Heaven Knows, Mr Allison **** (1957, Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr) – Classic Movie Review 6,166

John Huston’s popular 1957 drama movie Heaven Knows, Mr Allison teams Robert Mitchum as a laconic US marine corporal with Deborah Kerr as a nun, stranded together on a Japanese-occupied island in the Pacific Ocean in 1944.

Co-writer/ director John Huston’s popular 1957 American drama movie Heaven Knows, Mr Allison teams Robert Mitchum as a laconic US marine corporal with Deborah Kerr as a nun, who are both stranded on a Japanese-occupied island in the Pacific Ocean in 1944, trapped behind enemy lines.

First Corporal Allison USMC, a submarine castaway who drifts in a raft to Tuasiva Island, and Sister Angela spar together and then they have to hide in a cave when the Japanese arrive to build a base. Then they work together to try to outwit the Japanese. Mitchum proves to be Kerr’s only companion and hope of salvation in a touching, if improbable adventure tale.

Skilful storyteller Huston encourages impressive performances (Kerr was Oscar nominated for one of her total of six times), co-writes the solid, if talky script (also up for an Oscar) based on a novel by Charles Shaw, and expertly handles the action.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Kerr) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, but there were no wins. Kerr was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. The film received two BAFTA Award nominations, for Best Picture and Best Actor for Mitchum, but there were no wins.

However, Kerr did win the 1957 New York Film Critics Circle Awards award for Best Actress.

Heaven Knows, Mr Allison is directed by John Huston, runs 107 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by John Huston and John Lee Mahin, based on the 1952 novel by Charles Shaw, is shot in CinemaScope widescreen and DeLuxe colour by Oswald Morris, is produced by Buddy Adler and Eugene Franks, and is scored by Georges Auric.

Release date: 13 March 1957.

It was a hit, costing $2,905,000 and taking $4.2 million (US).

It is the first of the stars’ four films together. An equally unlikely friendship started up between the stars because of working together on this movie. Mitchum worried that Kerr would be like the prim characters she often played, but when she swore at Huston during one take, Mitchum choked and almost drowned laughing in the water he was in for the shot.

Their four movies together are Heaven Knows, Mr Allison, The Sundowners (1960), The Grass Is Greener and the TV movie Reunion at Fairborough. The two stars’ enduring friendship lasted until Mitchum’s death in 1997.

It is filmed on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago to receive British finance.

Russian-born film producer Eugene Frenke later filmed a low-budget variant on the story, the 1962 Korean War drama film The Nun and the Sergeant starring his Ukrainian actress wife Anna Sten and Robert Webber. (Back in 1932 producer Samuel Goldwyn had brought Anna Sten to the US to rival Greta Garbo, but dumped her after a few flop films.)

The US Marines provided troops for the invasion climax. Six Japanese people from Brazil played leading Japanese characters, while local Chinese people played Japanese soldiers.

The National Legion of Decency monitored the production closely, sending a representative to watch over filming. So Kerr and Mitchum ad-libbed a bogus scene in which their characters wildly made love.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,166

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