anghmho Good subject (Corregidor under siege) crapped up by an apparently nonexistent script, a ridiculous story, cartoon-like fighting scenes, and monkey-ugly villains.Every scene has something wrong with it. The defenders are running out of water, but everybody is clean shaven and they all have clean uniforms--with neckties! They are on emergency rations, but everybody looks very well fed. And near the end, the nurses make a getaway on the last plane out of Corregidor (pretty good trick when there weren't any planes left on Corregidor). This plane is a flying boat, which is what is sounds like--a big, floating target extremely unlikely to have survived the siege. This was a commercial plane that didn't have any guns, except this one did--a water-cooled machine gun in the tail--without water. And of course, this is where the tail gunner, one of our heroes, is killed successfully defending the getaway plane against an attacking Japanese plane piloted by a monkey look-alike.Production values are nonexistent. Good films have been made on limited budgets, but this isn't one of them.

Jay Raskin This is a very humanistic film. It shows the bravery, suffering, humor and strength of both men and women who were defending an island in the Phillipines called Corregidor in the first five months of World War II. I think it was meant to be a tribute to those men and women and I think it works as a tribute. Unfortunately the DVD copy, as most reviewers have mentioned, is not very good. I am not sure if the problem is in the print used or the transfer. It is possible that the print had faded, so there was little that could have been done. It would be nice to see a good print if one exists with a good transfer.The movie is a little bit of everything, some light, romantic scenes, some comradely kidding scenes, some strong gutsy speeches, and a lot of battle action. Hanging over these elements and keeping them from being enjoyable is the notion that this was ultimately a hard, military defeat. Surprisingly, an almost equal number of Americans and Japanese are seen dying in the battles.When this film was made in 1943, the war still going on. Corregidor was only recaptured in 1945. 800 Americans were killed and some 11,000 American and Philipinos were still prisoners of war when the film was made. The Japanese lost 900 men. A simple operation that was supposed to take only a few weeks, ended up taking them five months. The time and manpower they lost was crucial and hoped set up the defeats the Japanese suffered in the next few months of the war. This is actually a much grittier, more heartfelt and less romantic view of this battle than the popular John Ford/John Wayne movie made about it two years later, "They Were Expendable". That was a satisfying Hollywood movie that was more of a celebration than a tribute. There is little in that film of the gloomy atmosphere that appears in this film.The script by Doris Malloy and great low-budget filmmaker Edgar Ulmer is fine. Direction by veteran director William Nigh (this was number 106 out 120 films) is crisp. The battles in the second half of the film do seem to dominate the human characters. None of the battles are spectacular and they become a bit monotonous and even boring. Perhaps that is better than the glamorous and exciting battles that one so often finds in Hollywood war movies. It gives the film a somber, rather than a Gung-Ho tone and message. This is not a great movie, but it is a good one worth watching, even on a DVD copy of a bad print.

sol1218 (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.

spcummings Recently distributed in DVD, this movie was a disappointment. It takes a unique tact to bring noncombatants into a war film; an idea that should have been a basis for a great story. The missionary doctor and the brave bride hardly get any character development throughout the film. The story is one of a dedicated missionary doctor in the Philippines, who is surprised by the arrival of a former lover. On 6 December, 1941, she has followed the missionary doctor to marry him. He is surprised as he had disregarded the letter, being busy in his research. But, her real love is an Army doctor, currently stationed at Corrigidor. The Japanese attack happens at the close of the wedding ceremony. That begins a 600 miles journey through the jungle, with terribly directed combat scenes and with poorly dramatized suffering. Although we expect some period gloss over suffering and combat, the scenes are very poorly presented. At Corrigidor, the battle progresses, the three friends/lovers are reunited, and the devastating losses mount. I'll leave the ending to the viewer, but it is convincing neither in tone nor emotion. In 1943, there were probably not many technical advisers on the last scenes at Corrigidor, but suffice it to say, the last departees were not leaving on C-47s. I appreciate period pieces, and allow for the oversights, glamorization of the 1940's scripts and productions. And the patriotic message was both expected and deserved by the men and women who struggled on Corrigidor and throughout the Philippines. But, this is just poorly done, and loses all its punch. Too bad for a potentially great story line, in an honestly heroic setting. Having visited Corrigidor, I was hopeful for a powerful, though period based piece. The film was disappointing on all counts.