Hellcats of the Navy poster

Movie · 1957

Hellcats of the Navy

Released 1 May 1957 More from 1957 → Letterboxd ↗ · TMDB ↗

Future "first couple" Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis made their only joint film appearance in Hellcats of the Navy. Ronnie plays Casey Abbott, commander of a WW2 submarine, while Nancy portrays navy nurse Helen Blair, Abbott's off-and-on girlfriend. During a delicate mission in which his sub is ordered to retrieve a revolutionary new Japanese mine, Abbott is forced to leave frogman Wes Barton (Harry Lauter) behind to save the rest of his crew. But Abbott's second-in-command Don Landon (Eduard Franz) is convinced that Abbott's sacrifice of Barton was due to the fact that the dead man had been amorously pursuing Helen.

FR·01

How old were they?

Oldest first
Ronald Reagan
as Cmdr. Casey Abbott (Captain, USS Starfish)
46
Harry Lauter
as Lt. (j.g.) Wes Barton
42
Don Keefer
as Jug
40
Arthur Franz
as Lt. Cmdr. Don Landon (XO, USS Starfish)
37
Joe Turkel
as Chick (as Joseph Turkel)
29
FR·02

The numbers

Computed from the cast above
17years between the oldest and youngest billed
46Ronald Reagan — oldest on the call sheet
29Joe Turkel — youngest billed
39average age of the credited cast
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