So Proudly We Hail!

Plot synopsis:
In 1942, an Army plane brings eight nurses from the Philippines to Australia. They are the only female survivors from the hard-hit Army base in Corregidor,and are put aboard a ship to the US. Their leader, Lt. Janet 'Davy' Davidson (Claudette Colbert), does not speak, and the doctor on board asks the nurses to tell their story so he can try to help her.In 1941, these peacetime army nurses were traveling to Hawaii for their assignment. After Pearl Harbor they are diverted to meet a convoy of ships. When one ship is torpedoed, they pick up survivors. Cold Lt. Olivia D'Arcy (Veronica Lake) is added to the nurse group, but is downright hostile. Finally she divulges that her fiancé died at Pearl Harbor, she tried and failed to kill herself, and now she just wants the Japanese dead.Lt. Joan O'Doul (Paulette Goddard) begins a flirtation with Kansas (Sonny Tufts) but refuses to get too involved. Lt. John Summers (George Reeves) and Davy keep running into each other aboard ship, clicking in a more understated way.The nurses are assigned to a hospital in Bataan, under overworked head nurse Capt. 'Ma' McGregor (Mary Servoss). When Davy finds out that Olivia was assigned to care for the Japanese prisoners, she rushes there, but finds that Olivia could not bring herself to harm them.Due to the approach of the enemy, the camp is evacuated. At the last moment Joan rushes back to get her beloved black nightgown, delaying the nurses departure and killing their escorts. The Japanese are so close that escape seems impossible, so Olivia grabs a grenade and steps grimly toward them. When she pulls the pin, sacrificing her life and killing the enemy, the nurses are able to escape.Their next hospital is little more than beds in a jungle, caring for thousands of wounded men. Malaria and dysentery are rampant and supplies are scarce. Everyone is stunned when they learn that General Douglas MacArthur has left the island and that the supply convoy was sunk.After moving to another base, Davy realizes that Joan has been overworking to try to compensate for the loss of Olivia. The Japanese bombard the hospital, killing and wounding many. Orders are received to evacuate Bataan, and everyone crowds the roads heading for the harbor at Marivèles. Everything that floats is used to escape to the island of Corregidor.In the tunnels of Corregidor, constant air raids and no supplies increase the pressure on the nurses. Desperation for supplies finally forces the assembly of a small group of men who will try to reach Mindanao. John is one of the volunteers, but he and Davy decide to marry before he goes. After his departure, secret orders are given to evacuate the nurses simply to prevent them being captured: it is obvious that Corregidor will be lost. Davy does not want to leave because she fears for John. Word comes that the volunteer mission failed, and Davy goes into speechless shock.The nurses finish telling the whole story to the doctor. He locates a letter from John, written during his mission and given to someone before pressing on. It includes the deed to his farm in American. At the time of writing he was safe, and hopes to meet her there after the war. However, he also states that even if he doesn't survive, the effort of fighting the war is worth his sacrifice, for the freedom of the United States. Hearing his words, Davy is roused from her catatonia and speaks. She lifts her face and smiles.

Tags: flashback

Review:
This film centers around the true horrors that the courageous nurses who served in WWII at Corregidor went through.
Amazing performances by all, including the great Claudette Colbert, George Reeves (from Superman fame), Veronica Lake (In certainly her finest performance), and Paullette Goddard who was nominated for an Academy Award.
The script for this film was written by using the stories from journals, and diaries of the actual nurses who served at Corregidor.
This film was well written, had outstanding acting, mature subject matter for the time period, and was an historical achievement for putting courageous women in the spotlight.
Women are nurses, managers, business owners, mothers, and some how they manage the time to be wives.I enjoyed this movie a great deal because of it's accurate portrayal of the power of women.
Another fine film from AMC's 1998 "Veterans' Day Movie Marathon."This one details (in flashbacks) the daily ordeals of a company of Red Cross nurses serving in Bataan and Corregidor during WWII.
For a change, Paulette Goddard plays the nurse with most of the male admirers (Sonny Tufts in particular), with Veronica Lake showing up late in a decidedly unsexy role (about which I can't say much more than that, lest I ruin it for you).
"So Proudly We Hail" was a timely film when it was made and 60+ years later its message is still relevant as an historical event..
Thank goodness there are movies like this to remind Americans that the war was a total effort by almost everyone.
This movie is also a reminder that most Americans during the war saw the fall of Bataan and the Phillippines as the major tragedy of the time.
It opened to popular acclaim at New York's Radio City Music Hall where it played to contented audiences who were both entertained and impressed by the war realism depicted as nurses undergo the rigors of work among the wounded.It's still pretty impressive, although some of the flag-waving gets a little heavy and the suds flow pretty freely when the nurses discover romance.
In lesser roles, Veronica Lake and Paulette Goddard acquit themselves well, with Goddard receiving a Supporting Actress nomination.Sonny Tufts achieved instant popularity with his role as the bumbling Kansas and George Reeves had one of the best roles of his career as Colbert's love interest.What makes the film remarkable for its time is the way it handles all of the action sequences--and there are plenty of them.
Still, it has holding power and is an example of one of the finer films of the period to deal with the role of women during World War II..
Brutal re-telling of a true story of American Army nurses In the Pacific theater during the Second World War..
Like "Cry Havoc" (also made in 1943 but with a small cast and a modest set), this is a film about American Army nurses stranded on Corregidor, Philippines during the horrific time when General MacArthur was ordered to retreat to Australia.
Both films are fascinating and moving because they were made during the War, before its outcome was known.The performances of the very large cast of "So Proudly We Hail" are uniformly good -- with the exception of Ms. Goddard, whose mannerisms are annoying.
For the ladies, they might like this "war movie," a lot more because it pays tribute mainly nurses and all the romances are probably just the ticket.But for 126 minutes, I would have liked to see a bit less courtship scenes, which included some corny dialog.
Her role was the most interesting.The movie succeeds in paying tribute to unsung heroes of any war: the nurses.
She's just as compelling as many of the rest of the supporting cast which includes Sonny Tufts as a goofy soldier who falls for Paulette Goddard, and George Reeves as an Army man who takes a shine to Claudette Colbert.
It's largely Colbert and Goddard who provide the spirit and occasional heartbreak of the film as we watch them both praise and whine about how the war is going.
Excellent, realistic performances by Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard, Sonny Tufts, Walter Abel, Hugh Ho Chang, even George Reeves.
I don't understand why this film isn't mentioned among the best of American-made war movies.
(Yes, there are non-PC references to "Japs," as with every other American war movie of the era.) Disregard any disparaging critiques posted here and SEE THIS FILM..
Claudette Colbert heads up a team of army nurses caring for the wounded and dying in "So Proudly We Hail!" It's a great ensemble of fine actresses, including Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, Barbara Britton and others.
These nurses are in the Phillipines when MacArthur pulls out and they become stranded on Corregidor.The film is told in flashbacks, when the women are actually on their way home by ship, and Colbert, who plays "Davy" (Janet Davidson) is catatonic.
It's a rough one, filled with bombings, filth, malaria, little food, exhaustion, and dying.When "So Proudly We Hail!" was released, no one knew how the war would end as we do now, and the fall of the Philippines was seen as a major defeat for the U.S. I suspect that although the impact of seeing it today is very strong, it must have been a lot stronger for wartime audiences.As mentioned, it was wartime, so Hollywood didn't have a lot of men to choose from.
I've always thought in real life, with all that charm and charisma, she must have had to beat men off with a stick."So Proudly We Hail!" gives as realistic a depiction of the conditions of war and the tremendous work of the nurses who served.
The film got four Oscar nominations and great roles for some of Paramout's female stars like Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, and Veronica Lake, all playing nurses and also joined by Barbara Britton, Mary Treen, Dorothy Adams, Ann Doran and so many others.Claudette is in charge of this group which sets out from San Francisco for assignment at Pearl Harbor.
The battle and evacuation scenes were very well done, one of the nominations that So Proudly We Hail got was for Special Effects.Colbert gets herself involved with George Reeves and this was probably his best big screen performance.
Of course we all know he went on to be television's Superman and the tragedy that came out of that.The military's no fraternization policy got a second wink when Goddard gets herself involved with Sonny Tufts in the film that got him his first notice.
The other Oscar nominations that So Proudly We Hail got was for Best Supporting Actress for Paulette Goddard, for Screenplay, and for Original Story.
The film has held up remarkably well over the past several generations and it's a great tribute still to our army nurses in any war..
Director Mark Sandrich and Screenwriter Allan Scott have interviewed eight U.S. Army nurses surviving the perils of World War II during its devastating raids on Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, and Bataan and Corregidor, in the Philippines.Paramount Pictures produces this resulting dynamic anti-war film, "So Proudly We Hail!" (1943), complete with many barbarian attacks on innocent lives and a great amount of bloodshed under treacherous conditions.Its leading ladies and several well-known supporting actresses portray U.S. Army Lieutenants, serving as nurses to care for wounded Service personnel and civilians during the war-torn Pacific Campaign.
This stars Claudette Colbert as Janet "Davy" Davidson, Paulette Goddard as Joan O'Doul, Veronica Lake as Olivia D'Arcy, Mary Treen as Sadie Schwartz, Ann Doran as Betty Peterson, Barbara Britton as Rosemary Larson, and Mary Servoss as Captain "Ma" McGregor, with Yvonne De Carlo in an uncredited roll.George Reeves as Lieutenant John Summers plays opposite Miss Colbert as her romantic leading man, with Sonny Tufts as Kansas to interact with Miss Goddard, with Walter Abel as Chaplain and James Bell as Colonel White.The story is told primarily in flashback sequence, with narration by Paulette or Mary to introduce its scenes, after eight Army nurses arrive in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in order to explain the one among their group not responding to human contact.It all begins on the evening of the group's deployment from San Diego, California, early in December of 1941, and their nearing their proposed station in Hawaii, but they must change their course to head toward the Philippines, in the aftermath of tragedy.Along the route, shipmates witness the bombing of a different ship, and survivors are rafted onto board their vessel, one of their new passengers an Army nurse, Lieutenant Olivia D'Arcy, who has been stationed at Pearl Harbor during the invasion.Olivia, however, does not wish to participate in the shipboard merriment of the Christmas Eve gathering, at which the perennially flirtatious Joan wears her black lace negligee as an evening gown, to boost community morale, while the altruistic Janet attempts to reach an understanding with her distant new nurse.From here, most of the on-land action transpires in Bataan and Corregidor, employing very graphic scenes of the results of enemy aerial bombings and gunfire.Veronica Lake forsakes her Peekaboo hair style to sport the School-Marm look characteristic of this era because Defense Plant employees emulating her famous cascading coiffure have unfortunately been finding their hair to catch into machinery gears.All-in-all this makes for a very downbeat but heavily worthwhile film, containing nice touches of pleasantries along the way, all worth revisiting over the years, but upon this most recent viewing, the electricity went out throughout the community (during a bombing scene in the film) after a vehicle struck a utility poll down the road, thus magnifying the poignant effects of this film amid the atmosphere of actual sirens in the backdrop of the outdoor and indoor darkness..
what a flawless film...the acting...paulette goddard sublime...lake..her first real good effort and colbert gracious and sonny tufts...really credible.
One, "In Harm's Way", is told from the viewpoint of two Patrol Boat captains and this film, "So Proudly We Hail!" concerns an ensemble cast of nurses stuck on Bataan during the final weeks of this battle.
And, among the guys they fall for during the war are George Reeves (TV's Superman) and Sonny Tufts.What I really liked about the film is that although the characters are fictional, the action is very real.
Those prisoners of that surrender were the ones subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March.The action and pathos of this film feel real because they are based on real human beings faced with critical issues of life, death, hatred, love and courage in the face of fire.So worth your viewing time!.
The primary characters are the Army nurses, with powerful leads played by Colbert, Goddard, Lake and Britton.
Two male characters, one by TV Superman George Reeves (long before his red cape days) and one by Sonny Tufts who lends a humorous, homespun aspect to the storyline, are welcome additions.As with any US movie made during the Second World War, the Japanese are portrayed as a murderous, evil, unscrupulous enemy.
Dark and serious.George Reeves plays the soldier who falls in love with Colbert, giving her someone to worry about while she works to keep the hospital base running despite short supplies and occasional Japanese air raids.
Not a single nurse in 1942-1945 who served in the Philippines died during the Japanese invasion or later in Japanese prison camps.In contrast, the death rate among males in both situations, which included the Bataan Death March (in which the nurses did not participate), was absolutely horrific, and included slave labor in Japan by being transported there by unmarked Japanese hell ships routinely sunk by unknowing U.S. submarines where starved, sick, suffocating men locked in holds drowned by the thousands.There were endless aspects of the movie that tried the viewer, even in 1943: maudlin speeches by the chaplain, nurses, and others (including a speech in a love letter at the end of the movie) every 15 minutes or so; front line soldiers and a Marine (who for some reason wanders around all alone in an Army unit, on the voyage over and in the Philippines when he should have been with his fellow Marines in the 4th Marine Regiment) who nonchalantly stroll back and forth at will from the front lines to the rear to schmooze with their girl friends; fraternization (absolutely forbidden) between a nurse and the (apparently) lost enlisted Marine (who is a PFC in his blouse and a Pvt. in his shirtsleeves); absolute confusion as whether these nurses were Red Cross (civilians) or U.S. Army and Navy; the usual tiresome 1940's litany of wisecracks; not a single, solitary mention of the U.S. Army medics and Navy Hospital Corpsmen who, unlike the nurses, indeed WERE in the front lines, decimated, and left behind with their patients (no Australia for them); Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard obviously too old for their roles; Veronica Lake with hair shoulder length; endless, childish cat fights; and a scene with Veronica Lake, Japanese soldiers (who don't fire but obligingly gather around), and a hand grenade which has no competition for the 20th Century's Prize for the Hands Down Stupidest Scene Ever Filmed in a War Movie.
Along with Veronica Lake, and Claudette Colbert as the lead.All were very good, however, it was Paulette that got the Academy Award nomination as "Best Supporting Actress" for this film.
One can only imagine the hell they must have lived without such short respites as we movie-goers get."So Proudly We Hail" has an impressive cast of women actors of that time -- Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake and many more.
Unidentified nurse, "I don't know if that's an air raid warning or mess." Janet (Claudette Colbert), "Either way, it's a warning." This movie – for its subject matter, script, performances, and quality of production, ranks among the very best of war films of all time.
Paulette Goddard, in her greatest role, shines in an all star cast that includes Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night), Veronica Lake, George Reeves ("Adventures of Superman"), and Yvonne De Carlo (American Gothic, "The Munsters").It is a real war movie that is a tribute to the brave nurses that served in WWII.
These nurses were truly superwomen, working long hours under impossible conditions.There is no rah rah rah for the USA in this film, as it was made during the war, and we really didn't know how it would turn out at the time..
You pretty much know you're getting an heroic picture about Americans in battle when watching a war movie from 1943, so that helps set the stage up-front.
However, it is one of the few films that bothered to show the sacrifices that Red Cross Nurses, Doctors, and medical staff made during World War II.
Because of that, it is an important film to see so that we can all appreciate their important contribution.I just got done seeing it and I entered "World War II Corregidor" into Google and read several web pages that go into detail about the role Red Cross Nurses played in World War II.
Paulette Goddard was nominated for an Oscar, but to me the real standout performance of this film came from Veronica Lake.
This WWII film looks at the lives of a group of nurses as they serve from Pearl Harbor to Bataan.
I saw it with a bunch of other 11 year old boys.My impression then, and my lingering impression now, it that "So Proudly We Hail" stands as the toughest, strongest, most inspirational movie of World War II.
I also remember that all these young guys were awe-struck by the actions of these brave American women, These days movies of World War II can be a bit wimpy.
What was burned into my memory at age 11 were the scenes of the nurses trying to keep hold of a massive field hospital (during the evacuation of Bataan) under heavy attack from Japanese aircraft -- evacuating a hospital while being bombed and assaulted by machine guns -- that was brave work.Trouble is: in 2012 there are no longer any movies where 11 year old boys (or girls) can attend with their friends and (1) learn something about the real world, and (2) be exposed to adult role models such as the nurses and soldiers of World War II.
The film stars Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, Barbara Britton and George Reeves.This powerful film set and made during the Second World War focuses on army nurses.
They see horror just like the soldiers do and work so hard to bring comfort to the injured and dying.This film made at the height of the Second World War focuses on a group of American nurses lead by the strong Lt. Davison(Claudette Colbert).
The group of very different women become friends as they work together to try and do what they can to help the wounded and dying in the Philippines.For the time there's some very graphic scenes in this including the attack on the hospital in which a nurse is killed and the unforgettable moment where another nurse sacrifices herself so that her trapped colleagues get a chance to escape to safety.The film also shows how difficult it is for the nurses to deal with the horrors they face and how uncertain the safety of medical personal was just like that of the soldiers.The entire cast are superb but the standout performances for me are Paulette Goddard as the fun loving Joan, Claudette Colbert as the head nurse trying to look after her girls and the glamorous Veronica Lake as the traumatised Olivia, her storyline is very dark and truly unforgettable and Lake proves here what a good actress she was.
Goddard flirts with several officers while Colbert carries on a romance with George Reeves (Superman!) and Lake fosters a blind hatred for the Japanese due to her husband's death at Pearl Harbor, which prompts her to tuck a grenade in her bustier and march into a group of Japanese soldiers with a *BANG* early on in the film.