This movie is definitely NOT in the fine tradition of SO PROUDLY WE HAIL. Although filmed in 1943 when the war was going very badly for America, this film depicts the nurses as a grumbling useless band. It takes fully 1 hour and 22 minutes before any of these "nurses" helps a wounded GI, then the film ends soon after. This was a startlingly lame movie from MGM. I expected this film to be like "So Proudly We Hail." It was not.
Decades ago when I was 14, I remember a group of us young guys went to the reissue of "Wake Island" double-billed with "So Proudly We Hail." "Wake Island" was one of the toughest and bloodiest battles of World War II and was a solidly made classic war movie. But "So Proudly We Hail" --- about nurses operating in extreme combat --- that was just downright astonishing. I don't think any of us thought of women as less than our equal after that day. Sixty years later it stands out as the grittiest war movie ever.
"So Proudly We Hail" did the nurses --- and America --- proud. "Cry Havoc" fails absolutely in comparison.
Decades ago when I was 14, I remember a group of us young guys went to the reissue of "Wake Island" double-billed with "So Proudly We Hail." "Wake Island" was one of the toughest and bloodiest battles of World War II and was a solidly made classic war movie. But "So Proudly We Hail" --- about nurses operating in extreme combat --- that was just downright astonishing. I don't think any of us thought of women as less than our equal after that day. Sixty years later it stands out as the grittiest war movie ever.
"So Proudly We Hail" did the nurses --- and America --- proud. "Cry Havoc" fails absolutely in comparison.