So Proudly We Hail!

So Proudly We Hail!

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mark Sandrich
Produced by Mark Sandrich
Written by Allan Scott
Starring Claudette Colbert
Paulette Goddard
Veronica Lake
Music by Edward Heyman
Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography Charles Lang
Edited by Ellsworth Hoagland
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • June 22, 1943
Running time
 126 minutes
Country United States
Language English

So Proudly We Hail! is a 1943 American film directed and produced by Mark Sandrich, and starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard – who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance – and Veronica Lake. Also featuring George Reeves, it was produced and released by Paramount Pictures.

The film follows a group of military nurses sent to the Philippines during the early days of World War II. The movie was based on a book written by nurse Juanita Hipps[1] a World War II nurse – one of the "Angels of Bataan" – who served in Bataan and Corregidor during the time when McArthur withdrew to Australia which ultimately led to the surrender of US and Philippine troops to Japan. Those prisoners of war were subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March. The film was based, in part, on Lieutenant Colonel Hipps' memoir I Served On Bataan.

Plot

The story covers many day-to-day events and contrasts the brutality of war against the sometimes futile efforts of the nurses to provide medical aid and comfort. Each of the nurses has a past or present love story with a soldier, with the longest-term one between the characters played by Colbert and George Reeves. Flashback narration and a sequence where the nurses and injured soldiers are stranded in Malinta Tunnel pinned down by aircraft fire are two notable aspects of the film.

Moviegoers of the time found great timeliness in the movie, since MacArthur and the battles for Bataan, and Corregidor were familiar to every American. Although the love-story plot line is the primary thrust of the film, the difficulties and emotional toll of war are also shown.

Cast

Claudette Colbert as Lt. Janet "Davy" Davidson           

Paulette Goddard as Lt. Joan O'Doul

Veronica Lake as Lt. Olivia D'Arcy

Adaptations

So Proudly We Hail was adapted for The Lux Radio Theatre on November 1, 1943 with Colbert, Goddard and Lake reprising their original roles.

Awards

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards:[2]

References

  1. ↑ Juanita Redmond Hipps - Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army,
  2. ↑ "The 16th Academy Awards (1944) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2013-06-22.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to So Proudly We Hail!.