Task Force

This long-winded account of the struggle to persuade the US Navy to develop aircraft carriers opens with Gary Cooper as the retiring admiral looking back on his days as an early advocate of their use, arguing with politicians, newspaper proprietors and stubborn navy bigwigs. Only as the film bursts into colour towards the end, to work in documentary footage from the Second World War and demonstrate the carriers' worth in the Battle of Okinawa, does writer/director Delmer Daves's picture achieve lift-off.