A war film made for the boys and the girls at the home front during World War II. So Proudly We Hail is based on the actual experiences of some Navy Nurses serving in the Philippines at the start of the war. The Japanese attack on the US military finally ended in the surrender of the Philippines after General MacArthur was evacuated.
This film while fiction is not above sticking in some love stories for the nurses (as if this situation isn't dramatic enough) to appeal to the female audience. During the second half of the film the action finally kicks in with some very well done war scenes for the boys which is certainly a break from the lovey dovey stuff you have to endure.
Paramount cast their top female performers, Claudette Colbert as the Lieutenant in charge of the nurses. Paulette Goddard is the all American gal juggling two Navy captain boyfriends but hooking up with a good old regular marine/former football player. Finally the smoldering Veronica Lake plays a nurse with a score to settle with the Japanese.
Frankly the romance between Colbert and her fella, George Reeves (TV's first Superman) gets mighty tiresome. Paulette Goddard has a little better chemistry with the regular marine played by a goofball of an actor named Sonny Tuffs. As for Veronica Lake, well she has a memorable scene confronting a squadron of Japanese soldiers.
This film was a big hit and the idea of telling a war story from the point of view of the nurses was at the very least original. So Proudly We Hail for all the usual jingoistic wartime stuff, particularity directed towards the Japanese, does give the viewer a little bit of a sense of the attitude of Americans during the war.
The film was written by Allan Scott who wrote a lot of those Astaire/Rogers musicals at RKO. The running time is 126 minutes.
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