So Proudly We Hail

Mark Sandrich's 1943 war film follows a group of American army nurses cut off in the Philippines. Lieutenant Janet Davidson tries to keep her unit standing while they tend the wounded and hold on to whatever is left of ordinary life, courtship included. Bataan and Corregidor are the ground under it. The screenplay came from a book by Juanita Redmond, who served on Bataan, and the production drew on Eunice Hatchitt, one of the nurses who got out of Corregidor, as an adviser. That it was made as a morale picture while the war was still running shows in every frame, yet it is unusual for its moment in keeping women at the centre of the work rather than as decoration. Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake lead; Goddard was nominated for an Academy Award.