Film Review: Bataan (1943)

Hours after attacking the United States Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier planes bombed the main bases of the American Far East Air Force in the Philippines. In the following days, the Japanese 14th Army commanded by Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma invaded Luzon, Mindanao, and several other islands in the Philippine Archipelago, effectively gaining air and land superiority over the area by cutting the line of communication from Australia and establishing a blockade against the U.S. Asiatic Fleet.

 

After the fall of Manila in early January 1942, General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the United States Army Forces in the Far East, ordered the outnumbered Filipino and American troops to retreat into the mountainous and heavily forested Bataan Peninsula, on the western side of Luzon. Despite a lack of supplies, the refugee soldiers, led by Major General Edward P. King, fought the Japanese for three months, but eventually surrendered Bataan to Homma on April 9. More than 70,000 half-starved, exhausted and disease-ridden troops were then forced to march 65 miles (105 kilometres) to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on the southern end of the peninsula. The «Bataan Death March» was marked by severe physical abuse enforced by the Japanese, and caused the demise of at least 11,000 men. On May 6, Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright, the senior field commander of Filipino and U.S. forces under MacArthur, surrendered to the Empire of Japan the last Allied stronghold in the Philippines: the fortified island of Corregidor.

 

LEFT: Major General Edward P. King (second from left) discussing the preliminary terms of surrender on Bataan with Japanese officers at the Balanga Elementary School. King was one of the captives and survivors of the Bataan Death March. RIGHT: American and Filipino prisoners along the Bataan Death March.

In early June 1942, the United States achieved its first major victory in the Pacific Theatre of war by defeating the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Battle of Midway. Two months later, on August 7,  the U.S. 1st Marine Division led by Major General Alexander Vandergrift launched an amphibious invasion of Guadalcanal, in the southern Solomon Islands. Surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese rushed in reinforcements from a base in Papua New Guinea, and over the next six months a series of desperate land, sea and air battles for control of Guadalcanal ensued. Both sides faced fetid heat, torrential rains, malaria, dysentery, and food and supply shortages, all while taking heavy losses in the continued fighting. By the time the Japanese were driven off the island on February 9, 1943, the United States had sustained more than 7,000 casualties, and the enemy had lost three times that number.

 

The hard-won Allied victory at Guadalcanal marked the real turning point of the war in the Pacific, as it not only halted Japan's expansion, but also initiated a successful «island-hopping» campaign to neutralize Japanese strongholds and advance towards Tokyo.

 

LEFT: The Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma following an attack by American planes on the last day the Battle of Midway (June 6, 1942). RIGHT: U.S. Marines landing at Guadalcanal in August 1942.

Inspired by the critical and commercial success of Paramount's Wake Island (1942), which told the story of a group of U.S. Marines trying to keep the Imperial Japanese Navy from capturing their base, screenwriter Robert Hardy Andrews became interested in penning a film based on the Battle of Bataan. Wanting to highlight the savagery of the Japanese military and emphasize the heroism of the Filipino and American resistance, Andrews borrowed his plotline from John Ford's The Lost Patrol (1934) — a remake of an eponymous 1929 British film, based on a novel by Philip MacDonald — wherein Arab snipers wipe out a group of British soldiers stranded in the Mesopotamian desert during World War I, until only one man is left standing. When Andrews proposed the project to Dore Schary, the newly-appointed head of MGM's «B» picture unit, he «jumped at the idea [...] because [he] wanted to tell the people they were in for a tough fight.» Schary thought the portrayal of the rearguard action by the doomed American troops during the Battle of Bataan was «pure propaganda that prepared the audience for a long struggle and gave it a morale boost.»

 

As written by Andrews, Bataan follows a group of thirteen soldiers from different units, whose mission it is to destroy a bridge along the Bataan Peninsula and delay Japanese rebuilding efforts as long as possible. As the outnumbered defenders firmly hold their position, one by one they encounter their demise. Captain Harry Lassiter of the 26th Cavalry is killed by a sniper when the men first blow up the bridge, while engineer Private Francis Xavier Matowski is fatally shot as he climbs a tree to scan for the enemy. Private «Yankee» Salazar of the Philippine Scouts and Corporal Barney Todd of the Provisional Signal Battalion both die by stabbing, while Corporal Juan Katigbak, a mechanic in the Philipinne Army Air Corps, is tortured to death. Private Felix Ramirez of the California National Guard succumbs to malaria, and Private Sam Malloy of the Motor Transport Service is killed during a Japanese aerial attack. Lieutenant Steve Bentley of the Army Air Forces sacrifices his life by crashing his plane into the bridge, and Private Matthew Hardy is shot down while running into the jungle hurling a grenade. Corporal Jake Feingold of the Chemical Corps and black demolitions expert Private Wesley Eeps lose their lives in a brutal Japanese assault, and young Navy musician Leonard Purckett is killed by a sniper. Standing alone is the no-nonsense Sergeant Bill Dane of the 31st Infantry, who digs his own grave and fires at the swarming enemy, yelling, «Come on, suckers! What's the matter with you? What are you waitin' for? Didn't think we were here, did you? You dirty rotten rats! We're still here! We'll always be here! Why don't you come and get it?»

 

LEFT: Robert Taylor, Robert Walker, Lloyd Nolan and Thomas Mitchell. RIGHT: George Murphy, J. Alex Havier and Robert Taylor.

Andrews wrote a screenplay that featured characters from different ethnic backgrounds, giving them individual traits which people could empathize with. Originally, the group of disenfranchised soldiers included a Native American private named Edward Evening Star, but Andrews ultimately decided to eliminate the role because «his characterization was weak and there was already thirteen men to characterize and kill off.» The other major script revision involved the film's ending. Initially, the hero, the «tough-as-nails» career-driven Infantry Sergeant Bill Dane, is rescued by another unit — much like what happens with Victor McLaglen's character in The Lost Patrol — and, as they march out, a voice-over pays tribute to the fighting troops of the United States. The American flag appears on screen, as the narrator says, «That their flag and ours will rise again — where they made their last stand.» In the final version, however, Dane stands alone in his grave, intensely firing his machine gun at the approaching Japanese troops, as an end card reads: «So fought the heroes of Bataan. Their sacrifice made possible our victories in the Coral and Bismarck Seas, at Midway, on New Guinea and Guadalcanal. Their spirit will leads us back to Bataan!»

 

Due to the obvious similarities between The Lost Patrol and Bataan, which at one point was to be called «Bataan Patrol,» MGM purchased from RKO the rights to the screenplay written by Dudley Nichols for $6,500, in order to avoid any possible copyright infringement issues. In his autobiography, Schary apparently referred to Bataan as a «remake» of The Lost Patrol.

 

Publicity stills for Bataan. LEFT: George Murphy, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Bowman, Robert Taylor, Robert Walker and Desi Arnaz. RIGHT: George Murphy, Lloyd Nolan, Robert Taylor, Thomas Mitchell and Lee Bowman.

 

In October 1942, it was announced that Walter Pidgeon had been cast in the lead role as Bill Dane, described as a «new model sergeant» in the «new model United States Army.» However, he was soon replaced by Robert Taylor, who had just finished work on another World War II drama, Robert Z. Leonard's Stand By For Action (1942). Bataan would be Taylor's last motion picture before enlisting in the U.S. Naval Air Corps, where he served from 1943 to 1945. Commissioned as a lieutenant, he became a flight instructor for the Naval Air Transport division and starred in a series of instructional films. During this time, he also narrated the «newsdrama» The Fighting Lady (1944), which won the Oscar for Best Documentary (Feature) at the 17th Academy Awards ceremony.

 

Shortly after Taylor was hired, George Murphy signed on as Lieutenant Steve Bentley, a pilot in the Army Air Corps. A song-and-dance man known for his work in a number of big-budget musicals, including Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) and For Me and My Gal (1942), Murphy retired from acting in 1952 to pursue a career in politics, eventually becoming a U.S. Senator from California. One of his last films was another World War II drama, Battleground (1949). Although he did not serve in the military, Murphy contributed to the war effort by organizing entertainment for American troops.

 

Stills from Bataan. LEFT: Robert Taylor. MIDDLE: George Murphy, Barry Nelson, Lee Bowman and Robert Taylor (foreground); Robert Walker, Thomas Mitchell and Phil Schumacher (background). RIGHT: Lloyd Nolan and Robert Taylor.

The role of Corporal Jake Feingold was given to acclaimed character actor Thomas Mitchell, who had won an Oscar for his performance in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939), while Lee Bowman, an MGM contract player since 1939, was cast as Captain Harry Lassiter. Lloyd Nolan was borrowed from 20th Century Fox to replace Richard Whorf as Corporal Barney Todd, a man who claims to be in the signal corps but is actually an escaped murderer, and Philip Terry came over from Paramount to play conscientious objector Private Matthew Hardy, a part initially given to Richard Carlson. Prolific Irish character actor Tom Dugan, who had appeared in the first all-talking motion picture, Lights of New York (1928), was assigned to the role of Private Sam Malloy, and Barry Nelson played Private Francis Xavier Matowski. Nelson holds the distinction of having been the first actor to portray James Bond on screen, in a 1954 adaptation of Ian Fleming novel's Casino Royale for CBS's anthology series Climax! (1954-1958). He served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during the war, performing in Moss Hart's hugely successful play Winged Victory, which opened on Broadway in November 1943 and then toured military camps to provide entertainment to the troops and boost morale.

 

Lee Bowman, Lloyd Nolan and Barry Nelson in publicity stills for Bataan.

To play the naïve seaman Leonard Purckett, the studio signed newcomer Robert Walker, who had only appeared in small unbilled parts up to that point. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, Walker was discovered by an MGM talent scout while doing commercial announcements on radio in Chicago. His charming demeanour and boyish good looks caught on with wartime audiences, and he became one of MGM's brightest young stars for the remainder of the decade. The following year, he co-starred in two other war dramas, Since You Went Away (1944) and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), both of which were critically acclaimed.

 

Another newcomer, Desi Arnaz, was cast as Private Felix Ramirez, his first dramatic screen role. Although the ethnicity of his character his not clearly established in the film, he describes himself as a Californian. Born in Santiago de Cuba, Arnaz had fled with his family to Miami, Florida following the Cuban Revolution of 1933. He started his show business career singing and playing the conga drum as part of Xavier Cugat's touring orchestra, and made his film debut at RKO with Too Many Girls (1940). In April 1943, he was drafted into the United States Army as a foreign national (he only became a naturalized American citizen in October of that year), but hypertension and knee injuries disqualified him from overseas service. Instead, he served with the United States Organization (USO) at the Birmingham General Army Hospital in California, where he organized entertainment for wounded soldiers. He was discharged in November 1945, having risen to the rank of staff sergeant.

 

Stills from Bataan. LEFT: George Murphy, Desi Arnaz, Alex Havier and Robert Walker. RIGHT: Desi Arnaz.

At a time when the United States military was racially segregated, the role of Private Wesley Eeps, given to African-American opera singer Kenneth Spencer, was not specified in the script as being black. According to his autobiography, Schary intentionally cast a black actor in an attempt to break the colour barrier in war films, a decision that was criticized by some studio executives. He purposely did not reveal his intentions to Andrews, so as to avoid race-conscious speeches in the dialogue. Bataan was Spencer's second screen appearance and his last Hollywood film before moving to West Germany in 1950, due to the meagre opportunities he found as a black artist in America.

 

The roles of Corporal Juan Katigbak and Private «Yankee» Salazar were given to two Philippines actors, Roque Espiritu and J. Alex Havier, respectively. Employed by screen legend Mae West as her chauffeur during the 1930s, Havier began his acting career at the Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures with a small part in Isle of Missing Men (1942). He participated in 19 other films, mostly uncredited, before his death by suicide in December 1945, at the age 34. One of his last roles was in Edward Dmytryk's Back To Bataan (1945), starring John Wayne and Anthony Quinn.

 

Stills from Bataan. LEFT: Barry Nelson, Kenneth Spencer, Robert Walker, Desi Arnaz and Robert Taylor. RIGHT: Barry Nelson, Desi Arnaz, Robert Walker, Robert Taylor, J. Alex Havier and Roque Espiritu.

 

Given the film's modest production demands in terms of men and equipment, MGM did not require assistance from the Army to make Bataan. Nevertheless, the studio submitted the script to the War Department in October 1942, just «for the record.» The Public Relations Office considered it «a good story,» which «could make a good picture — but not a great picture.» The head of the Feature Film Division agreed that MGM did not need cooperation, since «the equipment of the personnel involved can all be assembled at the studio; all of the men in the patrol would have to be actors; the Japs, extras. The whole picture could probably be made on the backlot, or on location very nearby.» However, the Army did inform the studio that it was necessary that «where officers and soldiers appear in uniform, they be correctly attired, and conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the customs and courtesies of the Service.» As such, the War Department suggested that Schary hire a retired officer, Captain L. S. Chappelear, to serve as technical advisor, and asked to review the film prior to its release in order to guarantee military accuracy.

 

Filming on Bataan commenced on November 30, 1942 and wrapped on February 3, 1943. Due to wartime restrictions on travel and the film's small-scale combat scenes, MGM shot it entirely on its Sound Stage 16. According to director Tay Garnett, a former flight instructor during World War I who had began his Hollywood career as a writer of silent comedies, the studio's set designers constructed a «real-as-hell jungle,» which had «everything except sixteen-foot snakes.» To increase the dramatic impact of the sets, Garnett used a few directorial tricks. When he became unhappy with the way his actors were reacting while shooting their death scenes, he had ropes tied around then and, on cue, technicians jerked the lines to provide the desired visual effect. Similarly, to heighten the feel of reality in the film's climatic scene — wherein Japanese soldiers advance towards Taylor, playing the last survivor of the doomed patrol — Garnett created jungle «ground fog» by having dry ice dumped into tubs of water and then blowing the resulting vapor across the set. Although the method was effective at creating the proper appearance of a misty terrain, it also proved dangerous, as the fumes nearly killed two extras who ignored warnings not to breathe as they crawled through the fog.

 

Tay Garnett with Robert Walker (left) and Robert Taylor (right) on the set during the making of Bataan.

Bataan premiered at the Capitol Theatre in New York City on June 3, 1943, to generally positive reviews from critics. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times noted that the picture had «melodramatic flaws» and «some admitted technical mistakes,» but considered that it «still gives a shocking conception of the defense of that bloody point of land. And it doesn't insult the honor of dead soldiers, which is something to say for a Hollywood film these days.» Similarly, Time magazine wrote that the drama was «constantly loud and over emphatic. But there are a few stretches when the military situation calls for silence; the noisy sound track quiets down and, for a moment, incredibly enough, Hollywood's war takes on the sense, classic values of understatement.» 

 

The depiction of racial integration prevented Bataan from being screened is some parts of the American South, where segregation laws were still being enforced. Nevertheless, the film was a financial success upon release, earning $2,049,000 in the United States and Canada, and $1,068,000 overseas, resulting in a profit of $1,140,000 for MGM.

 

Theatrical posters for the American, Italian and Swedish releases of Bataan.

As previously mentioned, the film concludes with an end card that reads, «Their spirit will lead us back to Bataan.» A year and a half after the release of Bataan, U.S. troops and Filipino guerillas joined forces in a battle to regain control over the peninsula. Taking place between January 31 and February 21, 1945, the offensive was part of Operation MIKE, a series of American landings at Luzon aimed at liberating the Philippines from Japanese occupation. The fight ended with a decisive Allied victory and heavy Japanese losses, and allowed the Americans to secure the western shore of Manila Bay and open new supply routes for U.S. troops engaged in the final push to retake the Philippine capital. The Battle for the Recapture of Bataan was significant not only for military reasons, but also psychological, as it served to avenge the surrender of the defunct U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East in April 1942 and the war crimes committed by the Japanese during the horrific Death March.

 

 

[Originally posted in Back to Golden Days: Film Friday: Bataan (1943)] 

 

 

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SOURCES:

«The Aftermath: Prison Camps and Hell Ships.» National Museum of the United States Air Force, https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196796/the-aftermath-prison-camps-and-hell-ships/. 

«Bataan.» AFI Catalog of Feature Films, https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/13092. 

«Battle of Bataan.» The National WWII Museum, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/battle-bataan-death-march. 

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«Operation Battle for the Recapture of Bataan.» Codenames - Operations of World War II, 12 Fev. 2024, https://codenames.info/operation/battle-for-the-recapture-of-bataan/. 

«SSgt Desi Arnaz, U.S. Army (1942-1945).» TogetherWeServed Blog, https://blog.togetherweserved.com/desi-arnaz-u-s-army-1942-1945/. 

Suid, Lawrence H. Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film. The University Press of Kentucky, 2002. 

Toole, Michael T. «Bataan.» Turner Classic Movies, 28 Oct. 2003, https://www.tcm.com/articles/60072/bataan.