Steel-eyed John Wayne supposedly made more money from moving pictures last year than any other actor in Hollywood. The reason for his popularity seems to be his complete self-reliance. People like to associate themselves with the John Wayne of the movies because there is no problem too big, no woman too impregnable, no beachhead too well guarded for him to conquer.

"Operation Pacific" is a tour-de-force for the talented terror. Here he is a submarine officer who eventually takes over command of the "Thunder fish." In the course of the picture he probably sinks more ships than any other single submarine commander in the history of motion pictures, this in spite of the fact that nearly half of his torpedoes are duds.

There are other problems that John Wayno must overcome. His pretty ex-wife, star-eyed Patricia Neal, has enlisted as a Navy Nurse. When Wayno returns from a mission on which he has picked up a squad of infants from a captured island, he realizes that he is still in love with her. She is of course, stationed at Pearl Harbor, and in love (she thinks) with a beady-eyed hot-shot pilot.

This pilot, who I think would prefer to remain anonymous, comes from Wayne's old home town. Considerably younger than the here, he was consistently pushed into the background by Wayne's exploits (when the pilot scored three touchdowns for the old school, John Wayne ran 92 yards for a touchdown against the Point.) His persecution complex has come to the fore, but at last it appears that he has won out over Wayne.

The nurse is undecided. Wayno takes the submarine down while the pilot's wounded brother is still on deck. He wants no sympathy, he is hard as nails and would do it again if it meant saving his crew. Then he is sent out on a realty dangerous mission locate the Imperial Japanese Fleet.

This he does. The Navy air force comes to clean up after Wayne's submarine has sunk two destroyers and an aircraft carrier. The pilot is shot down and without care for personal safety Wayne jumps into the water to save him, with enemy machine gun bullets dropping all around.

"I realize that you really deserved the front pages," the pilot tells him. Misty-eyed Patricia Neal embraces Wayne back at Pearl and everything is Okay.