ShangLuda Admirable film.

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

thinker1691 This is one of those modest films about life in the Marine corps during War time. Directed by Ron Winston, it's depiction is that of a select group of specialized soldiers, sent on a top secret mission to destroy a specific target which threaten the U.S. Navy's amphibious assault. The movie stars tough guy Hugh O'Brian as 1st Sgt. Steve Corey. Mickey Rooney follows as Gunnery Sgt. Ernest Wartell, as an equally tough as nails non-com who is convincing as a career soldier. James Mitchum is interesting, though irritatingly naive as Pfc. James Grenier who joins the elite group at the last minute. Their mission is dangerous, indeed nearly impossible as they are required to land on a heavily guarded island held by the Japanese, traverse a dense jungle and to destroy their radar station controlling a hidden underwater mine field awaiting the unsuspecting Americans. Despite the minor flaws in the film, the acting is top notch and the drama is consistent with true war like Military action. The movie is easily recommended to war buffs and fans of the main stars. ****

bkoganbing A crack team of US Marines is sent to one of the small Phillipine islands because there's an agent there who's got some big news, but can't get it out. Almost from the beginning Captain Clem Stadler is killed in some contact with a Japanese patrol. That leaves command of the mission to fall on Sergeant Hugh O'Brian.Ambush Bay managed to hit all the war movie clichés without a miss in its running time. One of the most prominent was the new guy on the mission, in this case radioman James Mitchum. He was a last minute replacement and with the exception of Mickey Rooney, he's not well regarded by the seasoned Marines on the mission.I can't say what it is or how the team deals with the information, but let's just say they've got one big old surprise cooked up for Admiral Halsey's task force.The movie was shot entirely on location in the Phillipines and the scenery is quite lush. I'm sure that the promise of a tropical vacation might have induced a few of our American players to work in this film.I feel either ambushed or just plain bushed right about now.

ddc300 Just picked up this DVD for a song. Yes, the acting is wooden, the characters are archetypes of classic WWII yarns, and the blood was obviously red paint. But this film does include two nice touches: the cinematography, and the music score. I thought I recognized the music: Richard LaSalle was the composer for "Ambush Bay" and many of his music cues from this film turned up as incidental music on most of producer Irwin Allen's TV projects throughout the 1970's. The "Land of the Giants" series used a lot of his music in the later episodes.Oddly, in a peculiar coincidence, "Ambush Bay" co-script writer Ib Melchoir was a noted sci-fi film scribe, having penned "The Time Travelers" (1966), and is credited with creating the idea for producer Irwin Allen's "Lost In Space" (for which he was not given credit). And the tie-in is that composer LaSalle contributed scores to both "Time Travelers" and "Lost in Space" (sometimes fact IS stranger than fiction).

J Keith Montz For standards of movie making decades later, the movie has its flaws but if you look past that, the plot is good and so is the acting. I enjoyed the nostalgia look at war movies where it was made close / somewhat close to when it happened and present day mannerisms, colloquial expressions and revisionist haven't taken too much of a overriding theme.The actors in this movie are thin which to me reflects what a true soldier living on rations would look like, they don't use foul language in every sentence nor do they talk about sex. The plot shows Americans with dedication to duty, callous to the death around them and respect for each other except for the character, Pfc James Grenier, played by James Mitchum. As you watch the movie you go from disliking Grenier to rooting for him as all of the members of the mission are killed off.