gordonl56 THE PURPLE HEART 1944 The war in the Pacific was into its fourth year when this 20th Century Fox production hit the theatres. It is a dramatization of a show trial of American air-crew that took place in 1942. It shows the capture, torture and trial of eight members of the "Doolittle Raiders". The cast is made up of, Dana Andrews, Don Barry, Richard Andrews, Farley Granger, Sam Levene, Kevin O'Shea, Charles Russell, John Craven, Richard Loo and Tala Birell.After the April 18th 1942 attack on Japan by 16 B-25 bombers, the aircraft were to fly to airfields in China. None made it there as lack of fuel forced the crews to parachute into the night. All but eight men would make it to safety in Allied parts of China. These eight men were captured by the Japanese and put on trial. Three were executed, one died in a p.o.w. camp and the others were freed in August 1945 after the Japanese surrender.In the film, the men are placed on trial in front of a group of reporters from various Axis and neutral countries. The Japanese officer in charge, Richard Loo is not above using a spot of torture to get his questions answered. One man is beaten so bad he is brain damaged, another has his arms broken, a third, has his vocal chords damaged and yet another has his hands destroyed. They all refuse to talk.There is a side plot going on here between the Japanese Army and Japanese Navy officers. One side is sure the B-25's came from China, and the other is convinced they were off a carrier. (Which they did, the U.S.S. Hornet) The Japanese "really" want to know which is correct. The trial goes on with the Japanese producing plenty of obviously faked evidence.This is more of courtroom film than a war drama, but so what, it is a really hard hitting bit of war-time flag waving. Apparently the U.S. War Department was against the production of this film. It was one of the first films to deal directly with the treatment of POWs by the Japanese. The War Department was worried that it might provoke the Japanese into making reprisals against Allied prisoners.The film was directed by Lewis Milestone. The three time Oscar nominated and two time winner does solid work here. He is probably best known as the helmsman on the 1931 Oscar winner, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. The man knew how to make a war film, with, A WALK IN THE SUN, NORTH STAR, HALLS OF MONTEZUMA and PORK CHOP HILL as examples of his work in the genre. He also directed OF MICE AND MEN, THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS, THE RED PONY, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962) and OCEAN'S ELEVEN.The cinematographer was three time Oscar winner, Art Miller. The talented Miller worked on, LIFEBOAT, MAN HUNT, THE MOON IS DOWN, WHIRLPOOL, THE PROWLER as well as the superb westerns, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT and THE GUNFIGHTER.The film was a hit and was heavily promoted during war bond drives at theatres.

Bill Smith When "The Purple Heart" was shown in my hometown theater during the heat of World War II, it served as a reminder of what being a captive of the Japanese during this time frame was all about.Although some who were not around during this war may tag the picture as being "a little overdone", many who were placed in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps ... and lived to tell it ... will refer to this Twentieth-Century Fox release as "reels-of-authenticity; chilling realism."The decision to make the film in black-and-white, hinting at shadows of horror, adds to the impact of the terrible subject. Director Lewis Milestone was excellent, as always, and the acting by the cast, from Fox's stable of available war-time male stars, was exceptional.Incidentally, Don "Red" Barry was loaned to Fox by Republic Pictures for this movie. It was his dream that he would be contracted to the bigger, more important Twentieth-Century Fox after "The Purple Heart" was released. However, Republic's owner ... Herbert J. Yates ... considered the movie to be an important boost to Barry's marquee-value as a star from the studio's barn of "Saturday-Westerns". Don "Red" Barry would remain under contract to Republic ... making those good old "B" westerns ... for the rest of his professional career.

sol1218 1944 WWII propaganda movie about the fliers who were captured after the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo Japan on April 18, 1942. Of the 80 US fliers involved 71 including Gen. Doolittle made it to safety and of the eight that were captured by the Japanese; three not all eight like in the movie "The Purple Heart" were executed. Ridiculously played out in a Shang-Hai courtroom with the captured US fliers having the run of the courtroom. Breaking out with bombastic and patriotic laden speeches as the almost befuddled Japanese justices and military men stand open-mouth and stunned. Making it look like that they were so impressed by the Americans eloquent oratory that they were left completely speechless. I doubt that this was in real life but in the movie the American fliers represent almost every nationality, with the exception of a black and Hispanic,that you can find. Understandingly back in 1944 the movie had to overdo the goodness of the captured US fliers and at the same time dehumanize the evil and treacherous "Japs", but was so outrageous that watching it now the movie almost made the "Japs" look good at the expense of the captured and heroic Americans. There was also a scene in the movie where it supported the killing of one's father by a son in favor of strangers, the Americans, who testified against them. This was like the movies made in the 1950's like "My Son John" were it was encouraged for parents to turn over their sons and daughters to the police or FBI if they suspected that they were communists. Even if they were not a threat to the countries security but only talked about how great it, communism, was. One scene that seemed to be completely overlooked in the movie that the film makers put in trying to show how insane the Japanese were and how normal and feeling the Americans were was the comparison between Japanese Gen. Mitsubi, Richard Loo, and the US. Gen. MacAthur. Gen. Mitsubi shoots himself when he can't get the US fliers to admit that they came from the aircraft carrier Hornet, which they did, because he felt that he fell down on his job. This without getting anybody under his command killed or wounded. All Gen. Mitsubi wanted was to make a point and the general is made in the movie to look like a crazed lunatic. Earlier in the movie when it's reported that Corrigador fell to the Japanese and that Gen. MacAthur fled and left his troops behind the captured US fliers acted as if Gen. MacAthur did a great and heroic act. As pilot Capt. Ross, Dana Andrews, remarked:"The General did what he had to do and we'll do what we have to do" which was saying nothing to their Japanese captors about where they came from, the Hornet,and getting executed! Now that's whats meant by rank has it's privileges.The Japanese judges tried very hard to prove that the Americans bombed Japanese civilian targets, and as far as I know about the Doolittle Raid they didn't, to make the US look bad to the world and trumped up evidence to make it look that way.In reality when we look back at the massive B29 fire-bombing attacks on Japan it should have been an open and shut case for them without making up the facts. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese were killed in fire bombing of Japanese cities that had nothing to do with the Japanese war effort but everything to do with terrorizing the Japanese population. An action that was condemned by the Nuremberg War Crime Tribune as a major war crime and had hundreds of German and Japanese officials who were convicted of it executed or jailed for life. Also the atomic attacks on Japan in August 1945 with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagagsaki are now believed to have been totally uncalled for. Since we know now that Japan was secretly trying to surrender to the allies at the time and that even Gen. MacAthur and Gen. Eisenhower were against using them on Japan. It now turns out that the dropping of the atomic bombs was a political not military decision, to impress USSR dictator Joseph Stalin, by the then US President Harry S.Truman.

narmer71 The story of the fate of a captured American bomber crew from the first air raid on Tokyo. Dana Andrews final speech (taken from a Portugese reporter's news story) to the court is the most moving ever made in a motion picture. Purple Heart produced such a strong emotional response that it was banned in many American cities as detrimental to the war effort.