Build a movie plot around this: What rank does Torrey's estranged son hold? Ensign
The story opens on the night of December 6, 1941, at a dance in the Officers' Club at Pearl Harbor. We are at first introduced to Lieutenant (j.g.) William 'Mac' McConnel (Tom Tryon) and his wife Beverly (Paula Prentiss), who can't help but notice a visibly inebriated Liz Eddington (Barbara Bouchet) dancing with an Army Air Corps major (Hugh O'Brian) - spiting her husband who is at sea on gunnery practice. When the band launches into an upbeat swing tune, Liz engages in an exotic dance that for better or for worse draws the attention of every person in the club. Mac finally asks the band to make an end and play something else, which is heeded to Liz's disappointment. Her lover escorts her from the premises and takes her to spend the rest of the night on a beach near the base.Morning breaks over the unnamed heavy cruiser commanded by Captain Rockwell 'Rock' Torrey (John Wayne), who is nonplussed to find that his executive officer, Liz's husband Paul Eddington (Kirk Douglas), has overslept reveille, the latest of a number of blemishes on his record that (along with his mounting alcoholism) can be laid to his unhappy marriage. He tells Eddington to 'fish or cut bait' and gives him one last chance to pull himself together. Eddington apologizes for his conduct, but is left wondering what Liz has gotten herself into in recent hours.In Pearl Harbor, Mac reports for duty as Officer of the Day on his destroyer, the U.S.S. Cassiday. With some consternation, he reads a radio dispatch from the destroyer U.S.S. Ward, which has depth-charged an unidentified submarine contact much too close to Pearl for comfort. Torrey's ship has received the same message; he orders alert status, then general quarters when one of his lookouts sights several large formations of planes flying over Oahu. The Japanese surprise attack is only minutes away. One formation flies over and strafes the beach where Liz Eddington and her lover are awakening, and they make a hasty escape back towards Pearl. As they hurtle around a curve, a truck barrels...