THREE CAME HOME (1950)

Underseen & undersung, this WWII drama about the British colony in Borneo, sent to Japanese prison camps as enemy aliens ‘for the duration,’ is also unexpectedly fine and unexpectedly tough.  (Decades of lousy ‘duped’ Public Domain editions didn’t help its rep.  Decent ones available if you look.)  Director Jean Negulesco, in his pre-CinemaScope period at 20th/Fox, doesn’t need to ramp up the stakes on this true story, written by the sole American in the group, Agnes Newton Keith, beautifully played by Claudette Colbert in something of a career pivot toward character roles after a series of popular post-war domestic comedies.  Going well beyond the usual Hollywood deglamorized look*, she and Sussue Hayakawa, as the conflicted/semi-sympathetic Japanese Colonel in charge of all the prison camps, pull off some tricky scenes of grudging respect unusual for the period.  Even Patric Knowles as the husband sent to ‘men’s camp’ God-knows-where has a rare good part.  But the cast is all good here, not too noble/not too hysterical, with some scenes far more brutal than you expect for 1950.  One involving some female-starved Australian prisoners flips from comic relief to death trap with the speed of a master.  On the other hand, Negulsco misses a trick by sticking with the same young actor as Colbert’s little boy over three and a half years of growth.  Elsewise, top creative people all ‘round: script Nunnally Johnson, a Hugo Friedhofer score, lensing Milton Krasner.  The film should be much better known.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK/DOUBLE-BILL:  *The most self-aware of actors, Colbert gave the okay for all sorts of ’wrong’ angles on a face she normally only allowed to be shot from her ‘good’ side.   A privilege she certainly didn’t waive on her previous war-themed project, SO PROUDLY WE HAIL/’43.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/so-proudly-we-hail-1943.html