In Love and War (1958)

This film is based on the 1957 novel The Big War by Anton Myrer, who was a former Marine wounded during the Second Battle of Guam in 1944. The film follows three Marines who have shore leave in San Francisco before being shipped off to the Pacific front. Frankie O'Neill visits his lower-class dysfunctional family; Nico Kantaylis visits his pregnant fiancée; and the upper-class Alan Newcombe visits his high-living playgirl girlfriend. Each must decide whether to make the best of his situation or break out of it. O'Neill drowns his troubles in alcohol, losing the respect of a potential lover; Kantaylis marries his fiancée, but realizes he may not survive the war to see his child; while Newcombe sheds his decadent girlfriend for a pure-hearted Hawaiian nurse. Later, in battle, a heroic act costs one of the Marines his life.