Corregidor (1943)

Very well executed

Great Film overall

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Corregidor is an object lesson in how to make a cheap movie on a given subject. Contrast it to the two films made at MGM about the same period of World War II, Bataan which starred Robert Taylor and later on They Were Expendable which John Ford made at MGM. If ever there was a contrast between the lavish Tiffany Studio of Hollywood and a poverty row outfit like Producer's Releasing Corporation this is it.Additionally They Were Expendable had a romance between John Wayne and Donna Reed just as this film has a triangle romance with nurse Elissa Landi caught between doctors Otto Kruger and Donald Woods. In Corregidor the whole thing is rather forced with some awful dialog. With a master director like John Ford it was understated and effective and done in Ford's sentimental style.This was Elissa Landi's farewell film. Five years later she would be dead of cancer. Both Donald Woods and Otto Kruger were in a lot of far better films than Corregidor.Still the acting is sincere and it does raise it above the average of the usual product from PRC.

CORREGIDOR is your usual gung-ho American WW2 film set in the Philippines. Like many films which utilise that theatre of war as a backdrop, it goes for a B-movie approach and as such is only interesting as a dated curio, although it's worth remembering that this was made contemporaneous with the war itself so there are propaganda elements here.Basically, the story of the film is to chart the progress of doctors, nurses, and soldiers as they exist on an island that is constantly being besieged by Japanese troops. CORREGIDOR is rather episodic in nature, featuring some frenetic battle action followed by a lull filled by some light humour and romance, and then going back to a battle around ten minutes later. It's basic stuff, lacking any decent actors to do their roles justice, and even Otto Kruger feels hammy. Some parts of the film do tell rather than show and it all gets a bit preachy at the end.

The Battle of Corregidor involved hundreds of thousands of troops and tons of airplanes, tanks and ships. Tiny little Atlantis Pictures tried to capture it...on the cheap. Instead of hundreds of thousands of troops, you might see a dozen or so. And instead of modern equipment, they use a lot of stock footage--though at least many of the planes are actually Japanese (unlike many other US films which used Dauntless or Texan aircraft and tried to pass them off as Japanese Mitsubishi fighters). I say many because sometimes the clips are all wrong...but at least they're more right than wrong! As for the backgrounds, they are VERY cheap and the jungle set is almost laughably bad.The story involves a couple of doctors who, one minute are going to break up and the next they get married. Soon their honeymoon turns crap when the Japanese attack...and they spend the rest of the film trying to survive. She's really in love with another guy--so you can guess where it goes next. Otto Kruger, Donald Woods and Elissa Landi are fine in the movie, though the trio aren't exactly leading stars (especially Landi)...which isn't surprising with an Atlantis film. They simply couldn't afford a Clark Gable, Jimmy Cagney or Pat O'Brien. So is it any good? Not especially. Mostly the Japanese just line up waiting to be easily shot...and if Corregidor was really that easy the United States/Filipino forces would have won that battle!! But at least the Japanese aren't drooling animals like they were in many other American films of the day* (entertaining...yes...but not exactly realistic). Everyone tries their best but with the film's many limitations it manages only to be slightly entertaining and not much more. *I've seen some Japanese and German wartime films and the Americans are every bit as subhuman or one-dimensional in them as well.

(Some spoilers) A bit more accurate then the usual war movie that was cranked out of the Hollowwood studios during the Second World War. "Corregidor" honestly portrays the heroic US and Phillipino siege of the island fortress known as "The Rock. Corregidor held off massive Japanese attacks from land sea and air from the time that Battan fell on April 9, 1942 to it's eventually surrender to the Japanese imperial forces on May 6, 1942, a total of 28 days. The movie starts on December 6, 1941 at Manoi in the Phillippines with Dr. Royce lee coming to the islands with her live-in maid Hyacinth, Ruby Dandridge, from New York City. Royce meets her long and forgotten, on his part, love Dr. Jan Stockman, Otto Kruger, and in less then 24 hours the two lovebirds get married. After The Wedding, December 7,1941,the Japanese air force strikes the wedding party as well as all the US bases in the Pacific West of Hawaii, notably Perl Harbor getting the USA into WWII. The surprise Japanese attack Kills the presiding priest, Frank Jaquet, as well as Hyacinth among other guests at the ceremony. Going north away from the advancing Japanese army the two, Jan & Joyce, link up with a group of US soldiers and travel, through the jungle and over the waters of Minila Bay, to the island of Corregidor for the US army's last stand against the Japanese. We then have a really schmaltzy love triangle between Jan Joyce and an old flame of her's back from her medical school days in New York US Army Dr. Michael, Donald Woods. Dr. Michael dumped Joyce back then when she, being a blue blood and having lots of the green stuff, rented an office for Dr. Michael's medical practice on the fancy and prestigious New York's Park Ave. The guy could have evened things out by not charging fees to his clients for his services if he had such a violent dislike for making money. While on the island we also have another war love story between US Army nurse Hey-Dutch Van Doren, Wanda McKay, and her US Army boyfriend Cpl. Pinky, he's called Pinky that's because he'll so large, Mason, Rick Villin. Both Pinky & Hey-Dutch end up getting killed in the fighting. Hey-Dutch from a Japanese aerial bombardment and Pinky from being machine gunned, by a Japanese Zero fighter plane, that he also shot down from his tail-gunner position on the last plane out of Corregidor.On the island Jan changes his mind about getting married to Joyce, this after three short months, and dumps her, like Dr. Michael did, back into Dr. Michael's lap. Jan also solves the problem of Joyce being torn and divided between him and Dr. Michael by having himself get killed by a Japanese bombardment. Leaving Joyce free to marry Dr. Michael, but even that didn't go too well with Joyce being forced to leave the island as Dr. Michael stayed behind to be either killed or captured by the invading Japaneses troops. I found the love triangle and love story,between Jan & Joyce & Dr. Michael as well as Pinky and Hey-Dutch, far more interesting the the battle action scenes themselves.