SO PROUDLY WE HAIL! (1943)

By coincidence, here's another Bataan movie, this one from a different point of view. Most WWII movies with female characters front and center are set on the homefront (MRS. MINIVER, SINCE YOU WENT AWAY). There are, however, a handful of films about women in the armed services and this is the best of the small bunch I've seen so far (including CRY HAVOC and KEEP YOUR POWDER DRY). It's based on the real story of eight Army nurses who were among the last to leave Corregidor after the fall of Bataan. We first see them after their evacuation, on a ship headed for San Francisco, and their story is told in flashback. Claudette Colbert is the head of a group of nurses on its way to Pearl Harbor in early December 1941. After the Japanese attack, they are routed to the Philippines and spend several grueling months tending to the wounded and dying soldiers as the Army retreats down the Bataan peninsula to a last stand on the small island of Corregidor. In addition to a surface portrayal of their medical duties, we see them bond as a group and we also get some standard Hollywood-style romance, with Colbert falling for medical technician George Reeves (quite handsome, and doing the best acting of his career, I think) and Paulette Goddard getting involved with soldier Sonny Tufts (who does a nice job with the "Kansas dumb lug" stereotype he's stuck with). Colbert and Goddard are the central characters and both are quite good, especially Goddard who was nominated for an Oscar for this role. Veronica Lake, with her long hair up and out of her eyes, has third billing but a fairly small role as a woman out for revenge against the Japanese because of her sweetheart's death at Pearl Harbor. The climax of her story, halfway through the movie, is effective and satisfying.

Critic James Agee, writing at the time of the film's release, said the movie was a good illustration of "what war looks like through the lenses of a housewives' magazine romance," and though that is somewhat true, especially during the first half, there is still some idea conveyed of what these non-combatants would have gone through during the early and very dark days of the Pacific war. There are several effective scenes, including a sentimental sermon that chaplain Walter Abel gives at Christmas. Reeves gives Colbert a "To His Coy Mistress" seduction speech, suggesting that since they don't know how much time they'll have together, they should make every minute count--it works, leading to Colbert and Reeves spending an unauthorized night together in a foxhole (later, against regulations, they get married, a sure sign that Reeves won't survive the retreat). Though we don't see the men in combat, there are a number of well-staged bombing scenes. Given the presence of the future TV Superman (Reeves), there is an ironic reference to the superhero in a scene in which Goddard tells a Superman story to some Filipino kids who then ask why Superman isn't there to help them. One of the best of the WWII movies made during the conflict, well worth seeking out. [TCM]