Private Johnny "Chicken" Anderson Roy Roberts as Captain James Cross Minor Watson as Colonel Wallace E. Grayson Ralph Byrd as Ned Rowman Lionel Stander as Sergeant Butch Reed Hadley as War correspondent / Narrator John Archer as Lieutenant Thurmond Eddie Acuff as Private "Tex" Mcllovy (uncredited) Bob Rose as Private Sammy Kline (uncredited) Production notes Guadalcanal Diary was shot from May 14 to late July, 1943, mostly on location at Camp Pendleton, near Oceanside, California. Many of the Marines stationed there were filmed on maneuvers, and others appeared in the picture in small speaking parts or as extras. The picture marked the screen debuts of stage actor Robert Rose and Richard Jaeckel, who was a studio messenger boy when he was cast in the production. On February 28, 1944, Foster, Bendix, Nolan and Jaeckel reprised their roles for the Lux Radio Theatre presentation of Guadalcanal Diary. Reception Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film "stirring and inspiring in many ways" and particularly praised the first part of the film as "almost documentarily real" but also criticized historical inaccuracies in the film's presentation of the battle as well as "comparatively routine" fighting scenes. Variety wrote: "It is at times a sobering film and at other times an exalting one. It is also an almost continuously entertaining one." Harrison's Reports wrote, "Excellent! ... The producers rate a salute for having treated their subject with the honesty and dignity it deserves." However, David Lardner of The New Yorker wrote a negative review, criticizing the film for containing "every cliché known to man" and for the Marines being depicted as having "altogether too soft a time ... None of the mood of just sitting and taking it until you don't remember where you are any more or how you got there is put across on the screen." References External links 1943 films 1940s war drama films American war drama films American black-and-white films Pacific War films World War II films made in wartime Films set in the Solomon Islands 20th Century Fox films Films directed by Lewis Seiler Films scored by David Buttolph Films with screenplays by Lamar Trotti Guadalcanal Campaign Films about the United States Marine Corps 1943 drama films 1940s English-language films