I like watching films from the 1940s
when America was involved in World War II. I like watching how Hollywood
responded and what types of war films they produced. I especially liked seeing
the changed in the types of characters actresses from the 1930s played in the
1940s. Claudette Colbert was one of those tough, hardened 1930s women. She
played to perfection Cleopatra in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1934 version. She was sexy
and seductive. In the 1940s Colbert and many actresses were given parts of the
obedient war wife with children and a home to look after while the men were
away or they were war nurses who went through wherever they were stationed.
Colbert played a variety of war women in the 1940s during WWII. In Three Came Home she plays the dutiful
yet brave and strong and loving wife. Unlike the women on the home front her
character is thrown into horrendous circumstances with her husband and young
son.
Agnes
Newton Keith (Colbert) is an American author married to a British soldier named
Harry (Patric Knowles). Harry is stationed on an island in China. With the
world now at war the British regiment wants to send the women and children back
home to England for their own safety. Agnes does not want to go back she wants
to stay with Harry. The Japanese begin to attack the island. The women and
children are told to go to a government house and wait there. Unfortunately the
Japanese take over the island and the British government cannot help them at
that time. Some of the soldiers go to the government house and keep guard.
The
next morning Agnes is ordered to go with a soldier while everyone else can
leave. The soldier brings her to his commanding officer Colonel Suga. Agnes had
written a book about the Barneo the island she lives on. The colonel tells her
that while he was studying at college in America he read her book and liked it.
Orders
are given that all Europeans living on the island are to be evacuated to a
prison camp. The men and women are to be separated. They now live in terrible
conditions. Sometimes the men walk by their camp leaving the women with only
glances of their husbands. Harry risks dropping notes to Agnes as he walks by
the camp, he drops a note one day telling her to meet him by a palm tree where
other husbands and wives have met. Agnes barely makes it to the palm tree that
night she and her son George have been suffering from a terrible fever. George’s
fever is getting worse. One woman Mrs. Summer is watching George while Agnes is
meeting Harry. She wants to get some medicine for him so she goes to the
commanding officer to see about getting a doctor. The captain wants to see
George and Agnes. Fortunately Agnes gets back just in time before the guards
come.
The
women are being moved to a different camp. The Japanese allow them to say
goodbye to their husbands. Harry sneaks Agnes some handkerchiefs and a letter. Agnes
reads Harry’s letter, he wrote to try to keep George alive. Finally the women
are brought to a camp after spending ten days at sea. They are forced to work
like dogs and are only given one meal a day. The days and years drag on. Agnes
and George have not seen Harry in two years she has no idea if her husband is
still alive.
One
night during a storm Agnes gets out of bed to take clothes off of a line. All
of the sudden she is attacked by a Japanese soldier. Somehow she is able to get
the soldier away from her. When Colonel Suga comes through the next morning she
tells him what happened to her and wants protection from him since she signed
his book back on the island. A nasty lieutenant does not believe her story he
wants her pick someone out. She tells him over and over again that it was dark
she could not see who it was that attacked her. The lieutenant wants her to
sign a paper that she lied about the attack. Agnes refuses to sign it. The
lieutenant has someone come in and beat her to get her to sign. She let go with
the promise that she will not talk about it anymore.
Sometime
later everyone sees British airplanes flying overhead. They receive dropped
letter from the allies that the Japanese have surrendered and help will be with
them soon. Suga calls Agnes into his office. He tells her that his wife and son
have been killed in the bombings of Hiroshima knowing that she would understand
how he feels. Later in the day he takes George and some of the other children
back to his place. He gives them food and watches them eat. As he watches the
children he breaks down and cries.
Finally
the allies come to the rescue. They open the gates and bring the men from the other
camp to them. Agnes and George patiently wait for Harry. After agonizingly long
minutes Harry comes to them.
Claudette
Colbert was amazing. She was perfect for the part because she played women like
this before. She played women who have suffered so much yet they fight to live
and be happy. What I really like about Colbert in the part is that she did not
overact. There were so many scenes that other actresses in the part could have
overacted but Colbert played them so well. Patric Knowles was not in the film
long but he was great with Colbert. I always enjoy seeing him in a film.
Three Came Home is a great film. It is
one of the better war films about women I have seen. It is a great example how women
stuck together during the time of war and through awful conditions. I also
liked how Col. Suga was not portrayed as the totally evil or sadistic Japanese
soldier. He was cruel yes but he had some kind of heart to him. Three Came Home is a film I absolutely
recommend seeing especially if you like Claudette Colbert or films about World
War II.
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