Expected more

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The acting in this movie is really good.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

So Proudly We Hail! is directed by Marc Sandrich and written by Allan Scott. The film stars Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, Barbara Britton and George Reeves.This powerful film set and made during the Second World War focuses on army nurses. Soldiers get a lot of attention in real life and in films but the services and courage of frontline medical personal often gets overlooked. These doctors and nurses also put their lives at risk and try to save lives, mend broken bodies and try and heal the broken minds of wounded soldiers. They see horror just like the soldiers do and work so hard to bring comfort to the injured and dying.This film made at the height of the Second World War focuses on a group of American nurses lead by the strong Lt. Davison(Claudette Colbert). They are aboard ship on their way to Pearl Harbour when news of the attack there comes through, they are transferred to Bataan in the Philippines. The group of very different women become friends as they work together to try and do what they can to help the wounded and dying in the Philippines.For the time there's some very graphic scenes in this including the attack on the hospital in which a nurse is killed and the unforgettable moment where another nurse sacrifices herself so that her trapped colleagues get a chance to escape to safety.The film also shows how difficult it is for the nurses to deal with the horrors they face and how uncertain the safety of medical personal was just like that of the soldiers.The entire cast are superb but the standout performances for me are Paulette Goddard as the fun loving Joan, Claudette Colbert as the head nurse trying to look after her girls and the glamorous Veronica Lake as the traumatised Olivia, her storyline is very dark and truly unforgettable and Lake proves here what a good actress she was. George Reeves (the TV Superman)is good as a soldier who falls in love with Lt. Davison.

During WWII, Hollywood made a bazillion war films. Almost all of them were clearly propaganda pieces--lacking realism and intended only to bolster the war effort. Allied soldiers were, generally, supermen and the enemy were subhuman monsters. The films were effective but don't age well. However, a few war films from the era managed to be very effective yet realistic--sticking to the facts but doing such a thoroughly good job that they are timeless. Two of the best of this era have to do with the same events--the loss of the Philippines to the Japanese. One, "In Harm's Way", is told from the viewpoint of two Patrol Boat captains and this film, "So Proudly We Hail!" concerns an ensemble cast of nurses stuck on Bataan during the final weeks of this battle. Both are about equally good--and both are true classics.The film begins with a small group of nurses en route from the Philippines. They've been evacuated and are heading to safety. However, several of them are clearly damaged--in particular the one played by Claudette Colbert. The story then flashes back to the beginning of the story--and you learn about all the nurses but particularly how Colbert got to this state. Among the cast are Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake. And, among the guys they fall for during the war are George Reeves (TV's Superman) and Sonny Tufts.What I really liked about the film is that although the characters are fictional, the action is very real. The war isn't sensationalized or sugar-coated--it's bloody, brutal and unrelenting. And, unlike most war films of the day, it doesn't assume the audience is stupid and realizes it can paint a realistic portrait and still contribute to the war effort. The usual jingoism is absent--just a lot of good folks giving their lives in the line of duty. As a result, the film is often heartbreaking and is bound to make an emotional connection with the viewer. Paramount should be appreciated for a great script, exceptional acting and wonderful sets and special effects, as it looks like you'd think the Philippines SHOULD look. One of the best war pictures of the era--and one worth seeing.By the way, Colbert's next film, "Since You Went Away" was also one of the greatest films of the era to deal with the war. It tells an amazingly touching story of a mother and her two daughters as they cope with the absence of loved ones. It's also a tearjerker and well worth seeing.

Director Mark Sandrich and Screenwriter Allan Scott have interviewed eight U.S. Army nurses surviving the perils of World War II during its devastating raids on Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, and Bataan and Corregidor, in the Philippines.Paramount Pictures produces this resulting dynamic anti-war film, "So Proudly We Hail!" (1943), complete with many barbarian attacks on innocent lives and a great amount of bloodshed under treacherous conditions.Its leading ladies and several well-known supporting actresses portray U.S. Army Lieutenants, serving as nurses to care for wounded Service personnel and civilians during the war-torn Pacific Campaign. This stars Claudette Colbert as Janet "Davy" Davidson, Paulette Goddard as Joan O'Doul, Veronica Lake as Olivia D'Arcy, Mary Treen as Sadie Schwartz, Ann Doran as Betty Peterson, Barbara Britton as Rosemary Larson, and Mary Servoss as Captain "Ma" McGregor, with Yvonne De Carlo in an uncredited roll.George Reeves as Lieutenant John Summers plays opposite Miss Colbert as her romantic leading man, with Sonny Tufts as Kansas to interact with Miss Goddard, with Walter Abel as Chaplain and James Bell as Colonel White.The story is told primarily in flashback sequence, with narration by Paulette or Mary to introduce its scenes, after eight Army nurses arrive in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in order to explain the one among their group not responding to human contact.It all begins on the evening of the group's deployment from San Diego, California, early in December of 1941, and their nearing their proposed station in Hawaii, but they must change their course to head toward the Philippines, in the aftermath of tragedy.Along the route, shipmates witness the bombing of a different ship, and survivors are rafted onto board their vessel, one of their new passengers an Army nurse, Lieutenant Olivia D'Arcy, who has been stationed at Pearl Harbor during the invasion.Olivia, however, does not wish to participate in the shipboard merriment of the Christmas Eve gathering, at which the perennially flirtatious Joan wears her black lace negligee as an evening gown, to boost community morale, while the altruistic Janet attempts to reach an understanding with her distant new nurse.From here, most of the on-land action transpires in Bataan and Corregidor, employing very graphic scenes of the results of enemy aerial bombings and gunfire.Veronica Lake forsakes her Peekaboo hair style to sport the School-Marm look characteristic of this era because Defense Plant employees emulating her famous cascading coiffure have unfortunately been finding their hair to catch into machinery gears.All-in-all this makes for a very downbeat but heavily worthwhile film, containing nice touches of pleasantries along the way, all worth revisiting over the years, but upon this most recent viewing, the electricity went out throughout the community (during a bombing scene in the film) after a vehicle struck a utility poll down the road, thus magnifying the poignant effects of this film amid the atmosphere of actual sirens in the backdrop of the outdoor and indoor darkness.

The strengths of SO PROUDLY WE HAIL (1943) are found more in its form rather than the content of its characters. The main area where it differs from John Wayne-style WWII lip service is its predominantly female cast. All the American flag waving of the Forties is still here in full force, but the patriotic propaganda of the Office of War Information (OWI) is interestingly mingled with a Hollywood "love your man" plot.Our girls can stick it to the enemy while still standing by their men! Goddard flirts with several officers while Colbert carries on a romance with George Reeves (Superman!) and Lake fosters a blind hatred for the Japanese due to her husband's death at Pearl Harbor, which prompts her to tuck a grenade in her bustier and march into a group of Japanese soldiers with a *BANG* early on in the film. Even with all the romance our girls still occasionally find time to do some nursing, which usually consists of them sitting (and sometimes standing) around sighing and telling us and each other about how hard it is to be a nurse. And just in case we don't understand what it means to be a patriot we are given several speeches on the topic, all delivered by our girls in perfect makeup and hair, with nary a lock out of place (ironic for Lake). Now, I do believe that it is hard to be a nurse, but the film would be greatly improved by showing us more of their hard work. Film, after all, is a visual medium.That said, the Oscar® nominations for Best Black and White Cinematography and Best Special Effects were definitely deserved. Unlike most WWII propaganda pieces this one hardly ever looks as if it was shot on some cheap Hollywood back lot. Pay particular attention to the scenery; there is an ever-present atmosphere of smoke and shadow that makes this film worth watching. And the explosions are often genuinely powerful and impressive, if you're into that sort of thing.I personally enjoyed the many montage sequences and the scene where all the girls are sitting around a table in Corregidor and an American food advertisement (for fresh pineapples or something like that) comes on the radio, effectively putting the battle conditions of daily bombings in sharp contrast with the more domestic concerns "back home".SO PROUDLY WE HAIL offers precious little criticism of war and presents the Japanese as a faceless enemy worthy only of death and American hatred. The Hollywood love plot is sufficiently cheesy enough to be almost unintentionally satirical, but if you want to view a film with more substance then check out THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (1943).War shouldn't ever evoke pride or be hailed. 2/5."Superman says YOU can slap a Jap . . . with war bonds and stamps!"