Formula: A Woman in Love with One Man Marries Another + Insidious Japanese Attack on American Territory + A Surgical Theater's Romantic But Unconsummated Menage a Trois=A Movie That Can't Decide What It's About.
*****
The Japanese December 1941 invasion of the Philippines, culminating in the surrender by General Wainwright of all forces under his command in early 1942, is still America's greatest military catastrophe. The defense and ultimate loss of the obsolete island fortress of Corregidor, here immortalized (less rather than more) in the film of the same name was, with the fall of the archipelago, a far more serious geo-strategic blow to America than Pearl Harbor.
In 1943 veteran director William Nigh, a man who successfully transitioned from the silents to the talkies and who directed dozens of mostly forgettable films, made "Corregidor." His three stars were successful screen actors. Playing a doctor, Dr. Royce Lee Stockman, Elissa Landi, once a beauty, brought some depth to the story of a woman who traveled to the Philippines to marry one doctor while carrying a bright torch for another, an army medico named Michael who just happened to be stationed in the territory. She weds Dr. Jan Stockman (Otto Kruger, playing a nice guy for a change) the night before the Japanese air attack that presaged the invasion.
Together with ragtag army troops, the couple reaches Corregidor where Michael is encountered. The trek through the backlot jungle provides a preview of some of the most unrealistic war scenes filmed anytime between 1939 and 1945.
Idealistic Jan recognizes his bride's undiminished love for Michael and almost like a quintessential (but probably rare) English gentleman he urges her to go to him. This being 1943, no intimacy is shown or suggested.
In any event, history takes its course and Corregidor falls but not before some of the women, including Royce are flown out (in reality, American army nurses were captured by the Japanese and while they were spared the horrors of the Bataan Death March, they didn't exactly have a nice time for the next three years either).
The film is stolidly preachy about the virtues of democracy with declamations by the actors having the "Now for a message from our government" tone. The use of stock military footage reaches the asinine with no attempt to make planes uniform. A monoplane begins a bombing run that is concluded by a biplane. No excuse for that. Also, apparently to save time and money, the same shots of Japanese soldiers falling dead to the ground are recycled at several points.
One historical curiosity: Royce's maid, killed at the beginning of the movie, is Ruby Dandridge, mother of Dorothy.
Much more could have been done with this story and its experienced lead cast.
4/10
*****
The Japanese December 1941 invasion of the Philippines, culminating in the surrender by General Wainwright of all forces under his command in early 1942, is still America's greatest military catastrophe. The defense and ultimate loss of the obsolete island fortress of Corregidor, here immortalized (less rather than more) in the film of the same name was, with the fall of the archipelago, a far more serious geo-strategic blow to America than Pearl Harbor.
In 1943 veteran director William Nigh, a man who successfully transitioned from the silents to the talkies and who directed dozens of mostly forgettable films, made "Corregidor." His three stars were successful screen actors. Playing a doctor, Dr. Royce Lee Stockman, Elissa Landi, once a beauty, brought some depth to the story of a woman who traveled to the Philippines to marry one doctor while carrying a bright torch for another, an army medico named Michael who just happened to be stationed in the territory. She weds Dr. Jan Stockman (Otto Kruger, playing a nice guy for a change) the night before the Japanese air attack that presaged the invasion.
Together with ragtag army troops, the couple reaches Corregidor where Michael is encountered. The trek through the backlot jungle provides a preview of some of the most unrealistic war scenes filmed anytime between 1939 and 1945.
Idealistic Jan recognizes his bride's undiminished love for Michael and almost like a quintessential (but probably rare) English gentleman he urges her to go to him. This being 1943, no intimacy is shown or suggested.
In any event, history takes its course and Corregidor falls but not before some of the women, including Royce are flown out (in reality, American army nurses were captured by the Japanese and while they were spared the horrors of the Bataan Death March, they didn't exactly have a nice time for the next three years either).
The film is stolidly preachy about the virtues of democracy with declamations by the actors having the "Now for a message from our government" tone. The use of stock military footage reaches the asinine with no attempt to make planes uniform. A monoplane begins a bombing run that is concluded by a biplane. No excuse for that. Also, apparently to save time and money, the same shots of Japanese soldiers falling dead to the ground are recycled at several points.
One historical curiosity: Royce's maid, killed at the beginning of the movie, is Ruby Dandridge, mother of Dorothy.
Much more could have been done with this story and its experienced lead cast.
4/10