So Proudly We Hail (1943)

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.

you wont believe this...i was 16 when i saw so proudly we hail....thirty years later i resaw it and remembered everything about it...even the theme music of claudette and george. what a flawless film...the acting...paulette goddard sublime...lake..her first real good effort and colbert gracious and sonny tufts...really credible. the story so true so heartbreaking...the special effects...truly pure Spielberg and lukas. i spent 200hundred dollars.of my vacation money to buy an uniform worn by goddard in spwh and i have a whole living room wall filled with lobby cards and posters of so proudly....im that nutty. proud of paulette goddard...tag just a pretty pretty but...praised in the film. just sad to know that the whole cast has deceased...maybe lorna gray is still with us. anyways it feels good to give you my view...and thanks for understanding a spwh freak.

Thus movie is based on a true story taken from the book, "I Served On Bataan," written by nurse Juanita Hipps, a WWII nurse. She served in Bataan and Corrigedor during the time when McArthur withdrew to Australia. This unprecedented American withdrawal was a huge temporary defeat for our forces and ultimately led to the surrender of US and Philippine troops to Japan. Those prisoners of that surrender were the ones subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March.The action and pathos of this film feel real because they are based on real human beings faced with critical issues of life, death, hatred, love and courage in the face of fire.So worth your viewing time!

This is a wonderful account of the events leading up to the departure of MacArthur from the Phillipines. Parts of it are told in narrative style which lends a historic credibility to it, but the main focus on the movie is the hardships that our service personnel face when placed in tough situations. The primary characters are the Army nurses, with powerful leads played by Colbert, Goddard, Lake and Britton. Two male characters, one by TV Superman George Reeves (long before his red cape days) and one by Sonny Tufts who lends a humorous, homespun aspect to the storyline, are welcome additions.As with any US movie made during the Second World War, the Japanese are portrayed as a murderous, evil, unscrupulous enemy. These Japanese are faceless, however, showing up only as shadows in one scene. One of the frustrating parts of this behind the lines type of war is that you never see the enemy, only the mechanism with which he delivers death.Veronica Lake, in what seems to be an early "goth girl" performance, shows us what it is like when women get too close to the front lines.Want to see what war is like, not on the front lines, but behind the lines at bomber targets? Watch this movie.