SO PROUDLY WE HAIL (1943) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Mark Sandrich
Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake,
George Reeves, Sonny Tufts, Barbara Britton,
Walter Abel, Mary Servoss, Ted Hecht
Heroic Army nurses (who hate to be called heroic) dodge bombs and bullets while patching up the wounded on Bataan and Corregidor. In their spare time, which isn't much, head nurse Claudette Colbert falls for Superman, while party girl Paulette Goddard finds she kind of likes Sonny Tufts. Like John Ford's "They Were Expendable", it's a movie about courage in the face of defeat. Unlike Ford's movie, it was made when the outcome of the war was still uncertain. A rousing wartime propaganda piece with effective performances by all the women and exciting battle scenes. Lake is especially good as a nurse with a surly disposition and a bitter personal hatred for the Japanese.
