Summer Under the Stars 2011 -- Day Twenty-Four Review: Cry 'Havoc'

War films about women that came out in the forties have one major leg up (no pun intended) on war films about men that came out around the same time: to put it simply, the women are allowed to hate each other. Perhaps it's because Hollywood viewed men and women so differently, or perhaps because they didn't want to confuse audiences by drawing a firm line between American soldiers and their enemies and then throwing too much inter-American conflict into the mix, but whereas the conflict between male soldiers is usually contained to big-topic disagreements about class or ethnicity (or something comparable), women in these sort of movies often dislike each other because, well, they just do. In some ways, this makes World War II films about women easier to understand today, because we're able to relate to them in a manner more intimate than history or war; it certainly helps Cry 'Havoc' and So Proudly We Hail!, two films released in 1943 that were based on the real-life ordeals of the nurses stationed in Bataan during the Japanese sweep down the Pacific during the early part of the war. Neither film pulls any punches in portraying the hardships the women face, but both also heavily concern themselves with the everyday drama between their characters.  

The main conflict in Cry 'Havoc' occurs between Ann Sothern's character Pat and...well, just about every other woman in her group of nurses, but especially Lieutenant Smith, played by Margaret Sullavan in her second-to-last film role. Pat is supposed to be a variation on the sort of tough-talking-broad-with-a-heart-of-gold Sothern frequently played during the early forties, but more often than not she just comes off as a bitch, as when she needlessly victimizes a former cosmetics saleswoman (Ella Raines) who's crumbling under the pressure of being a nurse. You see, the basic story in Cry 'Havoc' is that a rag-tag group of women have come to the island of Bataan to volunteer their services as army nurses, despite their not having any experience with medicine or the military, and Sothern's Pat has it out for just about everybody, from the fellow nurses she feels aren't rising to the occasion to the higher-ups -- like Lieutenant Smith -- who try to give her orders. Complicating matters further, she soon falls for Lieutenant Holt, the communications officer who also happens to be Lieutenant Smith's secret husband (secret because military regulations during WWII forbid fellow officers from marrying.)

Joan Crawdord allegedly turned down a role in Cry 'Havoc', dismissing it as "The Women Go to War," and she may have had a point: like The Women, the sharp-tongued 1939 comedy that costarred Crawford and explored the complex (and sometimes conniving) relationships between modern women, there are no male characters on-screen in Cry 'Havoc,' aside from a few dying soldiers; the oft-discussed Lt. Holt is only seen once, from a distance, and when he eventually dies and Lt. Smith and Pat are forced to come together in their mourning, we don't even have a face to attach to his name. This no-men gimmick works in The Women, where the way women pick at each other in regards to men is sort of the point, but in Cry 'Havoc,' it really only serves to bring the drama between the women so much into the foreground that the story consists of little else. War-related things occur, of course, and the ultimate point is that the women need to put their personal differences aside in order to be successful nurses, but when I think about Cry 'Havoc,' two things stick out to me: the women are tired (understandably), and Pat and Lt. Smith fight over a man.

So Proudly We Hail! has even more to do with war-time romance than Cry 'Havoc,' with separate storylines for lead actresses Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, and Veronica Lake, and yet it manages to mix the themes of love and war together in such a way that neither finds itself trumped by the other. The nurses in Hail! are just as prone to infighting as the women in Havoc, with Lake taking up the part of the odd woman out, who won't talk with the other nurses or even let them borrow her jewelry, but in a twist from the pattern set forth in Havoc, their bickering subsides as men enter the picture (literally, since we get to see the men here) and the rigors of war become more demanding. Ironically, the more the women talk about, think about, and interact with their men, the more we see them as people separate from their men, as flesh and blood humans with distinct personalities and motives, just as in real life. When we find out why Lake's character is so hostile to the other nurses, we have sympathy for her, or at least more sympathy than we can spare for Pat in Havoc when she realizes she's been throwing herself at another woman's husband.  

Hail is the lighter of the two films but also probably the better of the two, because despite its emphasis on romantic storylines, it has genuinely exciting and well-filmed battle scenes and keeps the story moving at a brisk but never skimpy pace, utilizing flashbacks along with a few surprise twists and deaths. Havoc started as a play and feels like a play, spending an inordinate amount of time in the women's bunker, and though its ending is more nihilistic and perhaps more realistic than the ending of Hail, it has far too many supporting characters, so many that by the film's conclusion I still couldn't identify some of the characters by face or name. (Hail keeps its focus on a select few and is all the better for it.) Cry 'Havoc' is quite a good movie, with an especially good performance from Margaret Sullavan, but it never strikes the right balance between humor, romance, action, and drama, whereas So Proudly We Hail! manages to meet all the criteria of a forties' war film while still adressing the specific concerns of the women it set out to portray.

Grade: B+

Summer Under the Stars 2011 -- Day Two Review: Nothing But the Truth

Nothing But the Truth (1941) is one of those films you forget about fifteen minutes after you watch it, but every now and again, isn’t that exactly the kind of film you want to see? The premise is simple: A stockbroker played by Bob Hope makes a bet he can tell the truth for twenty-four hours or else lose the ten thousand dollars given to him by a flighty rich girl (Paulette Goddard). Hilarity ensues, especially after he falls in love with Goddard’s character and has to try and impress her while simultaneously telling her family and friends exactly what he thinks of them. Citizen Kane it ain’t, but it’s a pleasant enough way to spend an afternoon.

I chose Nothing But the Truth primarily for Goddard, but make no mistake: it is first and foremost Bob Hope’s film. The story is built around his comedy, and he is in nearly every scene, whereas Goddard drifts in and out, acting sweetly daffy in a part better suited for an actress like Carole Lombard. I love Goddard, but she’s at her best playing a smart woman whose charisma makes up for her tendency to manipulate the people around her, as in The Women and An Ideal Husband. As far as early-40s romantic comedies go, I much preferred her in The Crystal Ball (1943).

Most people today know Paulette Goddard, if they know her at all, as the Gamin in Charlie Chaplin’s gorgeous Modern Times, which is both a buoy and a detriment to her legacy: she is radiant in Modern Times, but she is also a typical Chaplin love interest, pretty and sympathetic and…silent. In real life she was intelligent and quick-witted, traits that attracted Chaplin to her in the first place and resulted in their being married—or maybe married—for roughly six years. (Legend has it that she lost the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind because of her and Chaplin’s ambiguous marital status, but having seen the screen tests for GwtW, I’d say she and every other actress lost the part mainly because Vivien Leigh was so obviously the right choice.) Goddard’s best parts are those in which she gets to demonstrate her flair for snappy delivery and infusing otherwise selfish characters with warmth and humor; I would recommend Dramatic School (1938), which she steals from lead actress Luise Rainer, and So Proudly We Hail! (1943), which features one of the best slap-fights in cinematic history.



Goddard was never given much chance as a dramatic actress, and once her looks started to fade, so did she—she left films in the early fifties and moved to Europe with her fourth husband, the novelist Erich Maria Remarque. She never had to act; thanks to a series of lucrative divorce settlements, she was rich when she entered Hollywood and she was rich when she left (smart woman, like I said). The fact that TCM placed her right beside Bette Davis in their Summer Under the Stars scheduling is an interesting juxtaposition—if Davis was the requisite performer, the actress who wouldn’t leave the screen even after a stroke late in life affected her ability to speak, then Goddard was simply a hard worker who did what she could while she was able and then made a quick retreat. Davis is the icon, but Goddard has an impressive film legacy all her own.

Grade: B

One Day and Counting

The Summer Under the Stars mini-site is officially up and running! The theme for this year's site is a roadtrip across the USA, with each day and each respective star represented by a stop along the journey--for example, on the second day of August you stop at "Miriam's Dude Ranch for Divorcees," a reference to Paulette Goddard's character in 1939's The Women. It's a tad on-the-nose and not always entirely accurate (Goddard's character in The Women was a guest at the divorcee ranch, not the owner), but it's a vast improvement from last year's boring silhouette theme.

I've yet to find any downloadable material from this year's site, but in the meantime, I think the updated posters they designed for the 2009 site deserve a second look. Some of the posters are beautiful, and almost all of them are better than the real posters produced for movies today. (You can find all 31 of the posters here, and all 12 of the teaser posters here.)

The Journey Begins August 1st...

Turner Classic Movies' annual hot-weather scheduling block, Summer Under the Stars, starts up next Monday, and I don't mind saying that I'm more excited than any one twenty-six-year-old male has the right to be. For the uninitiated, or simply for those with a life, Summer Under the Stars involves TCM devoting each day during the month of August to a particular old Hollywood star, usually from between the years 1930 and 1960, and usually with one or two actors from the twenties thrown in so the silent movie fans won't riot. It's about as much fun as a white boy can have while sitting inside and wondering why he never gets a tan anymore.

For me, Summer Under the Stars has always been something like a New Year's resolution for television programming: I anticipate it, checking the TCM site all throughout the summer until somebody posts the schedule; I plan ahead for it, picking out which actors I want to watch and which films I want to record; and then, once the big day finally comes, I promptly forget about it until some time in the middle of September. "The best laid plans of mice men," as they say... or, as a I assume they say, because I probably opted out of watching that movie in favor of watching the end of Cool Hand Luke for the fiftieth time.

But this year is going to be different -- different, I tell you! For one thing, they're featuring not one but two of my favorite actresses -- Paulette Goddard (8/2; pictured) and Carole Lombard (8/28) -- and they're also showing a number of films I've wanted to see for some time, including the pre-Code Three on a Match (8/9) and John Huston's The Misfits (8/20). My plan of attack is simple: I'm going to record one movie per each featured actor every day for the entire month of August, for a total of 31 films, plus the few extra I'll probably record for Goddard and Lombard. I'll post my selection for each day on this blog, along with some information about the day's respective star and a short review of the chosen film. And when I inevitably fall behind in this task, I will post some excuse about having been too busy with work and then go on a tirade about the heat, because nothing brings the people together like whining about the weather they so desperately wanted back when their cars were buried under a foot of snow.

In the meantime, check out the TCM page for this year's Summer Under the Stars, which I assume will go interactive in the next few days. At least, I hope it will -- as much as I love a good post-modernist desert sprawl (and really, who doesn't?), I can only watch cars motoring by into oblivion for so long.