Ambush Bay is a 1966 American war film directed by Ron Winston and starring Hugh O'Brian, Mickey Rooney and James Mitchum.
Prior to the 1944 American invasion of the Philippines a hand-picked team of U.S. Marine Corps amphibious reconnaissance scouts is landed by a PBY Catalina with the mission of contacting an intelligence agent who has crucial information.
After meeting up with their guide (Manual Amado), the patrol commander Captain Alonzo Davis (Lieutenant Colonel Clement J. Stadler who had been awarded the Navy Cross[1] and who also acted as the film's technical advisor) is killed while ambushing a small group of Japanese soldiers, and First Sergeant Corey (Hugh O'Brian, recognized as one of the youngest Drill Instructors to have served in the USMC[2]) takes command.
His only friend is easy going but professional Gunnery Sergeant Wartell who acts as a mediator between the hard no nonsense 1st Sgt Corey and Grenier, explaining each one to the other and the audience.
Rooney provides the only comedy relief in the film when his character is captured and interrogated by a group of careless Japanese soldiers.
The surviving squad members eventually arrive at the tea house but, unfortunately, Amado was the one who was supposed to meet the contact as he was the only Filipino in the group.
While sneaking out of the camp with Miyazaki, Corey crashes into a waiter and the two run across a straw bridge then blow it up with a grenade, escaping from the soldiers.
After toying with them a bit during his interrogation he sets off the grenades, taking them all out in the blast, and leaving Corey and Grenier the only surviving marines.
[3] The New York Times remarked that the film was one that everyone had seen at least once in some form but was "a trim, muscular, pint-sized package as sensible as it is modest that makes a little count for a lot".