Gung Ho! (1943, USA) – We follow the 2nd Marine Raiders from training to their first combat on Makin Island. Their motivations for signing up are fairly unbowdlerized: One wants to impress a girl, another “just don’t like Japs”. When they’re transported by submarine, some of them panic, and the movie makes that seem okay, because submarines are scary. And when the fighting starts, it’s random and brutal. Watched it all. IMDB reviewers call it jingoistic propaganda, which is true but not relevant, and cliched, which is silly. This is a movie that defines what later becomes cliches. But it’s not realistic: The real battle of Makin Island was a near-failure, and I doubt that Japanese soldiers went into combat with an evil sneer on their face.

Mr Lucky (1943, USA) – This war is going too far. Now they’re drafting gangsters. Also, the gangster world is going too far. They’ve allowed themselves to be taken over by Cary Grant. Watched: 18 minutes.

Madame Curie (1943, USA) – “She was poor .. she was beautiful.” Science is hard, let’s look dramatically into the camera instead, while violins play in the background to underscore what an extremely Historical Person this is. Watched: 7 minutes.

The Outlaw (1943, USA) – Doc Holliday falls in love with Billy the Kid, which makes his former lover Pat Garrett jealous. I think. Watched: 14 minutes. Wikipedia says Howard Hughes invented a special bra to emphasize the breasts of the female lead, Jane Russell, so this movie swings both ways.