Movie review - "Three Came Home" (1950) **1/2

Some generalisations. German POW films are generally fun with serious moments - The Great Escape, The Wooden Horse, etc. Concentration camp films are rarely fun at all - Life is Beautiful, Schindler's List, etc. Japanese POW films are more fun than concentration camp films but still bleak - too much heat, too much brutality, too many flies. Even the prospect of women in prison doesn't liven things up - too much suffering, too much sweat, none of the good old fashioned women-in-prison fun of those 70s New World movies shot in the Philippines.

Three Came Home is about the adventures of a group of British women and an American (Claudette Colbert) trapped on Borneo when the Japs invade and who are separated from their men and packed off to a women-and-kids-only prison camp.

Based on a book by Agnes Keith, whom Colbert plays, the film is extremely well written and directed. It is made with intelligence and sensitivity with several memorable sequences: women taunting a Japanese who doesn't speak English but then he cottons on and slaps one, Colbert sneaks out at night to see her husband in a nearby camp, Colbert is almost raped (director Jean Negulesco loves scenes at night with the wind blowing through the trees).

The film does not hype itself at all, except with Colbert's quivering-brave-lower-lip performance reminiscent of her work in Since You Went Away. There are no false heroics, and the Japanese are treated fairly - their is the rape attempt, casual sadism and even a torture scene (of Claudette Colbert!) but they are also shown to be capable to humanity and camp commander Sessue Hayakawa is nice and loses his family in the Hirsohima bombing. Even Colbert's son, annoying at first, becomes quite likeable.

For Aussie viewers the most interesting sequence will be the one where some imprisoned Aussie soldiers are put in a camp near the girls. "Why do the Australians always seem to be more aggressive than necessary?" asks Sessue. Later, two Aussie soldiers (played by actors I didn't recognise but with not-bad Aussie accents) try to sneak into camp – they flirt with two women (inc Colbert) – “come on down here, toots, and I’ll give you a lipstick”. The girls try to get rid of them by pretending to be 60 and 70. Other girls come along then more Aussies. Some girls climb out of the barracks to receive lipsticks. Aussie soldiers try to climb over fence - Colbert, getting worried, says all the girls are married or missionaries but it doesn't dissuade the Aussies. Then a spotlight comes on and all Aussies are shot dead. Great scene - humour to tragedy in the blink of a second.

Extremely well done (the writer-producer was Nunally Johnson) but, like all Japanese POW films except possibly Bridge on the River Kwai, not exactly fun.