So Proudly We Hail!

Infobox Film
name = So Proudly We Hail!


image_size =
caption =
director = Mark Sandrich
producer = Mark Sandrich
writer = Allan Scott
starring = Claudette Colbert
Paulette Goddard
Veronica Lake
George Reeves
music = Edward Heyman
Miklós Rózsa
cinematography = Charles Lang
editing = Ellsworth Hoagland
distributor = Paramount Pictures
Universal Studios (2007 DVD, current rights holder)
released = 22 June, 1943 (premiere)
9 September (New York City, New York)
runtime = 126 min.
country = flagicon|US U.S.A.
language = English
amg_id = 1:110784
imdb_id = 0036367

"So Proudly We Hail!" is a 1943 film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Mark Sandrich, and starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard (who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance), George Reeves and Veronica Lake.

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 [ [http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jrhipps.htm Juanita Redmond Hipps - Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army] ,] a WWII nurse 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 movie was based on LTC Hipps' true story "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. There are several striking moments in the movie, including a shocking "self-sacrifice" by a female character to save her fellow nurses. Each of the nurses has a past or present love story with a soldier, with the longest term and most interesting romance the one between the characters played by Colbert and Reeves. The flashback narration gives a sense of historical import and resonance. The sequence where the nurses and injured soldiers are stranded on a massive naval base, pinned down by aircraft fire, is one of the more claustrophobic scenes in wartime cinema.

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 strongly shown.

Main cast and characters

Other cast members

References

External links

*tcmdb title|id=90654|title=So Proudly We Hail!