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PT-109 (1963) Review

PT 109 is a 1963 biographical movie which shows the events of John F. Kennedy's actions in command of Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 as an officer of the United States Navy during World War II. The movie was adapted by Richard L. Breen, Vincent Flaherty and Howard Sheehan from the book PT 109: John F. Kennedy in WWII by Robert J. Donovan.
The movie stars Cliff Robertson, Ty Hardin, James Gregory, Robert Culp, Robert Blake, Andrew Duggan (the uncredited narrator), Michael Pate and George Takei (uncredited as helmsman on Japanese destroyer, best known as Sulu of Star Trek). The exteriors for the movie were filmed at Little Palm Island (formerly Little Torch Key), a resort in the Florida Keys. Power and fresh water were run out to the island for the movie, allowing the resort to be built years later. The former owner was the local Monroe county sheriff.
The most dramatic special effect is what appears to be a full-size set with live actors appearing to be crushed by the bow of a destroyer.
In the movie, the PT 109 is reported missing and a search is started. According to National Geographic, and the original book, the boat explosion was observed from other PT boats in the vicinity and it was given up as lost. A memorial service was held at the motor torpedo boat squadron's forward operating base at Rendova while the crew was still marooned on the islands in the vicinity of Japanese-held Kolombagara Island.
Solomon Islanders Biuki Gasa and Eroni Kumana were portrayed as random natives, when in fact they were dispatched by the coastwatcher, Arthur Reginald Evans, to find them. The movie holds to the Donovan book version that Kennedy first suggested the idea of using a coconut for a message, using a knife to carve it. Gasa was later interviewed as suggesting the idea and sending Eroni to pluck a fresh coconut. The actors playing Gasa and Kumana were not credited either, though the senior native is mentioned by name when the large canoe arrives.
The scene rescuing ambushed Marines is actually covered by the chapter in the book about PT 59, which Kennedy commanded after the PT 109. It was an older model Elco PT boat that was converted to a gunboat with its torpedoes removed
The White House had full approval of casting and aspects of the film. Among other actors considered for the lead were Peter Fonda who objected to having to do his screen test with an impersonation of JFK's voice, [1] Edd Byrnes, Jacqueline Kennedy's choice Warren Beatty, Jeffrey Hunter, and other stars.[2] Kennedy selected Cliff Robertson after viewing their screen tests. Robertson met with President Kennedy who set three conditions on the film; that it be historically accurate, that profits go to the survivors of PT 109 and their families and President Kennedy had the final choice of actor.[3]
Kennedy also vetoed Raoul Walsh as the director of the film after screening Walsh's Marines Let's Go and not liking it.[4] Director Lewis Milestone was replaced by Leslie Martinson a prolific experienced Warner Brothers Television director

PT-109 (1963) Overview

President John F. Kennedy kept a unique inauguration gift on his White House desk: a coconut encased in plastic. The tale of that coconut is the heroic story of PT 109. Academy Award winner* Cliff Robertson stars in this stirring saga of Kennedy's wartime exploits as skipper of a PT boat in the Solomon Islands. The assignment: harass the enemy and buy time for a U.S. Navy still on the drawing boards. In August 1943, PT 109 was sliced in half by a Japanese destroyer. Kennedy led his surviving crew through a sea aflame from gasoline, towing a badly burned sailor miles to the nearest island. There seemed little hope of rescue from the Japanese-dominated area...until a strategy involving a coconut emerged. The triumphant outcome was unbelievable - and all true!
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