To the Shores of Tripoli

To the Shores of Tripoli is a 1942 American Technicolor film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and starring John Payne, Maureen O'Hara and Randolph Scott. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. Its cinematography was nominated for an Academy Award in 1943. Titled after a lyric in the Marines' Hymn, which contains the phrase "... to the shores of Tripoli" (which is, itself, a reference to the Battle of Derne), the film is one of the last of the pre-Pearl Harbor service films. When the film was in post-production the Pearl Harbor attack occurred, causing the studio to shoot a new ending in which Payne's character re-enlists. The supporting cast features Nancy Kelly, Maxie Rosenbloom, Harry Morgan, and Alan Hale Jr. Plot Wealthy Culver Military Academy drop-out and playboy Chris Winters enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he meets his drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Dixie Smith and falls in love with a Navy nurse, Lieutenant Mary Carter. Smith receives a letter from Winters's father, Captain Christopher Winters, about his playboy son. Sgt. Smith had served in World War I under the elder Winter, and he affectionately calls Winters "The Skipper". Chris Winters cannot understand why officers and enlisted men do not associate under the non-fraternization policy, even if the officer is a woman and the enlisted man is a male.