They Were Expendable
E625976
They Were Expendable is a 1945 World War II drama film directed by John Ford that follows U.S. Navy PT boat crews in the Philippines during the early days of the war.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| They Were Expendable canonical | 6 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6884761 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: They Were Expendable Context triple: [Argosy Pictures, notableWork, They Were Expendable]
-
A.
The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 World War II action film about a group of convicted military prisoners sent on a dangerous suicide mission, renowned for its ensemble cast and gritty, anti-authoritarian tone.
-
B.
Von Ryan's Express
Von Ryan's Express is a 1965 World War II adventure film starring Frank Sinatra as an American POW leading a daring escape from a German prison camp by hijacking a train.
-
C.
Pride of the Marines
Pride of the Marines is a 1945 World War II drama film starring John Garfield as a Marine who must adjust to life after being blinded in combat.
-
D.
Hellcats of the Navy
Hellcats of the Navy is a 1957 World War II submarine film best known for featuring future U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his then-wife Nancy Reagan together on screen.
-
E.
Three Soldiers
Three Soldiers is a World War I novel by John Dos Passos that portrays the dehumanizing effects of military life on three American soldiers.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: They Were Expendable Target entity description: They Were Expendable is a 1945 World War II drama film directed by John Ford that follows U.S. Navy PT boat crews in the Philippines during the early days of the war.
-
A.
The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 World War II action film about a group of convicted military prisoners sent on a dangerous suicide mission, renowned for its ensemble cast and gritty, anti-authoritarian tone.
-
B.
Von Ryan's Express
Von Ryan's Express is a 1965 World War II adventure film starring Frank Sinatra as an American POW leading a daring escape from a German prison camp by hijacking a train.
-
C.
Pride of the Marines
Pride of the Marines is a 1945 World War II drama film starring John Garfield as a Marine who must adjust to life after being blinded in combat.
-
D.
Hellcats of the Navy
Hellcats of the Navy is a 1957 World War II submarine film best known for featuring future U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his then-wife Nancy Reagan together on screen.
-
E.
Three Soldiers
Three Soldiers is a World War I novel by John Dos Passos that portrays the dehumanizing effects of military life on three American soldiers.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | film ⓘ |
| basedOn | They Were Expendable (novel) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| basedOnAuthor | William Lindsay White NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| blackAndWhite | true ⓘ |
| blacklistedEra | World War II Hollywood production ⓘ |
| cinematographyBy | Joseph H. August NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| depictsOrganization | United States Navy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| depictsVesselType | PT boat ⓘ |
| director | John Ford NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| distributor | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ⓘ |
| editor | Douglass Biggs NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| featuresCharacterBasedOn |
John D. Bulkeley
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Robert Kelly NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| filmingLocation | Florida NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre |
World War II film
ⓘ
drama film ⓘ war film ⓘ |
| historicalContext | early days of U.S. involvement in World War II ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| leadActorRole |
Donna Reed as 2nd Lt. Sandy Davyss
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
John Wayne as Lt. Rusty Ryan ⓘ Robert Montgomery as Lt. John Brickley NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| musicBy | Herbert Stothart NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| narrativeFocus | U.S. Navy PT boat crews NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableFor | realistic depiction of PT boat warfare ⓘ |
| oscarNomination |
Best Sound Recording
ⓘ
Best Special Effects ⓘ |
| portrays |
Battle of the Philippines (1941–1942)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
PT boat operations ⓘ |
| producer | Sidney Franklin NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| productionCompany | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ⓘ |
| publicationYearOfSource | 1942 ⓘ |
| releaseDate | December 7, 1945 ⓘ |
| releaseYear | 1945 ⓘ |
| runtimeMinutes | 135 ⓘ |
| screenwriter | Frank Wead NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| setInPeriod | World War II ⓘ |
| setInPlace | Philippines NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| setInYear |
1941
ⓘ
1942 ⓘ |
| starring |
Donna Reed
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Jack Holt NERFINISHED ⓘ John Wayne NERFINISHED ⓘ Marshall Thompson NERFINISHED ⓘ Robert Montgomery NERFINISHED ⓘ Ward Bond NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: They Were Expendable Description of subject: They Were Expendable is a 1945 World War II drama film directed by John Ford that follows U.S. Navy PT boat crews in the Philippines during the early days of the war.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.