Allen R. Kerward's flagwaving stage play
Proof thro' the Night
was vastly improved in its screen adaptation, which was retitled
Cry Havoc
. Margaret Sullavan (making her first screen appearance in two years), Joan Blondell and Ann Southern are among the appropriately deglamorized actresses playing Red Cross nurses caught up in the Pacific War. As the Japanese army forces most of the American troops to retreat from Bataan, the nurses remain, tending to the miserable wretches left behind to defend a defenseless post. This atypical MGM production is far more successful in depicting the plight of courageous women trapped behind enemy lines than was Paramount's over-touted
So Proudly We Hail
(and the acting was better to boot). Among the very few male characters in
is young bit player Robert Mitchum, appearing briefly as a mortally wounded soldier.