So Proudly We Hail! (1943)

“Yeah, it gets embarrassing being called a heroine all the time.”

“What is a heroine, anyway?”

“I don’t know. Somebody who is still alive, I guess.”

Our common knowledge about World War II is always about the men who fought for our nations. Yes, the men were the ones on the battle front fighting the enemy, but what about the women who fought the war in any way they could? Did you know that there were women’s auxiliary groups set up in countries such as the United States and Great Britain? These auxiliary groups included the WAVES, WACs, WRENS, and nurses both in the air and on the ground. These are only the groups I know off the top of my head there were a lot more. They also served in a way by working in factories producing materials for the War.

            Since our common knowledge of WWII lacks in women’s roles during the period due to not promoting or bringing forth their stories, there have not been many films made focusing on women who served. One film that does tell a story of army nurses (in a melodramatic way) is So Proudly We Hail! from 1943.

            The story begins with the rescue of eight nurses. They had been held captive by the Japanese and were able to get away. The plane carrying them has landed in Australia. From there they will board a cruiser back home to America. Among the nurses are two lieutenants Janet “Davy” Davidson (Claudette Colbert) and Joan O’Doul (Paulette Goddard). Joan tells the male officers that as soon as Davy got on the plane she collapsed and has been unresponsive since. On the cruiser the doctor on board comes to speak the nurses. A letter has come for Davy signed by a man John. He wants the nurses to tell him who this John person is to see if he and the letter are something that can help Davy come out of her comatose state.

            The story begins before World War II has started for America. Davy, Joan, and other nurses are at a dock waiting to board their cruiser for service. Most of the girls say goodbye to their parents while Joan, on the other hand, says goodbye to two men she has promised to marry because she has a problem saying no! Before they get on the cruiser, Joan is charmed by a bumbling soldier she simply and affectionately calls Kansas.

            While on the cruiser word comes that Pearl Harbor has been attacked by the Japanese and the entire ship is being rerouted to the Pacific. They are escorted by a convoy but one of the ships in the convoys is attacked. Some soldiers and nurses from the sunken ship including Lt. John Summers (George Reeves) and Lt. Olivia D’Arcy (Veronica Lake). Almost as soon as she comes aboard ship Olivia is not well liked by the other nurses. She keeps to herself, she is rude, and very angry. No one wants to be roommates with Olivia so Davy makes Joan be roommates with her. While getting ready for a Christmas party one of the nurses pulls out a necklace from a back she thought was Joan’s bag. Joan figures Olivia will not mind but Olivia does mind. The two women wind up getting into a drag out fight until Davy comes in to break it up. Janet decides to stay in the room with Olivia. She gets Olivia to come out with her story; her fiancé was killed at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. She watched him trying to run to his plane when he was shot six times. When she got to him his face was covered in blood and he was dead. She vehemently hates the Japanese and swears to kill any one of them she comes across.

            Davy becomes close with John. They started flirting when he was being taken of, after the sinking. At first their flirtation is nothing but by the end of the Christmas party it becomes a little more.

            The ship is rerouted from their original destination to Bataan. For a while nothing major happens and the nurses settle into the routine of helping with surgeries and taking care of the wounded as they come in. Davy and John become very close in Bataan. They even spend the night together in a fox hole. After all the quiet the Japanese have decided to fight back in full force. Their camp is ordered evacuated and to be destroyed. That night after all the soldiers were evacuated the nurses and their soldier escorts are the only ones left. Joan realizes she has left something in her bunk and runs back to get. The Japanese have them and the camp surrounded. The enemy kills the soldiers. Olivia still wants to go through with her plan to kill whatever Japanese soldiers she can. She takes a grenade and walks over to the soldiers to create a distraction. Olivia sacrifices herself so the others can get away.

            The group of nurses and soldiers make their way to another camp/hospital in the middle of the jungle where they work nonstop. Joan works herself to exhaustion. She does it partly because they are short nurses and partly because she feels guilty about Olivia. Again the camp/hospital is attacked by the Japanese and they are all ordered to evacuate. The Japanese again attack the camp/hospital and the soldiers there, including John, try to defend the camp/hospital as much as they can. John is wounded and cannot move around by himself. Throughout all the moving bases and fighting, Kansas and Joan have also become very close. Kansas wants to stay behind and fight with the other soldiers he does not want to go with Joan. To make him go Joan knocks him out and gets him onto a small boat.

            All the evacuees are ordered to Corregidor. Corregidor proves to be the worst of the bases the nurses and soldiers have been stationed. Back up never arrives for either soldiers or nurses which means no supplies that they desperately need. By this time Davy and John are madly in love and want to get married. They have a chaplain marry them. The day after their nuptials John has to go out with some other soldiers to see if they can get to the other side of the island to make communication with other troops. The nurses are given official orders to be evacuated off the island and they cannot tell anyone. Joan is beside herself she does not want to leave Kansas. Davy refuses over and over to go she cannot leave without seeing John. The head of the nurses tells Davy that John and the other men have been considered missing in action since no one has heard from them in days.

            Back on the cruiser, the doctor now knows who John is and decides to read the letter to Davy. Of course Davy comes out of her comatose state once she hears what he has written and imagines his voice saying the words.

            The cast was excellent. Janet “Davy” Davidson may just be one of my favorite performances by Claudette Colbert. She was fantastic. You can feel all of Davy’s love and sadness and bravery in every scene and it is all because of Colbert’s wonderful acting. Paulette Goddard can never do anything wrong in a film. I adore her so much. I think her performance as Joan O’Doul was one of her best as well because you really get to see the variety in her acting skills. Goddard was her usual feisty self but she also brought in some great drama. Veronica Lake is given top billing along with Colbert and Goddard but she is barely in it. I would say the whole of her screen time in this film is maybe like twenty minutes. It was nice not seeing Lake as a femme fatale. Sunny Tufts as Kansas was adorable. I LOVED him and Goddard together. Their characters had such a great relationship. This is the first time I have ever really seen George Reeves in anything. I know he is most famous for playing Superman in the 1950s and that he was a Tarlton twin in Gone with the Wind. I have seen GWTW so many times but he is in a scene with Vivien Leigh and when Vivien Leigh is in a scene you look at nobody else but her! Anyway, I really liked Reeves he did a great job playing John. You can see him what Davy saw in him.

            So Proudly We Hail!, while a melodrama of a women’s film, was very good. I enjoyed seeing women during the war be the focus of a major motion picture. I especially liked seeing this because it had been made during the war and not immediately after or decades later. Seeing this makes me wish that someone today would make a film about women’s roles in the different armed forces and on the home front during World War II. (Of course, that is just a dream because Hollywood today sucks when it comes to making pictures about women and all they care about is if it will make money and not the content). For the most part So Proudly We Hail! is interesting, however, there are some scenes that just dragged or were too over melodramatic. Despite the dragged out scenes, So Proudly We Hail! is definitely worth seeing. I can only hope that those who watch this film and may not know be familiar with women’s roles during World War II will become interested in researching that topic. It is fascinating and another side to WWII that should absolutely be more well known. 

A Second Chorus (1940)

Several classic films have the story of two guys fighting for the attention of one girl. Usually the guys are a little childish and do stupid stuff to each other to make the other look bad to the girl. Well, A Second Chorus is exactly like that, but not only are the two guys fighting for the attention of the one girl they are also fighting for attention of band leader Artie Shaw. Silly, yes I know I just finished sitting through the film.

            Danny O’Neill (Fred Astaire) and Hank Taylor (Burgess Meredith) have been in a college band for the past seven years. The only reason they have been in the college band for so long is because they have been failing all their classes purposely. At a gig one night Danny notices a woman making eyes at him. Hank also takes notice of the woman and he likes her. After Danny performs his number he goes over to the woman whose name is Ellen Miller (Paulette Goddard). Turns out, Ellen is from a collections agency and she hands him a summons under the table.

            The following day, Danny and Hank go to the collections office to try to sweet talk their way out of paying. They both flirt with Ellen like little school boys. The collections agent tells them that one of them bought a group of Encyclopedias seven years prior and never paid for it. Hank and Danny want Ellen to be their secretary so they mess with the collector that Ellen put them up to try to bribe him. The guy gets upset he fires Ellen and throws the two men out of his office. Danny and Hank then offer Ellen a job as their band’s secretary.

            As soon as she gets to the school Ellen is on the phone booking the band bigger and better gigs. Whoever she speaks to Ellen puts on an act and talks the band up to fit the venues and the owners. The band eventually gains such a reputation that word gets round to band leader Artie Shaw (playing himself). The school band kind of becomes a rival to Artie.

            At the end of the school year Hank becomes upset because he passed a class and he now has to graduate. Danny admits to Ellen that he had a hand in helping Hank pass by writing a paper so that he could be alone with her. Hank gets Danny back by proving to the dean of the school that Danny, not him, was the one who wrote the paper. Now Danny has been kicked out of the school and neither one of them can be in the band.

            Artie wants to see the band. Danny and Hank duel it out with their trumpets to try to get Artie’s attention. Unfortunately their dueling is to no avail as Artie just wanted to speak to Ellen. He wanted to speak to the band’s manger since she had been getting them so many gigs. Artie wants Ellen to be his new manager and she accepts. At the station the following day Ellen really does not want to leave for New York City. She and Danny kind of wait for the other to say the magic words “I love you don’t go” but neither of them say the words.

            At the station Danny and Hank claimed they were going back to their hometowns to work at their families’ businesses. They both go to New York City to see Artie just after Ellen convinced Artie to let them audition for the band. Danny gets to the audition before Hank. He messes with Hank by telling the doorman to not let Hank in. Hank catches on so he messes with the notes for the song Danny is going to play on stage. Danny gets Hank back by pulling him off the stage in the back and the two of them get into a major brawl. Ellen is furious with both of them and Artie does not even want to hear their names.

            The same night at the same club where Danny and Hank audition, there is an older gentleman named Lester Chisholm who has been at several performances. Artie is a little unsettled with Lester always being there so he has Ellen go over to see what Lester’s deal is. The older man reveals that he just really likes music and that when he was younger he was forced into the family business instead of following his passion for music. Ellen gets Lester to back a concert for Artie. The only reason Lester is even backing a concert is because he believes he will be able to play his mandolin at the show.

            Danny tries to see Ellen one night. He calls to her apartment asking to come up and she tells him that he cannot it is not a good time. Lester is in her room to go over the concert. Danny thinks Hank is in her room so he leaves the building and climbs up to her room. He hides under her bed in her room where Hank also happens to be because he though Danny was in the room. They both think Ellen is being taken advantage of by an older man so they devise a plan where Danny distracts Ellen and Hank comes out of the room pretending to be her husband. Lester runs out of the room and pulls out of backing the show.

            Danny promises Ellen he will have the whole situation fixed with Lester in one hour. He goes to see Lester with Hank claiming they are there to clear Ellen’s name. They make up a song for Lester to think he can play on the mandolin for the show. They do that so they can be the only ones who can play the song and for Lester to insist on it being in the show. Danny goes to see Artie and Ellen and he makes up a song on the spot. Artie likes the song and sees if there will be a spot in the show for it. Both Danny and Hank want Lester to stay away from the show. Danny wants both of them to stay away so he has Hank keep an eye on Lester. Hank says he will try only if Danny can get him a place in the orchestra.

            Things happen that I cannot really remember. Danny gets in the show with a different number. Hank and Lester get left at the hotel passed out on the couch from exhaustion from practicing nonstop. Danny of course winds up with Ellen.

            All the praise goes to Paulette Goddard. She is such an underrated classic actress. I loved her with Fred Astaire. Goddard had this wonderful tough chick attitude in pretty much all her films and she definitely had it here. When Astaire worked with Ginger Rogers she always gave his characters such an attitude. Her attitude was snarky and sassy. Goddard’s, as I said, was tough chick but not snarky or sassy. I liked seeing that kind of attitude against Astaire’s character’s boyishness and annoyingness. I have no idea if any of that made sense. I guess to put it plainly Goddard’s attitude was perfect compared to Astaire’s annoyingness. Burgess Meredith really does nothing for me and never does in whatever film I see him in.

            This film what to me is an absolutely underrated Fred Astaire dance number. The number is called “Dig It” and he dances it with Paulette Goddard. I am just going to go right ahead and say that Goddard is one of Astaire’s best dancing partners. The woman is not out of sync with Astaire for one moment. She also looks like she had a blast dancing. The song is so much fun. The horn section on this song fantastic I love listening to it. I actually get the horn and the drumbeat mixed with it stuck in my head all the time. I actually watched “Dig It” by itself a few years ago and I never forgot it I loved it so much. I am sure that is mostly due to Goddard just being beyond brilliant with her dancing. And also the horns and drum mix as I have mentioned.

            A Second Chorus was alright. Fred Astaire’s and Burgess Meredith’s characters were so annoying. I will say that Danny O’Neill is a character that is not a typical one for Astaire. In many of his films with Ginger Rogers he was usually the love sick little boy chasing the girl. He is the same way in A Second Chorus but his character was much crueler and devilish than his other love sick little boy roles. It was interesting for me to see Artie Shaw in a film. I love Ava Gardner and she was married to him for a while. I had no idea he was even in a film and I had never heard any of his music before this. It is hard to imagine Shaw being such an ass to Ava and even to Lana Turner whom he married later on after seeing him in this film but I will believe it.  A Second Chorus is worth watching if you love and adore Paulette Goddard or if you want to see Fred Astaire in an atypical role.