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The Proud and Profane (1956)

Yes, this movie features William Holden and Deborah Kerr, who do their characteristic best in a lower budget echo of the 1953 blockbuster "From Here to Eternity," also featuring Kerr (but with Lancaster and, for good measure, Montgomery Clift). The comparison is fair, because the similarities are too blatant, and so it's fair to also say that, as ordinary as this movie is, it had potential. There are qualities to the story line that are too moving (wounded soldiers in the Pacific, a widow tracing the last days of her Marine husband's life, a love affair against the rules) and the actors are too fine (add Thelma Ritter as an important third) to just dismiss the whole thing as a mess.

The director, George Seaton, is really a screenwriter, and though he directed a dozen features, none of them are especially memorable. His real fame rests on assisting with several great movies (like "The Wizard of Oz") and with a single brilliant coup--the screenplay for the original 1947 as well as the later TV version of "Miracle on 34th St." And it is no surprise that Seaton's own screen writing in "The Proud and Profane," though prosaic, is very good.

Ah, but filmmaking is about timing, flow, surprise, drama, light, shadow, and sounds of all kinds. This is the director's blank canvas and Seaton doesn't go anywhere in any of these areas. The light is bright and flat. The camera-work is functional and bland (cameraman John Warren being a newcomer, moving quickly to television, including many Hitchcock episodes). The score is strong (thanks to veteran master Victor Young) but there is no attempt to insert diegetic music or more interesting internal sounds. Even the supporting cast is pigeonholed into clichés (and there is no critical secondary male role, as Clift played in the 1953 movie). Thelma Ritter is at her best, more normalized than in other roles, but believable and superb.

I write all this for a routine movie because of Holden, who is an understated and sometimes brilliant actor, and Kerr, who I never warm up to but who is almost designed to be too cold to like. Kerr in particular is up and down here, at times so perfectly cast and so convincing you start to really watch closely, but other times she has to stretch her role a little (when she is dancing, for example, or in the cheesy beach scene early on) and it's awkward. Holden is made to be an enigma, and when he warms up (out of uniform) he's likable, and when he's cold, he's cold, but never admirable, which is what a commander needs to be at least.

I enjoyed this movie because I enjoy movies, but also because it has aspects that are terrific. If you really like war films that aren't about battle (as I do), this is a must see. And if you want perspective on "From Here to Eternity" you really will appreciate both films more. For just a fresh, well-made movie, terrific you will need to keep looking.

During WWII, a Red Cross volunteer comes to the South Pacific seeking information about the death of her soldier husband. Kerr is fine as the lonely woman struggling to cope with her loss. This is a strange role for Holden, who usually played characters with integrity. Although the actor is always worth watching, here his character is basically a dishonest heel. It's hard to believe that someone like Kerr, no matter how vulnerable, falls in love with him. Not surprisingly, Ritter steals the film as a tough but caring nurse. The screenplay and direction by Seaton, who worked with Holden on four films, is nothing special, but it's not bad either. The scenery is nice.

It was strange, but interesting watching this movie. Deborah Kerr plays an American Red Cross volunteer who pulls strings to get assigned to the South Pacific to find out the circumstances of her husband's death on Guadalcanal. Thelma Ritter (excellent as always) plays her supervisor who becomes close to Kerr and is not liking what is going on. William Holden (who is unrecognizable, except for the voice) plays sadistic Colonel Black, who is attracted in to the upper middle class Deborah Kerr. It is an unusual role for Holden since his roles typically are suave, sophisticated and the handsome leading man type of parts. Compared to movies from current adolescent-minded writers, directors and producers, it is palatable.

Considering the cast this oddly obscure WWII war drama is nothing special but is ultimately an entertaining drama.

The basic story is a standard one of a clash of values between two people with very different life experiences.

The best performance as usual comes from Thelma Ritter as a no nonsense nurse, whenever she's on screen she cuts right through the somewhat sugary dramatics with astringent fortitude.

Deborah Kerr and William Holden perform their assigned roles well but their characters are both pretty selfish and unsympathetic to involve you in their story.

This movie has been on YouTube for three years but not viewed very frequently considering the stars (William Holden, Deborah Kerr & Thelma Ritter) but perhaps that is because it is a far from perfect print.

The story focuses on how the experiences of war change three of the characters as it attempts to encompass the most important aspects of life: love & faith. War strips away everything that is not important and forces people to confront their true selves, sometimes with devastating results.

This is not a grand passionate romance, and those who criticize it because it lacks these qualities are missing the point of the movie. It is not so much about relationships with others, but about one's understanding of oneself.

None of the characters are particularly likeable but as the movie progresses we gradually come to understand their life experiences and why they are as they are. All are impacted by the destruction of war of which we only see the consequences. This is not a realistic depiction of war but rather how war changes people.

This film does capture the negativity of war! It's wonderful to see William Holden play a part where he may not be the most lovable man in the world. It's just as rewarding to see Deborah Kerr as a woman of great beauty and sexuality! I think the acting of all the cast is wonderful! The acting of the chaplain maybe a little over the top( just my opinion.) I wasn't going to watch this film all the way through, however; once I got into it I got hooked!! It is a sad film! But I can't say that any movie about war is to make a person happy!! It is about loss, but there is also some redeeming qualities in the characters. Especially at the end!!!

The combined credits of William Holden and Deborah Kerr will contain the titles of the best films of the Fifties. But The Proud And Profane will never go down in the top 10 list of either of these stars.

Kerr is a Red Cross volunteer sent to New Caledonia which was a major US base in the Pacific War in the Forties. She's a recent widow of a Marine Lieutenant killed at Guadalcanal. Now she's in her grief trying to make some kind of atonement. What we don't need here is women on some kind of pilgrimage as her new supervisor at the Red Cross played by Thelma Ritter points out. In fact Ritter tries many times during the film to give Kerr a reality check.

Holden was her husband's brigade commander and one tougher than usually tough Marine. Apparently her husband was a sensitive sort and Holden is unlike him in just about every way. In fact Holden is brutally frank about wanting to get to know her intimately and does.

After which he undergoes a complete change of heart. And it turns out he's married most unhappily to a woman back in the states.

These two stars had all the chemistry of vinegar and peppermint lifesavers. Funny because very soon Kerr was to be cast with Robert Mitchum in Heaven Knows Mr. Allison where he plays a tough Marine and she a nun. Those two were wonderful on screen together. But no movie magic emanated from the silver screen with Holden and Kerr.

William Redfield plays a chaplain and some of those scenes with Holden were like Spock and McCoy going back and forth. Redfield was way too self righteous in a way DeForest Kelley never was.

Best in the film is Thelma Ritter who many times is just that. And Adam Williams has a small, but key role as a gravedigger and tender in the new cemetery on Guadalcanal. He's the one who finally gives Kerr the ultimate of reality checks.

Definitely a film for fans of the two stars and Thelma Ritter.

William Holden and Deborah Kerr demonstrate strong acting here about how war changes lives. And, how perhaps we make different decisions in war, then we would in normal life, such as risks to take (we take more in war), relationships (Holden: I don't know what's going to happen next so life is day to day.). Emotional hurt, widowhood, also play into vulnerability from these characters as well as the emotional hurt from lower society status.

The acting from Holden and Kerr was intense and realistic. I think perhaps some people might not like seeing them as imperfect people. Both make mistakes. They aren't always likelable, warm, and you'll only see Holden's radiant smile once. I admire them both for going against type, and they did it very successfully. Very flawed people, going through life -- like us all.

It was fascinating and i would see it again. It became more about the human condition than the romance, which I highly respected. There is no cute bowtie to tie it all up at the end, and it leaves you with life will continue, and how will each character continue on, communicate, make decisions when tough things happen in life.

I recommend this movie and I'll see it again. Different character acting by Kerr and Holden; their fine acting independently and together; make this extraordinarily watchful. Additionally, the key thing is not the romance, but the transformation of each character to a greater self honesty and honesty with the world.

"The Proud and Profane" is an annoying war film. That's because to me, the characters (in particular the two leads) come off as phony and unlikable. Together, they form a relationship that is about as believable as a politician making a promise (of any sot).

Deborah Kerr plays a very annoying woman. Her husband was killed at Guadalcanal and, inexplicably, she joins the Red Cross and goes to the Pacific to try to find folks who could tell her about her husband. This is hard to believe but when wounded men arrive and she doesn't want to see them because it bothers her to see hurt men, I just wanted to slap her. What an immature and unlikable lady--more like a débutante going to a cotillion than a lady volunteering to help in the war effort.

As for William Holden, he plays a tough 'blood and guts' colonel who is VERY intense and selfish. His way of dealing with things is to tell the men to suck it up. Lost an arm? Suck it up. Paralyzed for life? Stop your whining. He even yells at the Chaplin! This guy makes Attila the Hun seem charming.

So, you've got too seriously unlikable characters. And, they seem to have absolutely nothing--NOTHING--in common. So, when they suddenly starts kissing and the music wells up with a romantic strain, I felt like throwing a coffee cup at the TV screen. The dialog simply was some of the worst I'd heard of since my last Ed Wood film! The sticky, gooey, and utterly stupid dialog. The worst might be Holden's 'Indian half-breed' speech--but it's all pretty lame.

I've noticed that this film has a respectable overall score and decent reviews. Well, I don't get it. Despite top stars, this is a bad film whose only interesting attributes are the bit characters--where you get to see a very young Marion Ross and David Bagdasarian (the guy who created the Chipmunks) in small parts. Otherwise, a complete waste of time.

An intriguing recounting of the tolls of war from a human standpoint without graphic depiction of battle scenes, this focuses upon the lives of four primary characters stationed in Guadalcanal and/or Bataan, in the South Pacific, during World War II.

"The Proud and Profane" (Paramount, 1956) studies psychological aspects of its characters: Lieutenant Colonal Colin Black (William Holden in a belligerent role), Lee Ashley (Deborah Kerr as a determined force), Kate Connors (Thelma Ritter as a no-nonsense nursing supervisor), Eddie Wodcik (Dewey Martin as an innocent serviceman) and Chaplain Holmes (William Redfield as an altruistic minister).

While Lee volunteers with Kate's Red Cross troop with an ulterior motive in mind, Colin finds himself drawn to her unattainable reserve. Kate provides common sense for Lee to abide by and also security for the nurses and wounded service personal in her charge, as well as for Eddie, whom she treats as her nephew.

Produced by William Perlberg, directed by George Seaton, with its screenplay by George Seaton, based on a novel by Lucy Herndon Crockett, this wartime drama pleasantly buffers the viewer from unwelcome scenes of direct enemy attacks. Filmed in Black & White on location in Puerto Rico, this affords the viewer arrays of tropical scenery and often contains aerial footage of panoramic mountain scenery, as well as its calm coastal plains and lagoons.

Its capable cast handles its material well, with poignant portrayals of those who serve and suffer...in more ways than one.

Deborah Kerr is a war widow during the Second World War. Her husband joined the Marines, despite being an architect and thus made for the Engineers, became a paratrooper, and died on Guadalcanal. So she has joined the American Red Cross and is working under Thelma Ritter. Tough-as-nails William Holden sees her, decides he wants her, and they begin an affair preparatory to getting married. It doesn't work out well.

Somehow we are to think that these two manipulative characters matters a hill of beans, when the supporting characters have so little trouble stealing our attention whenever they're onscreen. Thelma Ritter, of course, but also Dewey Martin as a Marine whom Miss Ritter saved from prison by running a settlement house in his terrible neighborhood; Adam Williams, as the man who tells Miss Kerr off; even Michele Montau as a man-hungry widow.

George Seaton had been an auteur since before they coined the term, and this was the 1950s, so there's certainly some bloating here, with almost two hour elapsing from start to finish. He certainly offers the audience enough big shots, with Puerto Rico standing in for New Caledonia. Holden and Miss Kerr play their roles to the hilt, but I kept waiting for Frank Gorshin or Ross Bagdasarian to show up again.

Watched this movie over Veterans Day weekend as I had not seen it. It was a real struggle caring about the main characters. Both Deborah Kerr and William Holden(both I usually like) were distant and unlikeable. I just didn't care about either of them. No depth to their characters or any sense to their actions other than lust. This does not make for a good movie plot for me.

Thelma Ritter gives a great performance as usual. She was quite believable and sincere. So I watched this movie with great expectations but realized afterwards why I had never seen or heard of it. Unless you don't have anything else to do skip it. I wish I had.

Several scenes from "The Proud and the Profane" were shot at my parents' home in St Thomas, USVI, at Estate Frenchman's Bay on the island's southern side. The company bought (and left) an additional refrigerator to make & keep ice for the stars' drinks (it gets hot under the lights in the Caribbean!). I also remember seeing a few huge electric bulbs that apparently were blown out or not worth the expense of shipping back to Hollywood. Since I was in elementary school in the States at the time of shooting, I didn't get to watch any of the production, but heard all the stories when I returned for the summer. "The Frogmen", with Richard Widmark, was also shot on the property (in the bay in front of the house).

In the wake of "From Here to Eternity" comes this film that also stars Deborah Kerr. IN FHTE, she was involved with Burt Lancaster; here she similarly becomes involved with a morally-questionable marine named Lt. Col. Colin Black (William Holden).

Lee Ashley (Kerr) arrives at Noumea on the island of New Caledonia as a new member of the Red Cross team that operates there, primarily to support American troops through its American Red Cross Service Club. She falls under the guidance of Kate Connors (Thelma Ritter), who has years of experience and plenty of learned wisdom.

Like everyone else, Lee finds Lt. Col Black to be an unlikable martinet with a chip on his shoulder. But she eventually discovers why he is that way and they forge an unlikely romantic relationship. Just when it seems the film will be an unorthodox love story, it becomes a soap opera that focuses on the "profane". And just when the viewer feels duped by its melodrama, it then turns into a commentary on war and virtue.

William Holden came to this film on a hot streak. Consider: "Executive Suite", "Sabrina", "The Country Girl", "The Bridges at Toko-Ri", "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing", and "Picnic." That string of box office successes ended with this film, but don't judge this film until its end.

After this film, Deborah Kerr went directly to "The King and I" and "Tea and Sympathy", also released in 1956, finding more success.

Those who enjoy spotting cameos might want to watch for Frank Gorshin and Robert Morse in the early scenes. They are difficult to spot. The film also features performances by Marion Ross of "Happy Days" fame, Ross Bagdasarian of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" fame, and renowned trumpeter Maynard Ferguson.

The scenery looks bedraggled in this movie because so many people chew it. It's an over-the-top melodrama, with William Holden being the most ridiculous. But never mind -- it has Thelma Ritter, who can save any movie. She's the best thing in this one.

I kind of liked it, even though it's a long, gushy, weepy mess of a movie. Interesting idea to have your two leads be flawed, marriage destroyers who fall in love once their spouses are either dead or in an institution and then surround them with a bevy of good, principled co stars, all set on a French island in the South Pacific during WW2. And maybe if George Stevens had directed and Marguerite Roberts had done the screenplay it might have worked. But, boy howdy, is George Seaton one dull, clunky film maker/scribe! Not only does the dialogue tend toward the loudly declamatory and overly dramatic when it should be quiet and/or terse (with certain exceptions, like William Holden's powerful, angry soliloquy about growing up half Native American in Montana) but the story has problems as well. Was it really necessary to withhold, until film's end, the very pertinent info that as a wife Deborah Kerr's character was as big a disaster as Holden was as a husband? I mean, we're not making a mystery here, guys, but examining human relationships and the movie is not dependent for its success or failure on last minute, gasp-type revelations. Not that there are a lot of those, either, in this very slow paced slog. Sure would have been nice, in a WW2 film, to have seen at least ONE battle scene and the sub plots involving William Redfield's tortured, humanistic chaplain and Dewey Martin's simply tortured soldier are where compelling goes to be executed. Fortunately, as other reviewers have noted, Thelma Ritter is around a lot to liven things up. And Holden and Kerr do what all fine actor/stars do, namely rise above Seaton's poor dialogue. C plus.

PS...Lousy cinematography, too. Whole thing looks like a second rate Movietone newsreel (although Puerto Rico does a decent New Caledonia imitation).

In my opinion Deborah Kerr gives her finest performance on screen. William Holden almost equally so. As for the supporting cast Dewey Martin as a troubled soldier gives a glimpse of civilian life being nearly just as painful, and does it to perfection. Thelma Ritter is at her best, and I found no flaws either in the acting or direction. As for the plot the film is set in WW2 in the Pacific and in a safe place soldiers are given both mental and physical help. Kerr has come there to help and also to find out how her husband died in battle. No spoilers but just to say she is tested herself by loving again, and this is where Holden too has to test himself as a possible second husband for her. Both of them are flawed people. And there are no battle scenes, and the film is all the better for it. The inner world of suffering is laid bare when a soldier says, ' We are all amateurs when it comes to dying. ' For me this is one of the most honest war films ever made.

This little known wartime romance was obviously made to capitalise on the success of the earlier "From Here to Eternity". It isn't in that league and Deborah Kerr seems a little detached and not her usual self as a recent war widow who travels to the South Pacific, ostensibly to work as a Red Cross volunteer, but really she has felt drawn there to find out about the circumstances of her husband's death. The wonderful Thelma Ritter, in a departure from her wise cracking roles, supervises the volunteers with a kindly but firm hand, and suspects that the perfectly coiffed Lee (Kerr's character) isn't really suited to the task and so it proves at first but she does her best and becomes popular with some of the soldiers at the social club run by the Red Cross. She is invited to meet one of the other organisers who lives in a grand house by the sea and there she meets the gruff and gung ho Lt Colonel Black played by a Gable moustached William Holden. She doesn't care for his rather boorish manner and flounces off when he makes some clumsy remarks but on their next meeting she finds herself attracted although he does appear to cast doubt on her husband's masculinity. The film then follows the development of their relationship in an oddly edited way where in a central section we see them at various coastal locations but scenes don't come to a conclusion and just go to the next like a slide show. It doesn't help that the two stars have no chemistry. A later scene where they are caught in a heavy rain storm promises more than it delivers. The film has quite a preachy tone with various characters having discussions about the conduct of the war. A chaplain feels brutality is being encouraged but Black tells him you don't win wars by being soft on the enemy. Post traumatic stress is also touched upon but is seen as a sign of weakness to men like Black and is dismissed as 'fatigue'. However it emerges he does have a back story that explains his rather unfeeling exterior and events unfold in an unexpected way which I won't reveal here. There are no actual battle scenes we just see casualties being brought to the Red Cross station and the war itself is mainly glossed over with any real nastiness being sidestepped. Altogether a slightly unsatisfying film but I felt compelled to watch to the bitter end due to the star value of the cast whose other films I've enjoyed. I don't know if it was just in the version I saw but the ending seemed slightly askew with the Paramount mountain making an early appearance before the film had properly ended!

In an attempt to reprise her Academy-Award nominated performance in From Here to Eternity, Deborah Kerr donned a short blonde hairdo and played a soldier's widow assigned to a tropical setting in the Pacific to help soldiers in WW2 in the film The Proud and the Profane. She's very prim and proper, just as she was before succumbing to Burt Lancaster's charms in 1953, but this time around, she goes head-to-head with a stern, mustached William Holden.

Given their leading lady and similar settings, it's awfully hard not to compare the two films, and From Here to Eternity is much better. I don't really like William Holden anyway, and in this unlikable role, I found him even more difficult to endure. Thelma Ritter plays a volunteer nurse, and she's exactly the same as she is in every movie: cold, rude, argumentative, and abrasive. I tried to separate her performance from the written words of her character to see which I found objectionable, and unfortunately, Thelma Ritter's acting was the problem. Another actress could have put a touch of warmth and compassion in the role, and if she had, the underlying emotion would have added a wonderful layer to her character. Deborah Kerr seems to be the only one who tried to act in the film, and while she does do a good job, the story falls short of From Here to Eternity and South Pacific.

If you like Deborah Kerr, or classic WW2 movies and you've already seen all the good ones, go ahead and rent The Proud and the Profane. It probably won't end up being your favorite, but not every movie you see has to be excellent, right?

Deborah Kerr Bill Holden and Thelma Ritter really make this movie worth watching. A war movie without war scenes more about the emotion of how different people transition through and suffer through the rituals of combat, and all that war entails all the compromises we have to give up to become whole persons. As a retired Marine myself I could easily identify with the separation grief, leaving home and the tearing apart of emotional fabric i've been able to carry on in characteristically, uncomfortable situations requiring emotional maturity and grief. This movie transitions through a period of time when the Marines were fighting on distant shores, and it was expected to have huge losses and people try to normalize even so far away from home during holiday periods outside of the immediate battlefield. Well worth seeing the movie.

"Lee" (Deborah Kerr) travels to the French colony of New Caledonia to do what she can for the war effort and after a brief conversation with her boss "Kate" (Thelma Ritter) we discover that she's gone all that way because her husband was killed at Guadalcanal. She's advised to focus on her nursing responsibilities and not to risk getting involved with any of the soldiers, and that goes fine until she butts heads with "Col. Black" (William Holden). He knew her late husband, or so he tells her, and as she clamours for more information about when, where and how he died the inevitable happens. Of course, we all know that something built on a pack lies isn't going to prove very robust, and as the deceit - and there's plenty of that on both sides as the story advances - is exposed, their relationship faces turmoil and tragedy. It's only when she finally reaches her husband's grave that things are put into true perspective. Might it all be too late by then? Thelma Ritter is always a reliable character actress but she has too little to get her teeth into here to make enough difference to whet is otherwise a rather pedestrian melodrama that neither Kerr nor Holden seem to be able to enliven. Even at their most torrid, their romance comes across as dry as a bone, indeed there's not much likeable about their characters and so I didn't really care what happened to either of them as this frankly quite thin story is stretched out for at least twenty minutes too long and seems contrived to introduce unwelcome baggage at just about every turn. To be fair, it's quite tightly cast and the story remains focussed on the two of them well enough, but I found the whole thing just too soapy and disinteresting.

Deborah Kerr joins the American Red Cross as an excuse to go to the Pacific theatre during WWII and find the last traces of her dead husband. Or something. Who cares. What a ridiculous premise.

As usual, Kerr exhudes all the charm of an ice-covered highway with the added flavor of silt dropped from passing 18 wheelers. I fail to see how anyone under the age of 60 would ever have bought a ticket to one of her movies, each of them more unwatchable than the last. Including the criminally over-rated From Here to Eternity. In this war-time atrocity, that buttoned-up getup and old-lady pearls it's like she's spending time with a wayward son who joined the marines against her wishes.

Speaking of which, super-suave William Holden wasn't even 35 when this film was made. He was at the height of his manly good looks, charm and fame. Somewhow, the film-makers turned him into an unlikeable, pushy, s3xist j2gov. And that's not even the worst of it. They slathered on some terrible makeup to make him look, wait for it, half Native American. But wait, it gets worse. They have him sporting a moustache. In one scene he looks like Martin Balsam.

I hope to gawd I never see another movie where Holden comes across this terribly. As for Kerr, this was just wretched par for the course.