Hollywood movies traditionally like to celebrate victories but for a period there in World War Two they were about defeat, because that's all America suffered during it's early days: Bataan, Cry Havoc, Wake Island, Corregidor. This is a very good movie, stylishly made, expertly created for the female audience: it has great roles for three female stars, who are three different archetypes (sensible Claudette Colbert, sassy and flirty Paulette Goddard, bitter Veronica Lake); it introduces two new hunks (both having their opening scenes with their shirts off and both who who had tragic lives off screen, interestingly enough - George Reeves and Sonny Tufts); it tells the story of war from the female point of view, deals with female-leaning struggles (e.g., a mother loses a son, career vs marriage, wanting to heal vs wanting to kill Japanese).
Colbert does her idealised nurse thing very well - sensible, always shot in one profile, not panicking as the Japanese come on in and her fellow nurses lose it. Goddard is enormous fun as a flirty nurse, keen to wear her negligee to keep up morale, with several men on the go, falling for Tufts (whose limitations work here as he plays a lummox) - she feels real, and works very well with the other actors. Lake isn't the greatest actor in the world (her break down scene shows her limitations) but its a marvellous part, she has that charisma and a terrific suicide bombing last scene (even if it is half way though the film).
It's an impressive script by Alan Scott which starts off with a bang (a plane load of nurse survivors arrive in Melbourne Australia, and are met by a British sounding officer - Colbert is traumatised), and juggles its several plots expertly; ditto the changes in tone (romance, comedy, flirting, seriousness, war action). The war experience thought female eyes - they're active, important, vital. No wonder if was a big hit.
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