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the audience applauded

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

A good-natured, charming and lively patriotic movie, of a chivalrous spirit, with Wayne in uniform, as Duke (lieut. Comdr.), a cardboard character among cardboard characters, either on his submarine 'Thunderfish' or on shore, rescuing nuns, negotiating with dishonest Hawaiians, claiming his love, looking clueless, self-righteous and stubborn, checking torpedoes, in the middle of the Japanese Imperial Navy, or of a salon of babies; in each of these occasions, he looks conveniently dignified, as an ideal navy officer, and is being given the occasion to avenge his mentor. A vehicle for uplifting militarism, smoothly directed by Waggner, who had the subtlety of mentioning 'G. W. slept here' and of peppering the dialogue with lines about movies, so it also has this meta dimension, with warriors on a submarine watching a movie about submarines. The funny scenes also have the chivalrous spirit. The romance plot is blunted by the edifying zeal, of undeniable hypocrisy. So, an assemblage of patriotic and populist clichés about competing, winning, etc., unpretentious fun for the unpretentious audiences eager to see Wayne doing his role; but as it may be unfair to require this movie to be what it wasn't even meant to, another possible take on it would be: watching Wayne playing a navy officer, in one of the mediocre and watchable movies made in the '50s, no sillier than many of the standard comedies and musicals, so good for an evening watching Wayne, gentle and chivalrous fun, meant to be appreciated by a perhaps not very pretentious audience.One can't reduce Wayne's understanding of the movies to the sheer banality of this, but it certainly is a way he enjoyed being shown on the screen, the icon of his ideal self. It made me yearn for something less phony. But when one sees Wayne's name on a war movie's credits, one also knows what to expect.Also in the cast: Patricia Neal, Ward Bond.

. . . actor John Wayne as "Duke" commands his ex-wife while appropriating a random, unrelated orphan newborn from the local hospital to close OPERATION PACIFIC. So while this ready-made Daddy is busy bringing down enemy destroyers, planes, subs, tankers, and aircraft carriers, Junior can look forward to about six days annually with dear old Pops. Speaking of "Pop," goes the weasel, if you can suffer a spoiler about OP's Captain Ahab moment. And talk about product DIS-placement. Near the middle of this flick, producer Warner Bros. asserts that their 1942 Jack Benny film titled GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE is so boring that it will doom any submarine below the surface of the seas on the weekly movie night. It's a wonder that OP's lead actress Patricia Neal didn't wind up with Prince Albert in a can by the end of 1951. First she got Michael Rennie from a saucer during THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and then "the Duke" from a sardine tin here. Klaatu Barada Nikto, anyone?

As movies about submarines go - and Hollywood has churned out its share of them - this is no better and no worse than any. If anything it's notable for early appearances by actors who would achieve recognition as the fifties progressed but then fade away despite appearing in notable films - I'm thinking of Martin Milner (Pete Kelly's Blues, Sweet Smell Of Success), William Campbell (Man Without A Star) and Philip Carey who went on to play Phillip Marlowe on TV. It is, of course, Duke Wayne's movie and he carries it well enough with Patricia Neal as the love interest and Ward Bond as mentor/friend. As someone born and bred in the UK I have no idea whether the central plot point of torpedoes that either failed to explode or else did so before reaching the target has any basis in fact but it's reasonable to assume that a major studio such as Warner Bros would employ fact-checkers to deal with such details so that on balance it was probably factual. Whatever it's certainly worth a look.

The Duke playing Lt. Duke Gifford (Wayne), a naval officer assigned to a dangerous mission in the Pacific where his submarine is attacked by a Japanese warship after its lured to the surface by a white flag. His pal and commander (Bond) is killed in the ensuing battle, and Wayne must defend his actions to the younger brother of his slain friend (Carey) who is in love with Wayne's ex-wife (Neal). Neal and Wayne still share a mutual affection for one another, much to Carey's chagrin (who regards Wayne as a show-pony), but Bond's death and Wayne's loyalty to his crew threatens to push Neal into Carey's arms.Melodramatic love triangle set against a WWII backdrop with a likable cast that also contains Kathryn Givney as Neal's officious commanding officer, as well as a youthful looking Martin Milner as a submarine officer and durable actor-stuntman Paul Picerni as one of Wayne's rabble-rousing crewman. Battle scenes are done on the cheap here, director Waggner opting for copious stock footage and miniatures.If you worship Wayne, or enjoy a uniformed soap-opera, then "Operation Pacific" should suffice.