Most of this film is pure Americana, following the lives of the boys from their childhood in Waterloo, Iowa. Thomas Mitchell and the marvelous Selena Royle are the loving parents, while the five boys are played by unknown actors: Edward Ryan (Al), John Campbell (Frank), James Cardwell (George), John Alvin (Matt), and George Offerman (Joe). Trudy Marshall plays their only sister, Genevieve. Top billing actually goes to Anne Baxter as the young girl who marries into the family and will be left a widow with a baby in arms. Ward Bond plays the Navy lieutenant who befriends the family when the Sullivan's insist that they will only join up if they can serve together. Eventually the Navy relents and the boys get their wish.

Audiences knew the tragic fate of the Sullivan's, although the film was originally released as "The Sullivan's" and pretty much bombed at the box office. Re-titled "The Fighting Sullivan's" and re-released, it became a smash hit. The use of unknown actors made the film all the more effective, especially since it refrained from the sort of clichés you would expect.

If the scene where the parents learn all five boys have died does not get you, the next scene will: Mr. Sullivan goes off to his job on the railroad and as the train passes the water tower where his boys waved to him as kids, he salutes them. Actually, this film works so well that the final shot, of the Sullivan's in uniform striding across the clouds of the afterlife does not seem one whit hokey. There is a documentary available on the Sullivan's, which tells how one of the boys survived the sinking before dying in the waters off of Guadalcanal. I would not have thought anything could have made this story more tragic, but that bit of information certainly made it worse for me.