Halls of Montezuma is a 1951 American World War II war film directed by Academy Award-winner Lewis Milestone and starring Richard Widmark. It also stars Robert Wagner in his first credited screen role and features Richard Boone in his feature-film debut. The story is about U.S. Marines fighting on a Japanese-held island, and the title is a reference to the opening line from the Marines' Hymn.
Real color combat footage from the war in the Pacific was incorporated into the film's cinematography, and scenes at Camp Pendleton, California, were filmed on location with the full cooperation of the Marines.
The film was referred to in M*A*S*H (1970), directed by Robert Altman.
Plot
During World War II, a Marine battalion prepares to land on a large Japanese-held island in the Pacific. Lieutenant Colonel Gilfillan warns the men that it will be a tough mission, and that they have been ordered to take prisoners in order to gain information about the Japanese fortifications. Below deck, veteran Lieutenant Carl A. Anderson, a chemistry teacher in civilian life, questions his former student, Corporal Stuart Conroy, who complains that he is ill and cannot fight. Carl assures him that he has shown courage before and can do so again. In the landing boat heading to shore, Navy corpsman C. E. "Doc" Jones is worried because Carl has been suffering from "psychological migraines" for months. Carl and his platoon have been fighting since Guadalcanal, and now only seven men remain of the original platoon. Although Doc urged Carl to seek treatment in the United States, Anderson refuses to leave his men and has been relying on Doc to supply him with painkillers.
The men hit the beach and successfully dig in, despite an initial burst of resistance. As four days pass, the seven old-timers in Anderson's platoon, including Doc, Pigeon Lane, Sergeant Zelenko, Slattery, Coffman, and the unstable Riley "Pretty Boy" Duncannon, grow weary of the constant threat of hidden Japanese snipers. One day, the men try to take a ridge of hills, but are beaten back by Japanese rockets, which come as an unpleasant surprise to the commanding officers. When Coffman, who Carl saved from drowning at Tarawa is killed, Carl is forced to take some more of Doc's pills.
Anderson meets with other officers at battalion headquarters, where Gilfillan recounts the troubles they are having capturing prisoners and getting information from them. Sergeant Randolph Johnson, a Japanese-speaking linguist who uses psychology in interrogating prisoners, questions a POW who has been dubbed "Willie". As Gilfillan receives orders to stop the rockets within nine hours, before the next assault on the hills, Willie informs Johnson that the Japanese soldiers holding a cave stronghold are willing to surrender. Accompanied by Randolph, and war correspondent Sergeant Dickerman, Carl leads a patrol with the six remaining old-timers and replacement Whitney, to the cave, but they are ambushed and Zelenko is blinded.
The men capture the remaining Japanese, including a wounded officer, three laborers and a shell-shocked, elderly civilian. Carl finds a map on the wounded officer. On the return trip, a sniper shoots at Pretty Boy, who kills him during hand-to-hand combat. The confrontation further unbalances him and he attempts to murder the prisoners. Lane then accidentally shoots and kills Pretty Boy while attempting to stop him. Doc also dies from a wound in the shoulder, but not before giving Dickerman a message for Carl.