Real History
Capt. Cross’s ill- fated patrol is based on an actual 25- man recon patrol led by Lt.
Col. Frank B. Goettge on 12 August 1942 that landed near the Matanikau River
estuary, on the northwest part of the island, in a Higgins boat. The patrol was sub-
sequently ambushed and virtually wiped out by a larger Japa nese force. In the movie
only “Soose” Alvarez survives, but actually three men (Sgt. Frank L. Few, Sgt.
Charles C. Arndt, and Cpl. Joseph Spaul ding) survived by swimming down the
coast to their base at Kukum. The film inaccurately depicts the Japa nese as having
lured the Americans into a trap by trickery; the massacre was more the result of
Goettge’s poor planning. The movie also sanitizes the engagement by omitting the