The film starred George Montgomery who also produced, directed and co-wrote the screenplay as well as featuring his own father in a role as a Priest.
Twenty seven days after the attack on Pearl Harbor Murphy has lost his fortune in a high-stakes poker game, is beaten up by some of his many creditors and is trapped in the Philippines during the Japanese invasion.
He is comforted by an elderly priest Fr Osgood who laments the fact that he has a pass to ride on a United States Army Air Forces DC-3 evacuating American civilians to Australia when he would rather minister to the troubled souls who will be left behind to face the Japanese.
Facing the wrath of the many Americans unable to leave, they decide to avoid hostility by travelling with Murphy, thinking he is an actual priest; despite the fact that he never wears his cassock correctly and carries a M1911A1 .45 calibre pistol in a shoulder holster.
Murphy soon discovers a Japanese radio station but his reconnaissance leads him to believe that the post is only manned by two idiots.