Corps had promised “full cooperation,” and full cooperation was what they were going to get.
“Unless it actually interferes with our movements to Korea, see that they get everything they want.”
Colonel Severance said, “Aye, aye, sir,” and General Dawkins put the Hollywood Marines out of his mind.
Major Macklin was delighted with his new assignment. He would have gone willingly to Korea, of course, and still would. But the facts were that his previous service had denied him the privilege of command. He had never been a company commander, and service as a company commander as a captain was at least an unofficial prerequisite to serving as a battalion executive officer as a major.
Neither had his intelligence service prepared him for duty with a brigade as an intelligence officer. He had spent most of his OSS service on the Japanese-occupied island of Mindanao. That was certainly valuable service—and certainly dangerous service—but it wasn’t the sort of thing that had given him the experience to assume duties as a regimental intelligence officer.
So the situation was that even if he was ordered to Korea with the brigade—or later, with the 1st Marine Division— he more than likely would have been given duties in personnel or supply. That was certainly important work, but looking at the big picture, he could make a far larger contribution to the Marine Corps by doing an outstanding job supporting the filming of Halls of Montezuma.
And his work would certainly be noticed by senior officers, which was important, if he looked down the road to selection time for promotion to lieutenant colonel.
When he reported to Colonel Severance, Severance repeated to him what General Dawkins had said about the importance of the project, and told him to guide himself accordingly. He also told him that the “senior members” of the production company were putting up at the Coronado Beach Hotel, and that he should establish contact with the producers and the director there.
He was given a copy of the “shooting script” and a long list of things, from Jeeps and trucks to telephone service, the production company would require. He was also asked to escort the “location manager” around the Camp Pendleton reservation to find suitable sites for various “scenes” and “shots” in the film.
He got right on that, and returned the same evening to the Coronado Beach to report his progress to the director and producers. While he was at Camp Pendleton, he suggested to Colonel Severance that since he was going to have to be on twenty-four-hour call to take care of the requests of “the company,” he thought it would be a good idea if he took a room at the hotel. That would mean that he would have to be put on temporary duty, so that he could draw per diem and quarters pay. Colonel Severance said he would take care of it.
Two things happened the very first day. When he told the producer that he had arranged to stay in the hotel so that he would be available around the clock, the director said the least the company could do in return was pick up the hotel bill.
That meant that he would be drawing quarters pay but would not have to spend it.
The second thing that happened the very first day was that he got to meet the star, Mr. Richard Widmark. Widmark had, of course, a suite in the Coronado Beach, but he had come to San Diego on his yacht, which was a converted Navy PT-Boat.
They met on the yacht. Mr. Widmark was more than charming, and told him that he would be sleeping on the yacht, rather than in the hotel, and that Macklin should feel free to come aboard whenever he pleased.
“We party a little out here,” Widmark said. “On the boat, nobody notices.”
That was certainly an interesting prospect, and over the next ten days, Major Macklin learned that many—perhaps most—of the beautiful women associated with a motion picture company were not actresses, but technicians and assistants of one kind or another. And many of these, he quickly learned, were drawn to a real-life Marine major, who had been wounded on a real battlefield, and then been a real OSS agent doing his fighting behind enemy lines.
In order to carry out his duties, he requested first—and got—a staff car. After two days, he decided that what he really needed was a station wagon, and a driver, and Colonel Severance got that for him, too.
On 28 July, the production company’s extras casting director