From 1957, today's movie is Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, directed by John Huston and starring Robert Mitchum and Deborak Kerr. The film was based on a book of the same name that came out in 1952.
Set during World War II, the movie takes place on a Japanese-occupied island in the Pacific Ocean.
Two Americans are stranded on the island: a Marine and a nun.
Lost, abandoned and surrounded by the enemy, how will they survive?
In the South Pacific in 1944, U.S. Marine Corporal Allison narrowly escapes a Japanese attack. Allison is on a rubber raft as it drifts towards an island. He finds an abandoned settlement and a chapel with one occupant: Sister Angela, a novice Irish nun who has not yet taken her final vows.
She had come to the island with an elderly priest to rescue another clergyman but the Japanese got to him first. Then the priest died and Sister Angela has been on her own ever since.
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For a while, they have the island to themselves, but then a detachment of Japanese troops arrives to set up a base, forcing them to hide in a cave.
When Sister Angela is unable to stomach the raw fish that Allison has caught, he sneaks into the Japanese camp for supplies. He barely escapes without getting caught. That night, they watch flashes from naval guns being fired in a sea battle over the horizon.
The Japanese unexpectedly leave the island.
Allison professes his love for Sister Angela, proposing marriage. But Sister Angela remains committed to her holy vows.
After getting drunk, Allison voices his frustration with her vows, that they are pointless when the two of them are stuck on this island like Adam & Eve.
More than a little frightened by Allison's drunken tirade, Sister Angela runs out into the night just as a tropical storm hits.
Allison sobers up and feels bad for snapping at Sister Angela like that. After the storm lets up, he finds her shivering and deathly ill.
To complicate matters more, the Japanese have returned forcing our duo to retreat to the cave.
Allison sneaks into the Japanese encampment for supplies to help treat the very ill Angela. This incursion is less successful as Allison is forced to kill a Japanese soldier to effect his escape. This alerts the Japanese there is an enemy combatant on the island.
Allison and Sister Angela narrowly avoid capture thanks to a timely attack on the island by American forces. But the Japanese are ready with four massive artillery pieces ready to mow down the Americans as they descend on the island.
Allison sneaks out from hiding to sabotage these big guns but he gets shot.
Without their big guns, the Japanese cannot repel the American Marines.
Sister Angela and the wounded Allison then say their goodbyes. Allison has reconciled himself to Sister Angela's dedication to her faith but assures him that they will always be close "companions." The wounded Allison is carried to the ship by the Marines with Sister Angela walking by his side.
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison earned Academy Award nominations for the screenplay and for Deborah Kerr as Best Actress.
The movie was filmed on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
All in all, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a standard issue pious woman falls in love with unpious man, a trope we've seen from The African Queen to the Elvis Presley flick Change of Habit.
What makes this go round at this topic work as well as it does is the chemistry between Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr. The affection Allison and Sister Angela build towards as the film progresses is palpable. (But not acted upon. A monitor from the Catholic National Legion of Decency made quite sure of that. Because in the book, the Marine and the nun do get it on.)
There was one ad-libbed scene where Kerr and Mitchum threw themselves into each other's arms, kissing passionately. This did not make it into the film.
Mitchum was very amused that Kerr would cuss up a blue streak while in her nun outfit.
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison may not be anything new but it does what it does very well.
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Tomorrow on the blog: Doctor Who stuff!
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