Released in 1943, this Richard Thorpe-directed drama is typical (mostly in a good way) of most war movies released while the war was very much still up for grabs as fighting raged on in Europe and the Pacific. At the homefront, American audiences went to the movies and saw stories like this in hopes of boosting the war effort, seeing the courageous actions of our soldiers. There's a long list of similar movies -- check it HERE -- but this one gets points for its originality in its propaganda message, even if it is a somewhat tamed message. In a time-span where Rosie the Riveter was an instantly recognizable figure, Cry Havoc is told from the perspective of the female personnel on Bataan.
Working at an army hospital some 25 miles from the front line on the Bataan peninsula, Army personnel Capt. Marsh (Fay Bainter), Lt. Smith (Margaret Sullavan), Flo (Marsha Hunt), and cook Sadie (Connie Gilchrist) are part of a dwindling force helping the wounded American and Filipino forces, both those wounded in combat and those sick from disease. As thousands of people try to get off the peninsula before the Japanese overrun Bataan, the hospital receives nine female volunteers from a local city to help with the wounded, among them Pat (Ann Sothern), a flirty but tough New Yorker and Grace (Joan Blondell), a burlesque dancer. With what little medical knowledge they have, the limited staff keeps on working as the siege continues. A Japanese victory seems inevitable, but can they be saved in time?
Excluding a few throwaway lines from wounded soldiers, there are NO male characters here. Thorpe's story focuses exclusively on the lives of the 13 female soldiers and volunteers during the Bataan siege. Along with those already listed, there is Connie (Ella Raines), a young woman who is the most visibly shaken at the approaching war, Helen (Frances Gifford), a married woman who dreams of seeing her husband, Nydia (Diana Lewis), a naive, innocent Southern belle, two sisters, Andra (Heather Angel) and Sue (Dorothy Morris), Steve (Gloria Grafton), and Lusita (Fely Franquelli), a young Filipino woman. With so many characters, not all of them are given large roles, but of the supporting parts Raines, Gifford, Lewis and Angel come off the best with the screentime they do have.
This was a movie based off a play from Allan Kenward, much of the story being set in the underground, damp dugout where these women live during the siege. It was filmed in black and white and does its best to show that not just the men are fighting for the cause at this early stage in WWII. One monologue comes from Sothern's Pat, pointing out on a map to the characters (and to us as the viewer) exactly what happened during the Bataan campaign. Because it's always nice to see something different out of a familiar genre -- in this case World War II -- I really enjoyed the movie. I'll go into this more later, but there is a boatload of strong female characters forced to deal with a hellacious situation with a propaganda message that never goes overboard. At one point when the battle is all but lost, all the volunteers decide to stick it out rather than leave for safety. The simple scene is not overdone, just this small group that has bonded so well deciding to sacrifice themselves to help save others.
That said, the story and the portrayal of the women comes off as a little out of a soap opera. This is war from the losing perspective, and 'Havoc' still finds a way to make these women catty in their interactions. Sullavan's tough, hard-edged Lt. Smith is dying of malignant malaria and has secretly married an Army officer (heard but never seen). Sothern's Pat is quite interested in Lt. Holt, thinking there's no way he could even be interested in Smith. It was disappointing that with a story as potentially powerful as the one being dealt with that it resorts to a love triangle. This is by no means the main focus of the story, but enough time is spent focused on that angle that the movie does suffer a bit.
This next statement comes along knowing that a 1943 movie released to American audiences is not going to be the most realistic portrayal of the Bataan situation. On the other hand, the story is whitewashed a bit much for my liking. Yes, I understand, the reality would horrify anyone seeing the movie. The situation for these nurses and volunteers never seems as horrific as it should. My assumption going in was that this group would eventually start getting picked off one-by-one like 1943's Bataan (this story from the male perspective). Instead, most of the ladies make it to the end and surrender to advancing Japanese forces. They march out of their dugout proudly with their hands over their heads, Sothern's Pat and Sullavan's Smitty putting their differences aside.
The ending does not come across as well as it should have, some of that being chalked up to the knowledge we have now of what would have happened to these women. Seeing the actual actions would have traumatized movie audiences. These women would have been brutally beaten, raped, abused and eventually murdered. To show this would have been a bad choice -- no doubt about that -- but the ending as is doesn't seem appropriate enough. It tries too hard to end on a positive note when history shows there was no positive note coming. On a brief sidebar, look for a young Robert Mitchum as a wounded soldier in an air raid. Look quick though, or you'll miss him.
Cry 'Havoc' <---TCM trailer (1943): ***/****
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