ARMY SURGEON (1942)

It is difficult to find anything in the usual reference sources (Halliwell, Maltin, etc.) about this B-grade propaganda movie, and the cable on-screen guide only gave it one star, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that it's as good as, and maybe a little bit better than, the average wartime programmer. Filmed during the first half of 1942, the film begins (in a pre-credit sequence, quite rare in movies back then) with references to our then-current involvement in WWII, and sets itself up as an explicit lesson in the importance of military medical units, but the bulk of the story takes place during WWI. Jane Wyatt is a doctor who has "reduced" herself to the status of nurse in order to serve near the front lines with the military in 1917. She works for brain doc James Ellison and proves that she is made of strong stuff during some marathon surgery. Ellison wants to move his base of operations to the front lines but can't convince the brass to let him go until Wyatt makes the case, behind his back, to their commanding officer. Things get tough for the unit, and even tougher for Ellison who, as he begins to develop feelings for Wyatt, has to deal with an old flame of hers, pilot Kent Taylor, who shows up and tries to rekindle the spark. To add insult to injury, Ellison discovers that Wyatt was responsible for their move to the front and his male pride is hurt. Eventually, during a heavy bombardment by the Germans, the three of them are trapped along with several severely wounded soldiers when the hillside they are dug into collapses and traps them with little air and even less food. Taylor and Ellison work together and save the day, and of course because Ellison is more handsome and charming than Taylor, he gets the girl. The movie's framework has Wyatt (in effective middle-age make-up) in 1942, telling her story to some young sailors aboard a ship in the Pacific. At 63 minutes, the movie is well paced and the performers are all fine. The good if small supporting cast includes Walter Reed as a buddy of Ellison's who is killed during a stretcher run, James Burke as a comic relief soldier, and Lee Bonnell as a delirious patient. There are two very effective uses of long panning shots by cinematographer Russell Metty (who later won an Oscar for SPARTACUS), one during a Christmas scene in the ward as the men sing "Silent Night" and the other showing the wounded men gasping for air after the ward has been buried. No masterpiece, perhaps, but behind that nondescript title, there is an unjustly forgotten piece of B-movie wartime propaganda. [TCM]