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. 

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

“Seems I've lost my manners or would anyone here know the difference?” 

            I saw the Blue Dahlia for the first time most likely a few years ago. I know I liked it when I saw it because I looked for it again. I did like The Blue Dahlia this time around especially because I have more of an appreciation for classic films and like Film Noir. The Blue Dahlia is considered, depending on who ask in the scholarly film world, to be one of the quintessential Noirs. I would not go that far but it is a good example of a Noir how an innocent normal man is convicted of a crime he did not commit and has to find the people who are the ones truly responsible.

            Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) and his two friends Buzz (William Bendix) and George have just returned home from the War. The three friends stop for a drink before returning to their homes. Buzz goes a little off the wall and is short tempered because of a head injury with a piece of shrapnel behind his ear. George and Buzz plan on finding an apartment to share while Johnny has a wife to get back to.

            Jonny’s welcome home is not so pleasant. His wife Helen is throwing a party and he is not happy to see them all drunk and partying. Helen’s friend Eddie says he will be going, she walks him to the door and Johnny sees them kissing. Johnny shoots out of the room and punches Eddie. Helen tells everyone to leave. Alone, Helen is a mess. Since Johnny left she felt she had a life and went out to parties and got drunk especially after their son Dicky died. Helen confesses that Dicky did not die of an illness as she had written him the boy died when she had to bring him to a party and she smashed her car because she was drunk. Johnny walks into his room takes his gun out of his bag, grabs his bag, and goes to the living room. He points the gun at Helen but says she is not worth and leaves the bungalow.

            Helen calls up George and Buzz worried. George does not do anything because whatever happened is none of their business. Buzz is worried though and he leaves the apartment without telling George where he was going. Buzz goes to the hotel where Johnny was living. He happens to run into Helen. They have no idea who the other is since they have never been introduced before.

            Johnny is walking in the rain. He gets picked up by a woman named (Joyce). He tells her his name is Jimmy Moore. Joyce takes Johnny to Malibu. He almost ditches her but she sees him and tells him not. At a hotel the next morning Johnny hears the news about his wife and how he is wanted for questioning in the murder. Joyce sees Johnny leave the hotel and knows why he was leaving San Francisco.

            Now Johnny has to prove he did not kill Helen. It seems that no matter where Johnny goes he gets kicked around by thugs. He finds a note from Helen behind a photograph of their son saying Eddie is wanted in New Jersey for a murder in case anything were to happen to her. Johnny tries to tell Eddie he has this information but Joyce walks in. Joyce knows he did not kill his wife and is willing to help him.

            The real murderer is eventually caught, no surprise there. I did not remember who the murderer was so I was kept on my toes the whole time.

            The cast was very good. This was one of several films that Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were paired in. Veronica Lake is one of the ultimate femme fatales… maybe not a femme fatale but definitely one of the ultimate Noir actresses. She had that cool calm to her like nothing ruffled her feathers, an attitude and demeanor that was perfect for the genre. Alan Ladd was also perfect in the Noir genre. He too had the coolness and calm but he also had a tough side. I like Lake and Ladd paired together their acting styles (maybe more so their characters) were in sync with each other. William Bendix I am not a fan of he tends to annoy me but I will admit that he was good in his role.

            The Blue Dahlia I am going to say is a must view for the Film Noir fan. To me it is not one of the best Noirs but it is a great example with its dark story and the innocent man accused of something he did not do and must clear his name. The one major element that brings this film down is Alan Ladd’s meeting with Veronica Lake, it is too coincidental and unreal. There was actually no reason for the character of Joyce to be included in the story but I guess the main character needs a love interest. Raymond Chandler who’s story the film is based off of was not too happy with the character either… well he did not really like Lake he called her “Moronica Lake” because he hated her acting. Anyway, The Blue Dahlia is absolutely worth a watch, maybe even more. The Blue Dahlia is available to view on Youtube. 

This Gun For Hire (1942)

“Don't you trust me?”
“Who trusts anybody?” 

            This Gun For Hire is one of the best Film Noirs I have seen. There is a bad guy who is the protagonist and a stunningly gorgeous femme fatale who is as tough as they come and does not lose her cool. The story involves all the characters in some form and they all come together perfectly at the end.

            Raven (Alan Ladd) is a professional hit man. He is hired by a man named Willard Gates to kill a chemist who has been blackmailing him and get the formulas he has. Raven does the job but Gates double crosses him by giving him marked bills and informing the police that the money was stolen. Raven realizes that the police are on to him and has to get out of town to find Gates and his employer Alvin Brewster of Nitro Chemicals.

            Lieutenant Michael Crane was vacationing in San Francisco to see his girlfriend nightclub singer Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) when word comes in of the robbery and decides to join the case. Ellen auditions for a nightclub that just so happens to be run by Gates and gets the job. Later on she is taken to meet a senator who gives her an assignment to spy on Gates and Brewster who are traitors to the country and what they plan to do with the chemical formula.

 

 

            Ellen sets out by train to LA to start work at the nightclub. Gates is on the same train but in a sleeper. Raven also hops on the same train and the only seat left just so happens to be the one next to Ellen. Gates sees them the next morning with Raven’s head resting on Ellen’s shoulder. He gets nervous thinking they are working together but neither of them knows anything about the other let alone what they are working towards. News is out that Raven is a wanted man and the way to identify him is through a broken wrist that never healed right. He takes Ellen as his hostage and uses her coat to hide his wrist. He wants to kill her but fate intervenes and Ellen gets away.

 

 

            At the nightclub Ellen meets Gates. He breaks out a package of mints and she remembers Raven saying something about a man and how the man likes mints. She realizes that they are after the same man. Gates invites her over to his place for dinner where he has her drugged and tied up to throw her over a bridge. Raven shows up at the house that night and actually saves Ellen but he takes her as his hostage. She does not try to get away instead she calmly follows him as the police chase them all over town. They spend the night in an old boxcar where they talk out what Gates had taken from the blackmailer. Ellen concludes that Nitro Chemicals is going to sell the formula to the Japanese.

 

            In the end Raven is the one to get Brewster and Gates to sign a confession of their crimes. There is a shoot out at the chemical factory and Raven is fatally shot.

            Now the way I wrote out the summary may be hard to follow but trust me when you watch the film the story is easy to follow. I like the fact that everyone has a connection to Gates and Brewster, they all have their own stake in the two men but for different reasons. I especially liked how the audience is made to have sympathy for a bad guy, that was something that was practically never done in films at that time.

            This is the film that made Alan Ladd a star at Paramount. He did a wonderful job playing Raven. The character was bad he was a professional killer but he had a soft spot for children and cats. That soft spot is what makes the audience care about this bad guy. Anyone could have played a bad guy with a soft spot but Ladd really got it he was perfect as the quiet but lethal guy but still had some moral fiber in his body. The story really makes you feel for him when he tells Ellen about his childhood and how he wound up the way he is.

            Veronica Lake was also perfect in her role. Her character had a bit of a toughness and strength to her which Lake brought out wonderfully. You can tell by looking at her in certain scenes that the character is a bit scared and flustered but keeps in so the situation does not get out of hand. If Ellen Graham can be considered a femme fatal she is one of my favorites.

 

            This Gun for Hire is a great Film Noir. The story takes a grip on you right from the beginning when Raven kills the chemist and does not let go for one second.

 

I Married a Witch (1942)



“Goodbye, Jennifer, be a bad girl.”

            I Married a Witch is one of those cute romantic comedies with a descent story to come out of the 1940s. Veronica Lake plays a witch named Jennifer who along with her father, Daniel, back in 1600s New England is hanged on the charge of witch craft. She and her father put a curse on the Wooley family who are the ones who brought charges against them. The curse sees that any man in the Wooley family will never be happily married. We see a few of the Wooley men (all played by Frederic March) throughout the family’s history very unhappily married to the wrong woman.

            Wallace Wooley (March) is the latest of the Wooley men to be marrying, he is engaged to a spoiled daddy’s girl named Estelle (Susan Hayward). They are attending a party given in his honor in his run for governor. Outside not very far away from the house stands the tree where Jennifer and Daniel were hanged hundreds of years earlier and where their souls still linger. A lightning bolt cracks a branch from the tree releasing the two souls.

            The souls fly over to the house where Jennifer sees that the new Wooley is not happy at all and she delights in the thought. To make matters worse for him Jennifer decides to get Wallace to fall in love with her to complicate his relationship with Estelle. She and her father set a local hotel on fire which just so happens to be the route in which Wallace and Estelle were driving through on their way home. Wallace gets out of the car to see what the problem is and he is drawn to a cry for help in the crumbling hotel. There he finds a gorgeous girl stark naked in the smoke. He carries her to a room that is supposed to not be in danger of collapsing. Here Jennifer sees herself in her new body.

            The walls collapse around them there seems to be no way out but Wallace manages to find one and carries Jennifer to safety. He takes Jennifer back to his house to recuperate but she will not leave and brings into his life a huge amount of chaos. She whips up a love potion to make him fall him love with her but something happens to her and Wallace accidentally gives her the water with the potion mixed in! Now it is she who is the one who is falling in love with a Wooley!!

            From there the film gets really silly and in my opinion a bit ridiculous and predictable. We all know that March and Lake eventually wind up together so the little “curve” that is thrown in towards the end is a bit of an annoyance.

             Each actor was cast perfectly. Veronica Lake you can believe being the not so nice witch who has been scorned and is looking for revenge. She was a good comedienne; she delivered her lines well and did not over act at all. It is a shame to read that Lake was a pain in the ass on set. Many times because of her antics some scenes had to redone. March had said something about her before filming and she made his life not so pleasant. Joel McCrea was asked to play Wallace but he refused he said he did not want to work with Lake again after working with her on Sullivan’s Travels. I believe this was the first time I have ever seen Frederic March in a film. I liked him a lot he was very funny as the confused and bumbling Wallace Wooley.  The reason I wanted to see the film was to see Susan Hayward. Although she was not in the film the whole time she was my favorite. She was such a bitch (!) but she was so perfect. I liked the scene where Jennifer- with her powers- closes the door on Estelle’s face. The look on Susan Hayward’s face was great.

            Edith Head was costume designer for the film. Her costumes are always gorgeous but on Veronica Lake they looked so amazing.

            All in all I found I Married a Witch to be light entertaining fun. Like I said at the start of this review it did get really silly in the middle all the way to the end and that silliness spoiled the film a bit for me. The special effects of the time like the souls floating, the hotel catching on fire, and many others were done very well for the time period. The acting is very good which helps with the middle and ending not being too great, it makes up for the rush of getting Jennifer and Wallace together to make a happy ending. I Married a Witch is good to view when you want to see something silly.