Still effective WWII combat film, not without its dated or corny moments (as noted by director Edward Dmytryk in his auto-bio*), has the advantage of highlighting local Filipino guerrilla fighters, led by John Wayne’s Colonel, left behind on the island to coordinate resistance action in the wake of General Douglas MacArthur’s evacuation. Less studio-bound than other war films of the day, much of the staging & action punches above its weight, with Wayne really throwing himself into things with his old football moves. And if the villainous ‘Japs’ look like caricatures to modern audiences, be aware that the filmmakers were at pains to tone down atrocities that wouldn’t have passed the censors. The Bataan Death March timidly shown here is a picnic compared to the real thing. And while it’s a nice touch when Dmytryk edits in real survivors marching to freedom after their rescue, the men now look so healthy it undercuts the effect Dmytryk was going for. Also with Anthony Quinn and Vladimir Sokoloff, the only Filipino ‘ringers’ in the cast, far less jolting than tough-guy Lawrence Tierney who shows up briefly with advance military info. Tierney always looks out of place.
DOUBLE-BILL: An unofficial sequel to BATAAN/’43 (Tay Garnett/Robert Taylor), Wayne soon followed with a very different kind of prequel, John Ford’s THEY WERE EXPENDABLE/’45, a war film on an entirely different plane.
READ ALL ABOUT IT: *Dmytryk’s IT’S A HELL OF A LIFE BUT NOT A BAD LIVING quotes the film’s military advisor getting in digs at General MacArthur, including MacArthur’s use of a navy sub to evacuate his furniture on his retreat to Australia. True story? Well, my uncle, a WWII Navy Lt., witnessed MacArthur’s famous ‘Return to the Philippines’ as it was being filmed. In fact, he witnessed it three times until they got it just right for the newsreel cameras.
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