Back to Bataan *** (1945, John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Lawrence Tierney, Paul Fix) – Classic Movie Review 6995

RKO Radio Pictures’s 1945 wartime movie is a strange mix with left-wing director Edward Dmytryk proving his patriotism and right-wing gung-ho star John Wayne, as World War Two US marine Colonel Madden, winning the war again. It is advertised as ‘The Story of the Invisible Army of the Philippines’ and the ‘story of a Yankee Colonel and his Philippine guerrillas’.

Wayne’s Colonel Madden organises Filipino guerrilla resistance when Bataan is cut off in a cheaply-made but highly competent patriotic film with a good cast (notably Anthony Quinn as Wayne’s captain buddy) doing sterling work.

Written by Communist screenwriter Ben Barzman, Back to Bataan is exciting or dislikeable according to your politics, or possibly both, though it is hard to knock it as a sincere tribute to wartime gallantry in 1945, especially when it casts real-life US prisoners at a Japanese camp.

Also in the cast are Beulah Bondi, Lawrence Tierney, Paul Fix, Fely Franguelli, Leonard Strong, Richard Loo, Philip Ahn, Abner Biberman, Vladimir Sokoloff, Benson Fong, John Miljan, Ray Teal and Bill Williams.

Back to Bataan is directed by Edward Dmytryk, runs 97 minutes, is released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by Ben Barzman and Richard H Landau, based on an original story by Aeneas MacKenzie and William Gordon, is shot in black and white by Nicholas Musuraca, is produced by Robert Fellows and is scored by Roy Webb, with Art Direction by Ralph Berger and Albert S D’Agostino.

During filming director Dmytryk and screenwriter Barzman spoke openly about their Communist and atheist views, so it was Wayne’s first encounter with American Communists. Barzman was later blacklisted. Dmytryk became one of the Hollywood Ten who refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee and ended up in prison. After several months in jail, Dmytryk decided to cooperate after all, and testified again before the committee, naming alleged Communists. Wayne’s movies frequently reflected his conservative values. In 1944 he helped to found the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Conservative political organization, later becoming its President.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6995

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