Wake Island (1942) 20 Weird Facts That You Didn’t Know About

Comments · 24

• BO

  @bobwilliams899 · 3 days ago

  Preston didn't play a pilot he was one of the 2 main enlisted man characters, Macdonald Carey played the pilot

  4

• VI

  @vincentpuccio3689 · 4 months ago

  Nobody who fought at Wake was at the premiere! The were all in work/POW camps

  8

• BO

  @bobwilliams899 · 3 days ago

  Carey didn't play the Civilian contractor Albert Dekker did ,did you actually look at the cast list

  5

• FR

  @Freedomfred939 · 4 months ago

  The ending wasn't as described...it ended with a commitment to win

  2

• DM

  @dmw1262 · 7 months ago

  Preston did not play a pilot. He was Bill Bendix's buddy in their rifle platoon.

  10

• JO

  @johngretlein4585 · 3 weeks ago

  Alamo in the Pacific....The last seen when the two were manning the machine gun talking about playing football in 1928 Notre Dame and VMI and drinking a beer-Priceless!!!!

  2

• ER

  @ernesthaygood5629 · 3 weeks ago

  Robert Preston played the part of Pvt. Joe Doyle.  The actor you're probably referring to who played a pilot was Macdonald Carey who played Lt Bruce Cameron.  Carey went on to appear in Alfred Hitchcock's film Shadow of a Doubt (1943) with Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. Soon after, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Carey received his commission in early 1944 and attended fighter director school at Camp Murphy in Orlando, Florida. After school he served with Air Warning Squadron 3 with stints on Espiritu Santo, Bougainville and Mindanao.  In 1947, Carey returned to Paramount and resumed his film career.

  3

• JA

  @janblake9468 · 5 days ago (edited)

  Much of WAKE ISLAND was filmed at the Navy's Salton Sea amphinious base on the western shore.  The base is long gone but the pier seen in several scenes  is stil there.  Sometimes its above the water, sometimes under water. The motorcycle in the movie, incidentally, is a militarized Harley 74 flathead with sidecar. I don't know if any were on that island, but the Navy had several especially beginning in 1944.

  1

• FE

  @fembotheather3785 · 4 days ago

  Since Guadalcanal wasn't fought until after the movie was made, it is difficult to see how veterans of the battle could've participated in making it. Robert Preston didn't play a pilot, so that's nonsense. They also had no access to survivors of Wake Island, since they were POWs, so there's no way any of them advised the production.

  2

• VI

  @vincentpuccio3689 · 4 months ago

  What are you talking about? Robert Preston was not the only Hollywood actor to enlist as a matter of fact many of Hollywoods top actors enlisted

  6

• BO

  @bobwilliams899 · 3 days ago

  I have a lot more respect for Brian Donlevy

  2

• VI

  @vincentpuccio3689 · 4 months ago

  Sure many people military and civilian were scared who wouldn’t be.  But when hostilities started many of the civilians who ha previously served  offered their services to the military and  as soon as the bombs stop the construction crews went back to work and repaired  the damage

  2