Three Came Home *** (1950, Claudette Colbert, Patric Knowles, Sessue Hayakawa, Florence Desmond) – Classic Movie Review 11,360

Claudette Colbert abandons makeup and diets for the real-life internment camp drama Three Came Home (1950).

Real-life abused writer Agnes Newton Keith’s autobiographical account of her internment by the Japanese in World War Two and her subsequent suffering is harrowingly presented in director Jean Negulesco’s painstakingly adapted 1950 drama Three Came Home, adapted by and produced by Nunnally Johnson.

Lovely Claudette Colbert is perfect as the American-born writer, living a comfortable colonial life with the British community in North Borneo before the Japanese invasion in 1942. She is separated from her British husband Harry Keith (Patric Knowles) and trying to protect her young son George (Mark Keuning) when the Imperial Japanese Army invades Borneo and interns them and the small British community in camps under the charge of Colonel Suga (Sessue Hayakawa).

Colbert is given firm support by Sessue Hayakawa (as Colonel Suga), Patric Knowles (as Harry Keith) and Florence Desmond (as Betty Sommers). Also in the cast are Sylvia Andrew as Henrietta, Mark Keuning as George Keith, Phyllis Morris as Sister Rose, Howard Chuman as Lieutenant Nekata, Jerry Fujikawa as Japanese soldier and Douglas Walton as Australian PoW.

The strongly delivered, stout-hearted story about a courageous woman makes rousing viewing in this commendable old-style biopic.

Keith was interned at Berhala Island near Sandakan, North Borneo, but spent most of her captivity at Batu Lintang camp at Kuching, Sarawak, which was liberated in September 1945.

The film is in the public domain and free to watch online.

Milton R Krasner provides the cinematography, the score is composed by Hugo Friedhofer, and Lionel Newman is music director.

Colbert wore no makeup while filming the concentration camp scenes and she had to diet along with rest of the cast to be thinner.

Colbert told Negulesco: ‘I’m not given to exaggeration so I hope you believe me when I say that working with you has been the most stimulating and happiest experience of my entire career.’

Shooting started on 4 May 1949 and ended on June 26. A second unit filmed locations in Borneo for four weeks.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,360

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