bkoganbing Corregidor is an object lesson in how to make a cheap movie on a given subject. Contrast it to the two films made at MGM about the same period of World War II, Bataan which starred Robert Taylor and later on They Were Expendable which John Ford made at MGM. If ever there was a contrast between the lavish Tiffany Studio of Hollywood and a poverty row outfit like Producer's Releasing Corporation this is it.Additionally They Were Expendable had a romance between John Wayne and Donna Reed just as this film has a triangle romance with nurse Elissa Landi caught between doctors Otto Kruger and Donald Woods. In Corregidor the whole thing is rather forced with some awful dialog. With a master director like John Ford it was understated and effective and done in Ford's sentimental style.This was Elissa Landi's farewell film. Five years later she would be dead of cancer. Both Donald Woods and Otto Kruger were in a lot of far better films than Corregidor.Still the acting is sincere and it does raise it above the average of the usual product from PRC.

Leofwine_draca CORREGIDOR is your usual gung-ho American WW2 film set in the Philippines. Like many films which utilise that theatre of war as a backdrop, it goes for a B-movie approach and as such is only interesting as a dated curio, although it's worth remembering that this was made contemporaneous with the war itself so there are propaganda elements here.Basically, the story of the film is to chart the progress of doctors, nurses, and soldiers as they exist on an island that is constantly being besieged by Japanese troops. CORREGIDOR is rather episodic in nature, featuring some frenetic battle action followed by a lull filled by some light humour and romance, and then going back to a battle around ten minutes later. It's basic stuff, lacking any decent actors to do their roles justice, and even Otto Kruger feels hammy. Some parts of the film do tell rather than show and it all gets a bit preachy at the end.

sol1218 (Some spoilers) A bit more accurate then the usual war movie that was cranked out of the Hollowwood studios during the Second World War. "Corregidor" honestly portrays the heroic US and Phillipino siege of the island fortress known as "The Rock. Corregidor held off massive Japanese attacks from land sea and air from the time that Battan fell on April 9, 1942 to it's eventually surrender to the Japanese imperial forces on May 6, 1942, a total of 28 days. The movie starts on December 6, 1941 at Manoi in the Phillippines with Dr. Royce lee coming to the islands with her live-in maid Hyacinth, Ruby Dandridge, from New York City. Royce meets her long and forgotten, on his part, love Dr. Jan Stockman, Otto Kruger, and in less then 24 hours the two lovebirds get married. After The Wedding, December 7,1941,the Japanese air force strikes the wedding party as well as all the US bases in the Pacific West of Hawaii, notably Perl Harbor getting the USA into WWII. The surprise Japanese attack Kills the presiding priest, Frank Jaquet, as well as Hyacinth among other guests at the ceremony. Going north away from the advancing Japanese army the two, Jan & Joyce, link up with a group of US soldiers and travel, through the jungle and over the waters of Minila Bay, to the island of Corregidor for the US army's last stand against the Japanese. We then have a really schmaltzy love triangle between Jan Joyce and an old flame of her's back from her medical school days in New York US Army Dr. Michael, Donald Woods. Dr. Michael dumped Joyce back then when she, being a blue blood and having lots of the green stuff, rented an office for Dr. Michael's medical practice on the fancy and prestigious New York's Park Ave. The guy could have evened things out by not charging fees to his clients for his services if he had such a violent dislike for making money. While on the island we also have another war love story between US Army nurse Hey-Dutch Van Doren, Wanda McKay, and her US Army boyfriend Cpl. Pinky, he's called Pinky that's because he'll so large, Mason, Rick Villin. Both Pinky & Hey-Dutch end up getting killed in the fighting. Hey-Dutch from a Japanese aerial bombardment and Pinky from being machine gunned, by a Japanese Zero fighter plane, that he also shot down from his tail-gunner position on the last plane out of Corregidor.On the island Jan changes his mind about getting married to Joyce, this after three short months, and dumps her, like Dr. Michael did, back into Dr. Michael's lap. Jan also solves the problem of Joyce being torn and divided between him and Dr. Michael by having himself get killed by a Japanese bombardment. Leaving Joyce free to marry Dr. Michael, but even that didn't go too well with Joyce being forced to leave the island as Dr. Michael stayed behind to be either killed or captured by the invading Japaneses troops. I found the love triangle and love story,between Jan & Joyce & Dr. Michael as well as Pinky and Hey-Dutch, far more interesting the the battle action scenes themselves.

Ralph Michael Stein Formula: A Woman in Love with One Man Marries Another + Insidious Japanese Attack on American Territory + A Surgical Theater's Romantic But Unconsummated Menage a Trois=A Movie That Can't Decide What It's About.*****The Japanese December 1941 invasion of the Philippines, culminating in the surrender by General Wainwright of all forces under his command in early 1942, is still America's greatest military catastrophe. The defense and ultimate loss of the obsolete island fortress of Corregidor, here immortalized (less rather than more) in the film of the same name was, with the fall of the archipelago, a far more serious geo-strategic blow to America than Pearl Harbor.In 1943 veteran director William Nigh, a man who successfully transitioned from the silents to the talkies and who directed dozens of mostly forgettable films, made "Corregidor." His three stars were successful screen actors. Playing a doctor, Dr. Royce Lee Stockman, Elissa Landi, once a beauty, brought some depth to the story of a woman who traveled to the Philippines to marry one doctor while carrying a bright torch for another, an army medico named Michael who just happened to be stationed in the territory. She weds Dr. Jan Stockman (Otto Kruger, playing a nice guy for a change) the night before the Japanese air attack that presaged the invasion.Together with ragtag army troops, the couple reaches Corregidor where Michael is encountered. The trek through the backlot jungle provides a preview of some of the most unrealistic war scenes filmed anytime between 1939 and 1945.Idealistic Jan recognizes his bride's undiminished love for Michael and almost like a quintessential (but probably rare) English gentleman he urges her to go to him. This being 1943, no intimacy is shown or suggested.In any event, history takes its course and Corregidor falls but not before some of the women, including Royce are flown out (in reality, American army nurses were captured by the Japanese and while they were spared the horrors of the Bataan Death March, they didn't exactly have a nice time for the next three years either).The film is stolidly preachy about the virtues of democracy with declamations by the actors having the "Now for a message from our government" tone. The use of stock military footage reaches the asinine with no attempt to make planes uniform. A monoplane begins a bombing run that is concluded by a biplane. No excuse for that. Also, apparently to save time and money, the same shots of Japanese soldiers falling dead to the ground are recycled at several points.One historical curiosity: Royce's maid, killed at the beginning of the movie, is Ruby Dandridge, mother of Dorothy.Much more could have been done with this story and its experienced lead cast.4/10