TIRED, BEATEN WOMEN AT BATAAN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 235, 1 July 1944, Page 5

TIRED, BEATEN WOMEN AT BATAAN

Heroines’ Part In “So Proudly We Hail”

(By

T.L.)

Around such films as “So Proudly M e Hail” (Regent) rises the question: Is this meat that is too strong for the filmgoer of 1944? Docs Im want the gay and flippant, coloured like a child s picture book and as full of music as a juke box? Are sweating men aud women, tired, hysterical and beaten Io their knees, to be ousted from the screen for the duration? Admittedly, such films arc not the kind of entertainment for soldiers in the jungles of New Guinea or the rough bills of Italy.- But they are good for us here at home. They serve to remind us that courage and the friendships that are forged in the pitiless tire of bomb and bullet are a part of the heritage that is being won for ns ou a dozen bat tiefronts today. Claudette Colbert and .Paulette Goddard are two army nurses on.their way to Honolulu in tlie first days of that fateful December, 19-11. As the. Japanese rip their way across the Pacific the ship joins a convoy for Bataan. One of the convoy blows up and the nurses are left with a pitiably small number of badlyburned survivors on their hands. One of them is a young nurse (Veronica Lake, with her hair done up and playing a part that is almost frightening in its drama), who has seen her lover mown down by Japanese bullets, at Pearl Harbour. She has no illusions about her “errand of mercy.” She is on her way to Bataan to kill as many yellow-bellies as she can —aud with her bare bands if need be.

The nurses laud iu the shambles that was Bataan. The enemy creeps steadily forward, the defenders are bombed and strafed without a shadow of mercy,, supplies run short, the wounded pour in in a sickening stream. ’Che Americans. and the Filipinos fall back on Corregidor, but still the Jap is (here, bombing, killing, exulting. Finally the last bitter words of complete evacuation go fortii, and the nurses are lauded in Melbourne, Io be hailed, picture or no picture, as the heroines they really are. This is as strong us anything you will see in an allmale picture, and it brings a sober realization of the wonderful work that women arc doing on the world’s battlefields. “TWO TICKETS TO LONDON” AV lion the rotten core of French politics was laid open for the world to see, the French stage was found to be no less corrupt. Such famous figures as Sacha Guitry, Danielle Darricux, Mistinguett and Maurice Chevalier heedlessly threw in their lots with the German invader they had pretended to despise. One or two held firm to democratic ideals, Pierre Aumont and Michele Morgan among them. Aumont, who is now lighting for Free France, got his reward iu “Assignment in Brittany’’; Mlle. Morgan made the successful “Joan of Paris” last year and lias now come back again in another neat production, “Two Tickets h» London” (De Luxe). She fins a cast that; any star, British, American, or French, would he pleased to bo associated wilh: Alan Curtis, Sir C. Aubrey Smith, Barry Fitzgerald, Dooley . Wilson, who sang “As Time Goes By’* in the long-awaited “Casablanca,” anti Tarqnln Olivier, nine-year-old son of Laurence Olivier and making his first appearance on the screen. “Two Tickets to London” is a graphic re-enactment of a nationwide man-hunt. Curtis plays the fugitive, an alleged enemy accomplice and believed to be responsible for a major sea disaster. Mlle. Morgan appears as the girl who unwittingly aids his escape and eventually brings about his capture*. The recentlyknighted C. Aubrey Smith is cast as an Admiralty detective who has a. prominent part throughout the show. Dooley Wilson sings “Lcdd Kindly Light” and the übiquitous “You Arc M.y Sunshine.” Secund leg of the programme is “You Can’t. Boat: the Law,’* a two-fisted Big House film with all the subtlety of a swift left to the jaw. Edward Norris and Joan Woodbury have the principal parts.

“THOUSANDS CHEER” (Second week). —Even though the US. Army wasn't, able to do much about injecting the team spirit into .Private Gene Kelly, his family, who happened to be circus acrobats, did tills much for him right up there on the high trapeze and in front, of a host of guest artists, who included Judy Garland, .Mickey Rooney. Eleanor Powell, Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Prank Morgan and Ann Kothern. “Thousands Cheer'’ (Majestic) has a simple story which is more or less subsidiary to the technicolour appearance of the Bi«r Names ■which feature in a camp show, Kathryn Grayson is a colonel’s daughter who accompanies her father to bis training camp to boost tiie boys’ morale. And how she does it! But she falls *in love with J’rivato Kelly, the biggest problem child in the whole army. But love. M.G.M.. and the spirit «»!’ the mammoth camp concert, put him on the right track. Highlight of (bis. gay picture is tin: superb playing and conducting of Jose Iturbi. “Thousands Cheer” is certainly a picture tv be seen. That Wellington appreciates the fact, was evidenced the other day when the .Majestic was aldo to advertise that all seats were sold for that evening’s performance-a rare state of affairs since the Americans left.

"FIRST COMES COURAGE”

(Second Week).—ln the dwindling; roia of, war films, for Hollywood has (irmly by-passed films with a. war setting, one or two stand out. “First Comes Courage” (Plaza) is one of them—a picture sensitively acted and .well cast. The set ling is Norway; the theim* is the Nazi occupation of a village where the people have been left, as much to themselves an the overlords deemed expedient. Most attractive girl about the place is .Merle Oberon, whose unashamed entertaining of the German eflicers—and one major in particular — has placed her in very bad odour with tlio other villagers. She even commits the unforgivable sin of marrying the man. But—and the audience shares the secret from the beginning—she is a staunch patriot wiiv sacrifices her pride and honour to gain vita] information ter the Allies. Brian Ahcrtie is well cast as another who risks bis Ute, but scarcely his botivur, for The Cause. “THE MOON IS DOWN" (Second work). — “The Muon is Down” (King's) is a n’ally adult tiJm and unique in that it seeks to explain the motives that govern the purely physical facts of uar ami violence. The story framework is much :|j£ same as in the other pictures—the occupation of a peaceful village, the. sabotage, tlie terror, I lo* taking of hostages - -but. it is lhe why of these things and not the how that is important. John Steinbeck advances the theory that fhe invader may in tint** become the victim, that the hardening hatred of the invaded can wear him down and leave him with a knowledge of futility. 'The author’s temperate (reaimcut of his leading Germans ran him into a great deal of trouble. You may not tinil yourself able to believe in the theory that some Germans are almost human, bin yon will admit that it. makes for something more dramatic than the usual one-sided • war picture. Sir Cedric Hardwicke’s fatalistic German colonel Henry Travers’s gentle Norwegian mayor. Peter Vjin Eyck's Imniesirk Nazi lieutrmn.it. E. .1. Ballantine’s hard little Quisling -they come to life aud their rlmnicters stay with you. There are m> heroics in fhe film—l ho bad peopl<‘ aren’t punished and Die good people aren’t saved, "UNCENSORED" I.’mL r a sc'-ming guise of friendship aiol co-opera Hon with the Nazi Imaders. a group of resolute Belgian patriots published tlieir own Tiewspapcr, dispelling German lies with truth. The story of this famous underground jourmil is brought to Hie serorn in ‘’ljircusorod’’ (State). The unfolding of the story from the lime the idea is born till “La Libre Belgique” is suppressed, only io live again, makes for tense drama, gripping situations and plenty of thrills and action. i'lrir Portman, as the German governor, and Grillitii .Jonc> ns a resolute Belgian priest give fine performances. The film t.vpilies the hatred of freedom-loving people suffering under the yoke of the Gestapo. There is an all-l>rltish programme of interesting sport subjects in the first half.

“IN UIS STEPS'”

'Though “In Ills Steps” has sold 20,000,000 English-written copies and has been exceeded in sales only by the Bible, I must confess that I have never read it. (In fact —hanging my head lu slut me—-I have never ever heard of it.) As I dislike radio serials I have never heard one instalment, either, of the broadcast versjon of the book. Therefore i weiTt along to the film version of “In His Steps” (Paramount) with a mind as unprejudiced as an infant’s.

It was pleasant to find the principal parts played by Erie Linden and Cecilia Parker, two young stars whone work I well remember in M.G.M.’s unusual “Ab. Wilderness.” This time they are young lovers, he the sou of a wealthy man. she the daughter of a country banker. The two men are the worst of enemies and the banker declares that his daughter will never marry the son of a “cheat and. a crook.” The youngsters elope and find a great deal of happiness on the farm of an ol<l friend, a preacher who also says (he marriage lines over them. For the first time iu their lives thev are thrown on their own resources, youthful husband and wife learning what it means to till the soil and turn their faces to the sun. But this tranquillity is too good to last: the newspapers scent a good story and Dike up the cudgels against the boy. Criminal charges are brought against him by his wife’s father and he returns to face them. Before the sincerity of the young people and their obvious’ love for each other, the two warring parents call off their quarrel and the judge dismisses the case. t The boy and girl return to their farm, watched by the serene and happy eyes of the parents who had formerly’ been enemies. “Someone to Remember,’’ also on the programme, is the story of an old woman who clings to her tenancy of a hotel suite even though it has been taken over by the university authorities and turned into a men’s hostel. Iler reason for wanting to remain is because her long-absent son might return and not know where to find her. Instead she discovers that one of the students is her own grandson and she derives a certain amount of aged happiness out of this fact. John Craven. Dorothy Morris and Mabel Paige have the leads. “While Savage” (St. James). —Pagan love on a forbidden island. Approved for universal exhibition. Maria Montez, Jou Hall, aud Sabu are the starts in this technieolour production. “The Black Swan” (Tudor). —The gentle art of sword - play as demonstrated by Tyrone Power and a<lmired by Maureen O’Hara. Also screening is “The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe” with Linda Darnell and John Sheppard. “Springtime In the Rockies” (Tivoli). — The legs of Betty Grable, the muscles of John Payne, and the band of Harry James. The asciociatc fcatiin* Is .“Floruit),” starring Robert Young and Helen Gilbert. “Random Harvest” (State, Petone). — The screen version of Jarnos Hilton’s poignant novel starring Greer Garson and Ronald Colman. SUBURBAN THEATRES Vogue (Brooklyn).-** “Hatter’s Castle” and “Lucky Legs.” Capitol (Miramar).— “.Presenting Lily Mars” and “Orchestra Wivce.” Taller (Lyall Bay).— “San Francisco” and “Dulcy.” Prince Edward (Woburn). --“Assignment Iu Brittany” aud “Spider Woman.” King George (Lower Hutt). — “Salute John Citizen.” De Luxe (Lower lint I). —“Idaho” and “Larceny With Music.” Empire (Island Bay).—“Underground” and "Harrigan’s Kid.” Regal (Karori).—“The Forest Rangers” aud “Dancing on a Dime.” Ascot (Newtown).— ‘Tn Which We Serve” and "The Mau In the Trunk.” Kincma (Kilblrnic). —“A Hunting We Will Go” and “Footlight Serenade.” Rivoli (Newtown).—“llonky Tonk” and of the Prests.”