The Purple Heart (1944)

Directed by

Lewis Milestone

Genre

propaganda film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 39m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.1 of 10 from 14 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

American airmen are captured by the Japanese during World War II and put on trial as war criminals. The film dramatizes the propaganda trial and the harsh treatment the men endure.

patrioticsombertensemelodramatichistoricalrousingbleakgritty

What happens

The Purple Heart is a 1944 American war film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Lewis Milestone, and starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Don "Red" Barry, Sam Levene and Trudy Marshall. Eighteen-year-old Farley Granger had a supporting role. The film is a dramatization of the "show trial" of a number of US airmen by the Japanese government during World War II. It is loosely based on the trial of eight US airmen who took part in the April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid on Japan. Three of the eight were subsequently executed and one later died as a POW. This film was the first to deal directly with the Japanese treatment of POWs and ran into opposition from the US War Department, which was afraid that such films would provoke reprisals from the Japanese government. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Resisting Enemy Interrogation (1944)
• Winged Victory (1944)
• Attack in the Pacific (1944)
• Freedom Comes High (1944)
• A Challenge to Democracy (1944)
• The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944)
• Wing and a Prayer (1944)
• The Fighting Lady (1944)