Hellcats

I just rented Hellcats of the Navy.

Somebody tell this Reagan guy that he really isn't that good of an actor, and he might want to look around for other careers to follow where he might have bigger talents and a greater chance of success.

Someone tell Nancy Davis the same thing. 

The movie was ok.  A WWII movie.  A diversion, better than B, but no work of art.  It looks like a standard early 40s war propaganda entertainment out of Hollywood, but it was made in 1957.  I'm kinda surprised it was shown to me at the Saturday Matinee growing up.



Reagan is the captain of the USS Starfish, and that got me interested in the submarines actual war record. Ah. Fake name. I half expected a real submarine with that name. Nothing with a war record like the Tang naturally, but something.


Oh, and note the title has nothing to do with Hellcats, aviation. It was strictly a submarine flicker-show.

My favorite part was the speaking role this amateur had in the movie. That was kinda neat.

So this life guard from Illinois does some movies, his eyesight keeps him in limited military service, but eventually he goes on to star in a movie with the actual Admiral Nimitz in a small role. Later, an aircraft carrier class is named after that great WWII admiral, and the actor ends up commanding all of them extant after that. More time passes and a Nimitz class carrier is actually named after that actor. Odd world. I bet a young RR would be gobsmacked if you told him back in 1940 how his life would turn out and what his legacy would be.

Oh and Reagan's vice president, a navy flier, ends up with a son that become President, too, and lands on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz class carrier, to announce end of major hostilities in a campaign in a war touch off by the Actor's inept presidential predecessor decades before.

All the links in history can boggle the mind if you pull on all the threads to feel out where they go.