Cecil B. DeMille’s big sacrifices for the war effort came playing Air Warden for Laughlin Park and in making a contemporary film story; something he’d not tried for a decade. The impetus was an FDR fireside chat he heard about U.S. Navy physician Corydon McAlmont Wassell*, a small-town Arkansas doctor whose stubbornly heroic efforts early in WWII saved a dozen bedridden patients in Java as Japanese forces approached and a relief ship refused to take patients unable to walk. Grabbing the story rights, and working much faster than usual, DeMille brought Wassell to Hollywood from Australia and interviewed survivors still in hospital before getting James Hilton to compile a story from the notes and Charles Bennet for a script rewrite. Gary Cooper made a perfect Dr. Wassell, unlike bland love interest Lorraine Day. The others more than acceptable, considering half of Hollywood off to war. The film typically lush, unbelievable, entertaining and atypically lively for DeMille, Yet, as his famous choreographer niece Agnes de Mille* so accurately put it, in spite of all the diligent research, top technical help, and historical/cultural special advisers he used, the final results always came out ‘pure De Mille.’ (By which she meant, pure hooey.) The film a big hit in its day, now one of his least known efforts. Worth it for the 3-strip TechniColor model work alone. Tinker-toy trains & handmade mountain landscapes (even more noticeable in color than in b&w; not so far from THOMAS THE TANK), a dreamland no one but De Mlle could get away with in his lumbering realistic style. Largely because, in spite of so many failings, he almost always knew what we wanted to see next; his main gift as filmmaker, and a priceless one.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Note the slight spelling difference between C. B. DeMille (which looks very grand) and Agnes de Mille (which looks downright common).
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *That FDR fireside chat (the real thing BTW) serves as the film’s climax.
No comments:
Post a Comment