Cry "Havoc"

Cry 'Havoc' is a 1943 American war drama film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Richard Thorpe. It stars Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern and Joan Blondell, and features Fay Bainter, Marsha Hunt, Ella Raines, Frances Gifford, Diana Lewis, Heather Angel, Dorothy Morris and Connie Gilchrist. Background The film is based on a play by Allan R. Kenward which opened in Hollywood, California in September 1942. The play was also presented on Broadway, under the title Proof Thro' the Night with Carol Channing, Florence Rice and Ann Shoemaker. However, the play was not successful, opening on December 25, 1942 and closing January 2, 1943 after 11 performances. The title comes from a famous line in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war." Plot This is the story of thirteen women. Only two of them—Captain Alice Marsh and Lieutenant Mary Smith—were members of the armed forces of the United States. The others were civilians—American women who, until that fateful day in December, knew no more of war than did you or your nearest neighbor. The film tells the story of 13 American women, two Army nurses and 11 civilians. It is set in a field hospital during the Battle of Bataan (January–April 9, 1942) against the inexorable advance of Japanese forces down the peninsula during the early months of the United States' involvement in World War II. At the beginning of the film, the head nurse, Lt. Mary “Smitty” Smith (Margaret Sullavan) and her superior, Capt. Alice Marsh (Fay Bainter) talk about their desperate need for supplies, especially quinine: Men are surviving surgery only to die of malaria. Smith jokes grimly that she could also use three dozen well-trained nurses. Marsh has a plan to look for volunteers among the several thousand refugees streaming from Manila. Marsh also tells a resistant Smith that there is only one chance for her—she must join the evacuees bound for Corregidor, and thence to Australia, where new medicines may save her. Smith has a deadly form of malaria.