''Battle Stations'' is a 1956 American war film directed by Lewis Seiler and starring John Lund,

William Bendix William Bendix (January 14, 1906 – December 14, 1964) was an American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters. He is best remembered for his role in ''Wake Island'', which earned him an Academy ...

and

Keefe Brasselle Keefe Brasselle (born Henry Keefe Brasselle February 7, 1923 – July 7, 1981) was an American film actor, television actor/producer and author. He is best remembered for the starring role in ''The Eddie Cantor Story'' (1953). Early years an ...

. It was produced and distributed by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. It took inspiration from the 1944

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

The Fighting Lady ''The Fighting Lady'' is a 1944 documentary film (billed as a "newsdrama") directed by Edward Steichen, produced by the U.S. Navy and narrated by Lt. Robert Taylor USNR. It is not to be confused with the 1954 war drama ''Men of the Fighting Lad ...

''.

Plot

Cast

* John Lund as Father Joseph McIntyre *

as Buck Fitzpatrick *

as Chris Jordan * Richard Boone as The captain * William Leslie as Ensign Pete Kelly *

John Craven John Raymond Craven, (born 16 August 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, best known for presenting the BBC programmes '' Newsround'', ''Countryfile'' and '' Beat the Brain''. Early life Craven was born in Leeds, West Rid ...

as Cmdr. James Matthews * James Lydon as Squawk Hewitt *

Claude Akins Claude Aubrey Akins (May 25, 1926 – January 27, 1994) was an American character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and television. He was best known as Sheriff Lobo on the 1979–1981 television series ''B.J. and the Bear'', and l ...

as Marty Brennan *

George O'Hanlon George O'Hanlon (November 23, 1912 – February 11, 1989) was an American actor and writer. He was best known for his role as Joe McDoakes in the Warner Bros.' live-action ''Joe McDoakes'' short subjects from 1942 to 1956 and as the voice of Georg ...

as Patrick Mosher * Eddie Foy, III as Tom Short

Uncredited

* James O'Hara as Williams *

Robert Stevenson Robert Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (actor and politician) (1915–1975), American actor and politician * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Stevenson (director) (1905–1986), Engl ...

as John Moody * Jon Locke as Wallakowski * Carleton Young as Rear Admiral

Critical response

Writing in

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

, author and film critic Hal Erickson described the film as "a standard wartime melodrama with the usual assortment of cliches," noting that "the economies in ''Battle Stations'' extend to its opening-credit music, which has been lifted bodily from Max Steiner's score for ''The Caine Mutiny''." Film review site ''The Movie Scene'' described the film as having "that same sense of patriotism and propaganda about it which those movies made during WWII had," that "it feels like who ever wrote it had watched dozens of other movies about life at sea during the war, picked out all the bits which they liked right down othe music and then slotted them together," and that it "delivers plenty of cliche."

References

Bibliography

* Fetrow, Alan G. ''Feature Films, 1950-1959: A United States Filmography''. McFarland, 1999. * Paris, Michael. ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema''. Manchester University Press, 1995.

External links

* 1956 films American war drama films American black-and-white films 1956 war films 1950s English-language films Films directed by Lewis Seiler Columbia Pictures films 1950s American films American World War II films {{1950s-US-film-stub