Destination Gobi
Destination Gobi is a 1953 American Technicolor World War II film released by 20th Century-Fox. It was produced by Stanley Rubin, directed by Robert Wise (his first color feature film), and stars Richard Widmark and Don Taylor.
| Destination Gobi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Robert Wise |
| Screenplay by | Everett Freeman |
| Based on | Ninety Saddles for Kengtu 1952 Collier's by Edmund G. Love |
| Produced by | Stanley Rubin |
| Starring | Richard Widmark Don Taylor Casey Adams Murvyn Vye |
| Narrated by | Richard Widmark |
| Cinematography | Charles G. Clarke |
| Edited by | Robert Fritch |
| Music by | Sol Kaplan |
Production company | 20th Century Fox |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date | March 20, 1953 |
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,340,000[1] |
| Box office | $1.2 million (US rentals)[2] |
U.S. Navy chief Sam McHale takes command of a unit of weather observers stranded behind Japanese lines deep in Inner Mongolia. McHale must lead his men across the treacherous Gobi Desert to the China sea coast. A Mongol tribe, whom the sailors had befriended, led by chief Tengu, help them elude the Japanese and steal a Chinese junk in order to reach the American forces in Okinawa.
After the film's opening credits, a written foreword reads:
In the Navy records in Washington, there is an obscure entry reading "Saddles for Gobi." This film is based on the story behind that entry, one of the strangest stories of World War II.
The unit involved was part of the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO), referred to as Sino-American Combined Operations in the film.[3]
Actor Ernest Borgnine has stated in interviews that he believed that this film, and Widmark's role of CPO Sam McHale, were the basis of the role of Quentin McHale in Borgnine's 1960's television show McHale's Navy.[4]
Plot
A Navy unit under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Wyatt operates one of six remote weather stations in the isolated Gobi Desert during World War II. The group's ramrod is CPO Sam McHale, a tough efficiency expert and a fish-out-of-water in the Gobi, having served years at sea in the Navy. One evening, Mongolian nomads led by Kengtu set up camp at the station's oasis. Despite cultural differences, the two groups settle into an uneasy co-existence. Seaman Jenkins, an ex-cowboy, muses that the Mongols would make an excellent cavalry troop. Hoping to persuade the Mongols to join them against the Japanese, McHale requisitions 60 Army-issue saddles. They soon arrive and the Mongols appear delighted. Later, however, Japanese planes bomb and strafe the combined oasis camp, killing Wyatt and several Mongols. When the Mongols abandon the camp, the Americans, now alone and defenseless, begin to evacuate 800 miles east across the Gobi to the sea.
McHale and the men reach an oasis where Chinese traders are camped. There, they encounter Kengtu, who explains he abandoned the station to protect his people from the Japanese "birds in the sky". In return for his followers keeping their saddles, Kengtu offers to escort the Americans to the sea if they disguise themselves in Mongol dress. All goes well until they reach the Japanese-occupied city of Sangchien, China, where Kengtu leads McHale's unit into a trap where they are captured by Japanese soldiers, who transport them to a prisoner-of-war camp on China's coast. There, the officer in charge decides that because they are not in uniform, they will be treated as spies.
However, one of Kengtu's men, Wali-Akhun, allows himself to be arrested while wearing a stolen American uniform. Wali reveals to McHale and his men that Kengtu has arranged for their escape and gives them wire-cutters he smuggled in. That night, they break out and head for the docks, where Kengtu is waiting with a Chinese junk. The wily Kengtu explains to McHale that their capture was a ploy to get the Japanese to transport them to the ocean. They set sail for Okinawa and are later spotted by U.S. Navy patrol planes and rescued. McHale is awarded the Navy Cross, and Kengtu and Wali are flown in an admiral's transport plane to re-join their people. There, McHale and his men present the Mongols with 60 brand-new, navy blue saddle blankets emblazoned with the logo: "The First U.S. Navy Mongolian Calvary".
Cast
- Richard Widmark as CPO Samuel T. McHale
- Don Taylor as Jenkins
- Casey Adams as Walter Landers
- Murvyn Vye as Kengtu
- Darryl Hickman as Wilbur 'Coney' Cohen
- Earl Holliman as Frank Swenson
- Martin Milner as Elwood Halsey
- Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (credited as Ross Bagdasarian) as Paul Sabatello
- Judy Dan as Nura-Salu (as Judy Dann)
- Rodolfo Acosta as Tomec
- Russell Collins as Lt. Cmdr. Hobart Wyatt
- Leonard Strong as Wali-Akhun
References
- Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989; ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p. 248
- "The Top Box Office Hits of 1953", Variety, January 13, 1954
- "SP:WaW Depot™ :: View topic - SACO - U.S. Navy in China WWII". Spwaw.com. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
- "Ernest Borgnine on the genesis of McHale's Navy". YouTube.