The New York Times film review said: "If there's one thing Preminger proved by making In Harm's Way, it's that you can't kill John Wayne."

As Captain Rock Torrey, he is like an avenging angel, commanding a naval battle against the Japanese. However much they throw at him, he displays "the same bristling valour as his Davy Crockett at The Alamo". Even Preminger, who swaggered on to the set announcing "I'm the man with no hair who shoves around the people with hair" dared not utter a peep against him.

But if anything threatened to lay the Duke low, it was the script. Normally, as co-star Kirk Douglas observed, "he brings so much authority to a role that he can pronounce literally any line and get away with it". But this time there was a line that looked unstoppable. It called for Torrey to recite revolutionary war hero John Paul Jones' famous quote: "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way."

Douglas was worried: "I thought: shit, I've got to hear him say this line. But you know what? He said it and he got away with it. Now that's John Wayne." Andrew Horn