Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a 1957 DeLuxe Color, a CinemaScope film which tells the story of two people stranded on a Japanese-occupied island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II.

This article is about the 1957 film. For the 1952 novel, see Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (novel).
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Region 1 DVD cover
Directed byJohn Huston
Produced byBuddy Adler
Eugene Frenke
Screenplay byJohn Huston
John Lee Mahin
Based onHeaven Knows, Mr. Allison
by Charles Shaw
StarringDeborah Kerr
Robert Mitchum
Music byGeorges Auric
CinematographyOswald Morris
Edited byRussell Lloyd
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • March 13, 1957 (1957-03-13)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Japanese
Budget$2,905,000[1]
Box office$4.2 million (US)[2]

The movie was adapted by John Huston and John Lee Mahin from the 1952 novel by Charles Shaw and directed by Huston. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Deborah Kerr) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

The movie was filmed on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Producer Eugene Frenke later filmed a low-budget variation on the story, The Nun and the Sergeant (1962), starring Frenke's wife Anna Sten.[3]

Plot

In the South Pacific in 1944, U.S. Marine Corporal Allison (Robert Mitchum) and his reconnaissance party had been in the process of disembarking from a U.S. Navy submarine when they were discovered and fired upon by the Japanese. The submarine's captain was forced to dive and leave the scouting team behind. Allison got to a rubber raft and after days adrift, reaches an island. He finds an abandoned settlement and a chapel with one occupant: Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), a novice nun who has not yet taken her final vows. She herself has been on the island for only four days; she came with an elderly priest to evacuate another clergyman, only to find the Japanese had arrived first. The frightened natives who had brought them to the island left the pair without warning, and the priest died soon after.

Robert Mitchum with Deborah Kerr in a scene from the film

For a while, they have the island to themselves, but then a detachment of Japanese troops arrives to set up a meteorological camp, forcing them to hide in a cave. When Sister Angela is unable to stomach the raw fish Allison has caught, he sneaks into the Japanese camp for supplies, narrowly avoiding detection. That night, they watch flashes from naval guns being fired in a sea battle over the horizon.

The Japanese unexpectedly leave the island, and in both celebration and frustration, Allison gets drunk on sake. He blurts out that he loves Sister Angela and considers her devotion to her vows to be pointless, since they are stuck on the island "like Adam and Eve." She runs out into a tropical rain and falls ill as a result; Allison, now sober and contrite, finds her shivering. He carries her back, but the Japanese have returned, forcing them to retreat to the cave. Allison sneaks into the Japanese camp to get blankets. He kills a soldier who discovers him, alerting the enemy. To force him into the open, the Japanese set fire to the vegetation.

When a Japanese soldier discovers the cave, Allison and Sister Angela have two choices: surrender or die from a hand grenade thrown inside. An ensuing explosion is not a grenade, but a bomb; the Americans have begun attacking the island in preparation for a landing. Allison comments that the landing will not be an easy one because when they returned, the Japanese brought with them four artillery pieces whose positions are well-concealed.

In what he attributes to a message from God, Allison disables the artillery during the barrage that will precede the American assault, while the Japanese are still in their bunkers. He is wounded, but sabotages all the guns by removing their breechblocks, saving many American lives. After the landing, the Marine officers are puzzled by the missing breechblocks.

Allison and Sister Angela say their goodbyes. Allison has reconciled himself to Sister Angela's dedication to Christ, though she reassures him that they will always be close "companions". After being found, Marines transfer Allison to the ship, with Sister Angela walking beside him.

Production

Filming took place in Trinidad and Tobago allowing Huston and Fox to use blocked funds in the UK, receive British film finance and qualify for the Eady Levy. The film was set later in the war than the novel that had Allison escaping from the Battle of Corregidor. In the film, the Allies are on the offensive and U.S. Marines capture the island.

The screenplay compares the rituals and commitment of the Roman Catholic Church and the United States Marine Corps. The National Legion of Decency monitored the production of the film closely, sending a representative to watch the filming; knowing this, Kerr and Mitchum deliberately ad-libbed a scene (not included in the final print), in which their characters wildly kissed and grabbed at each other.[4][5]

The Marines provided troops for the invasion climax. Six Japanese living in Brazil played some of the leading Japanese characters, while Chinese from the laundries and restaurants of Trinidad and Tobago filled out the rest of the Japanese soldiers.[4]

Screen Archives Entertainment released Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison on Blu-ray on June 10, 2014.

See also

References
  1. Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p250
  2. "Top Grosses of 1957", Variety, 8 January 1958: 30
  3. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) - John Huston | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie, retrieved 2020-04-23
  4. Server, Lee Baby, I Don't Care 2002 St Martin's Griffin
  5. Robert Mitchum: "Baby I Don't Care"; ISBN 0-312-28543-4, ISBN 978-0-312-28543-2; p. 306+
DVD reviews
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