JohnHowardReid Copyright 21 February 1950 by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. U.S. release: 10 February 1950. New York opening at the Astor: 20 February 1950. U.K. release: 27 March 1950. Australian release: 18 May 1950. Australian length: 8,989 feet. 100 minutes. U.S. length: 9,486 feet. 106 minutes.Agnes Newton Keith's autobiographical novel of her experiences in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in British North Borneo 1941-1945 was first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and then reprinted in The Reader's Digest before publication in book form by Little, Brown & Co. Sales of the book had already passed the half-million mark in the United States before the film version was released.SYNOPSIS: Sandakan, British North Borneo, 1941. An American woman (Claudette Colbert) is separated from her husband (Patric Knowles) by a sympathetic but somewhat inflexible Japanese commander (Sessue Hayakawa).NOTES: Although the studio went to a great deal of trouble to emphasize that Three Came Home was entirely photographed on the studio back-lots and sound stages, many critics were seduced by the high level of technical expertise and craftsmanship involved into thinking that the film was lensed - at least in part - on actual location in Borneo. Less accurate press releases widely touted the film as a comeback vehicle for Sessue Hayakawa, despite the fact that the veteran star of U.S. silent films had in fact made his post¬war Hollywood debut the year before in Columbia's Tokyo Joe. Although Japanese-born, Hayakawa was an acceptable figure in post-war Hollywood as he had fought against the Nazis in the French Resistance. Seven years later, he would virtually repeat his role in this film in David Lean's Bridge On the River Kwai. Other press releases hailed Three Came Home as a significant change-of-pace for Claudette Colbert. Actually Miss Colbert had originally been signed by Fox to play the Bette Davis role in All About Eve but she injured her back during the first week of filming. Other paragraphs stated that Florence Desmond, who had a night-club act as a mimic and impersonator, was here "essaying her first serious role" - a claim that ignores three or four of the actress's English films of the early 'thirties.Three Came Home was producer/screenwriter Nunnally Johnson's second film back at Fox after his brief foray at International (if four years and four films could be described as "brief).COMMENT: Although most contemporary reviewers praised the film lavishly and Fox went all out on a massive advertising campaign (including full-page ads headed "You Are the Real Heroine Of This Story!" prepared with the assistance of a well-known family guidance counselor Dr Peter Bios), boxoffice results were only moderate and not nearly as high as the studio had hoped. Negative cost was around $1¼ million.Nonetheless, Three Came Home emerges as a superior women's picture with many memorable scenes - the last few shots particularly stay in the memory and so do all the sequences in which Sessue Hayakawa appears. With two exceptions, acting is splendid throughout. The two drawbacks in the acting department are Claudette Colbert herself and Patric Knowles. Admittedly, Colbert is less glamorously made up and costumed but for the most part she is still her usual over- emphatic self. Her gestures, her facial expressions and the inflections in her voice often seem synthetic and unrealistic. The film focuses almost entirely upon her and what is even more of a bind she speaks an off-camera commentary as well! However, Patric Knowles manages to be even less convincing and he is such a colorless character it is hard to work up much sympathy for his situation.Despite the film's long running time, Negulesco has directed almost all of it with great drive and economy. The opening scenes are a bit wet (obligatory romantic stuff between Miss Colbert and colorless Mr Knowles and the usual clumsy insertion of obvious travelogue footage), but things improve dramatically with the arrival of the invading Japanese in a lashing tropical rainstorm. All the action scenes are very vigorously handled but Negulesco's approach in keeping with the subject matter, is sober and realistic rather than melodramatic.Production values are first-class and so are the technical credits. The sets are particularly impressive. The atmospheric photography and music scoring and the deft film editing all attest to Hollywood craftsmanship at its best.

weezeralfalfa Based upon the book of the same title, written by WWII internee Agnes Newton Keith, who also wrote several other books about her experiences in British Borneo(present Sarawak and Sabah),and other countries she spent some time in. It's generally acknowledged that the film is a toned down version of the book, which is probably a toned down version of the horrible realities of life in a Japanese POW/civilian prison camp. As the heroine, Claudette Colbert wasn't expected to diet down to the 80 lbs. that the real Mrs. Keith suffered during the latter part of her internment.The screen play is pretty straight forward in telling how the few westerners residing in the capital city of British North Borneo(present Sabah) were initially interned on a nearby island by the invading Japanese, shortly after Pearl Harbor, and spent the rest of the war in this or other internment camps. After about 9 months, they were moved to the larger Batu Lintang camp, near Kuching, in present Sarawak. The sexes were separated, except that young boys(such as the Keith's George) were housed with their mothers. Not mentioned in the film, is the segregation of the men into several categories, according to their official status, country of origin, and whether they were civilians or military personnel. The women and children, the civilian men and the officers were provided with better conditions and less crowding than the non-officer military personnel. The latter group, the largest category, suffered the highest mortality rate, at 2/3 dying! In contrast, amazingly, none of the 42 children died. This can perhaps be attributed to the better sanitation conditions in the women's barracks and to the fact that the women often shared some of their meager rations with their children. Also, not mentioned is the fact that the quantity of food rations steadily declined as the war dragged on. Whether this was a deliberate attempt to starve them or promote their death from disease, or whether it reflected dwindling Japanese resources is unclear. At one point, a guard attempted to rape Mrs. Keith, outside in the dark. This is well dramatized, as well as the problems for her when she complained to the commanding officer, Colonel Suga. Not mentioned is the fact that most of the guards were Korean or Taiwanese, rather than Japanese.The relationship between Col. Suga and Mrs. Keith is pictured as mostly rosy, mostly because she had written a book about Borneo that he had read. The other Japanese could be nice, on occasion, but often were unconcerned or brutal in their punishment of transgressions of the many camp rules. Understandably not mentioned is the fact that Col. Suga committed suicide after he was arrested, but before his trial for war crimes.Found among the papers of Col. Suga was a directive to execute all the internees on Aug. 17, 1945. However, this wasn't carried out, possibly because the Japanese officially surrendered on the 15th. However, another directive was found ordering the execution of all on Sept. 15, 4 days past when an Australian unit liberated them! Whether Col. Suga initiated these directives or whether they came from outside seems unclear. Claudette did a wonderful job of acting in her role. Patric Knowles, as Mr. Keith, did an excellent job in his more limited role. Mark Keuning played George Keith, while Sessue Hayakawa played Col. Suga, and Howard Chuman played Lt. Nekawa, who was the camp commander when Col. Soga was elsewhere, which happened often.Of course, the title communicates the fact that all 3 of the Keiths survived this ordeal, and went on with their lives after a period of recovery from their extreme weight loss. Most of the shooting took place around Sandakan, in present Sabah. See it in B&W at YouTube.

ohlabtechguy Never heard of this movie, nor that Colbert had starred in it. Started off a little "gooey", typical of old Hollywood movies. But then graphic realism appeared. Women prisoners were struck and tortured by Japanese men and there was an attempted rape. There was a mass shooting of Australian male prisoners, witnessed by the female prisoners. There was malaria and near starvation conditions. I cracked up when Colbert said she had just eaten a "fish head" scrap taken from the Japanese soldiers garbage. Based on other sources, I think the conditions were probably far worse than depicted in this one movie or in this one camp; nonetheless, it was quite refreshing to see a major Hollywood actress from that period taking on a role that wasn't all glamor and fantasy. It was risky. And I enjoyed the happy ending. Once again, it wasn't typical Hollywood.

bkoganbing Claudette Colbert got one of her best late career roles in Three Came Home, the moving story of the experiences of Agnes Newton Keith and her time in a Japanese POW camp. Keith earned her status by dint of being married to a British colonial official in North Borneo who is played by Patric Knowles in the best stiff upper lip tradition.On the screen and in real life Keith was a novelist who faithfully recorded oriental life with some empathy in her books. That got her some favorable treatment from the Japanese, in the film in the form of an ally of sorts in a colonel played by Sessue Hayakawa.Hayakawa's performance is the highlight of the film. It may very well have been the first time post World War II that a Japanese character was given three dimensions. Of course the brutality of the Japanese prison camps is also shown in the best tradition of that other World War II film Sessue Hayakawa did, The Bridge On The River Kwai.1950 was definitely the year for women in stir. A few weeks before this film came out, MGM released Caged which certainly has some of the same themes as Three Came Home. Of course the big difference is that over at MGM the women were criminals in a civilian setting.Three Came Home directed by Jean Negulesco who normally did lighter material than this, holds up very well for today's audience. Colbert, Knowles, and Hayakawa do some of their best screen work here and definitely try to catch this one when broadcast.