John Wayne

Beulah Bondi

Anthony Quinn

Fely Franquelli

Richard Loo

Philip Ahn

Alex Havier

'Ducky' Louie

Lawrence Tierney

Leonard Strong

Paul Fix

Abner Biberman

Vladimir Sokoloff

Erville Alderson

Spencer Chan

W.T. Chang

Robert Clarke

Roger Cole

Angelo Cruz

Pat Davis

Tony Dell

Abe Dinovitch

Marcello Estorres

Tommy Estrella

Benson Fong

Harold Fong

H.W. Gim

Edmund Glover

Erick Hanson

Joseph Kim

Pauline Lang

Jung Lim

Jimmy Lono

Leon Lontoc

Kenneth MacDonald

Michael Mark

John Miljan

Andy Nocon

Ted O'Shea

Carmen Padilla

Ray Teal

Bill Williams

Edward Dmytryk

Robert Fellows

Ben Barzman

Richard H. Landau

Æneas MacKenzie

William Gordon

Nicholas Musuraca

Marston Fay

Ralph Berger

Albert S. D'Agostino

Charles Nields

Darrell Silvera

Renié

Ruby Rosenberg

Earl A. Wolcott

Vernon L. Walker

Drama

Back to Bataan

RKO Radio Pictures

United States of America

I send out 100 men, they find nothing. I send out ten men, they don't come back.

Is it churlish to complain about overt flag waving in war movies? Or to decry propaganda prose in the same? Back to Bataan is guilty as charged, yet such is the composition of Edward Dmytryk's film, and its focus on a part of the war we rarely have seen on film, it matters not.

We are in 1942, and after the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese, U.S. Army Col. Joseph Madden (John Wayne) stays behind to lead the local guerrilla resistance against the Japanese army. With that synopsis it isn't hard to figure out what sort of pic we are going to get, yet to purely consider this as a macho beefcake movie is a little unfair.

Sure it's bookended by blistering action, as Duke Wayne (very restrained turn actually) and Anthony Quinn cut a swathe through the RKO sound stages, but there's lots of intelligent human interactions here to mark it as being in the least knowing of the campaign.

It often grasps for the sentimental branch, while the racist barbs and portrayal of the Japanese does sting at times. But this is exciting and thoughtful stuff, boosted no end by Dmytryk's sturdy direction and Nicholas Musuraca's monochrome photography (a film noir lovers dream pairing!). Better than routine war movie. 7/10

English

Securing MacArthur's Beachhead

Bridge of Death

Back To Bataan Theatrical Movie Trailer (1945)