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So Proudly We Hail!
Directed by	Mark Sandrich
Produced by	Mark Sandrich
Written by	Allan Scott
Starring	Claudette Colbert Paulette Goddard Veronica Lake George Reeves
Music by	Edward Heyman Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography	Charles Lang
Editing by	Ellsworth Hoagland
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures Universal Studios (2007 DVD, current rights holder)
Release date(s)	June 22, 1943 (premiere) April 3, 1944 February 28, 1945 July 5, 1946 August 19, 1948
Running time	126 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

So Proudly We Hail! is a 1943 film with Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard (who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance), George Reeves and Veronica Lake.

An effective sample of wartime propaganda, the film follows a group of military nurses sent to the Philippines during the early days of World War II. The movie was based on a book written by nurse Juanita Hipps, a WWII nurse who served in Bataan and Corrigedor during the time when McArthur withdrew to Australia which ultimately led to the surrender of US and Philippine troops to Japan. Those prisoners of war were subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March. The movie was based on LTC Hipps' true story "I Served On Bataan."

The story covers many day to day events, and contrasts the brutality of war against the sometimes futile efforts of the nurses to provide medical aid and comfort. There are several striking moments in the movie, including a shocking "self-sacrifice" by a female character to save her fellow nurses. Each of the nurses has a past or present love story with a soldier, with the longest term and most interesting romance the one between the characters played by Colbert and Reeves. The flashback narration gives a sense of historical import and resonance. The sequence where the nurses and injured soldiers are stranded on a massive naval base, pinned down by aircraft fire, is one of the more claustrophobic scenes in wartime cinema.

Moviegoers of the time found great timeliness in the movie, since MacArthur and the battles for Bataan, and Corregidor were familiar to every American. Although the love-story plot line is the primary thrust of the film, the difficulties and emotional toll of war are strongly shown.

• So Proudly We Hail! at the Internet Movie Database

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